Why Tigers can't take the easy way out again with Gleyber Torres after Qualifying Offer announcement

On Monday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the qualifying offer will be $23.1 million in 2027, a $1.075 million raise from last offseason's figure (though neither MLB nor the Players Association have confirmed this yet).

The Tigers only have four players who are guaranteed to hit free agency this offseason: Gleyber Torres, Jack Flaherty, Tyler Kinley, and Burch Smith (Drew Anderson and Kenley Jansen have club options), but only Flaherty and Smith are eligible to receive the qualifying offer.

Per MLB's definition, a player is only eligible if "that player has never received a qualifying offer previously in his career and "that player spent the entire season in that organization (in-season acquisitions are ineligible)."

The Tigers should let Flaherty walk and end that particular experiment, and Smith only pitched 17 innings for Detroit in 2026, so it's safe to assume they'll let him go quietly, too. The only free agent they might be tempted to retain is Torres, but he accepted their QO last offseason.

If the Tigers want to keep him, they'll have to negotiate. AJ Hinch and various coaches have had nothing but praise for Torres throughout his two-year tenure, but it's more likely than not that he won't be hearing from Harris this offseason.

Tigers can't extend the qualifying offer to Gleyber Torres, but they probably won't try to keep him anyway

When Torres joined the team in 2025, the Tigers were over the moon about his plate discipline and the example he could set for their young core. No doubt that did help Detroit's offense, but now, they've gotten older and more experienced, too. Riley Greene posted the Tigers' second-best OBP a year after leading the American League in strikeouts. The emergences of younger and younger players pushed Torres and fellow veteran Javy Báez to the periphery by the end of the season.

The fact that Torres was hurt for a considerable chunk of the 2026 season certainly hurt his market, but the weakness of the 2027 free agent class should help him. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is arguably the best infielder on the market, which says a lot.

Detroit is more likely to put Hao-Yu Lee in a rotation between second and third with top prospect Max Anderson, and Scott Harris placed far too much emphasis on wanting to prioritize young players to leave any room to wonder if Torres could return.

He was well-liked in Detroit, and he certainly meant something to this team, but that era is most likely over.

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