Detroit Tigers Get To Avoid One Part of Free Agency This Offseason

The Detroit Tigers have some interesting questions to answer in free agency, but none of them have to deal with players that have expiring contracts.

As Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report highlighted the top free agent that each MLB team needs to focus on re-signing, he pointed out that the Tigers have no one to bring back.

“Detroit literally has zero free agents. They traded both Jack Flaherty and Mark Canha—both of whom will be free agents this offseason—before going on a rather shocking run to the postseason,” said Kelly.

They decided to part ways with their expiring contracts at the deadline and focus on giving their young stars a chance to shine. And that is exactly what they did.

Now, they can focus solely on who to add to the roster, rather than examining how important a departing free agent was to the success.

General manager Jeff Greenberg and company in the front office aren’t expected to open up their checkbooks too much in free agency, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in signing anyone.

While Juan Soto is going to be a conversation that every team has, the Tigers get to see which players compliment their burgeoning stars rather than bringing in a face of the franchise for hundreds of millions of dollars.

While they don’t have anyone directly leaving from the roster, a reunion with a previously traded player may make sense.

Detroit sent Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline. It was a win-win deal that led to the Tigers acquiring some valuable prospects and the Dodgers got a pitcher that was at least solid down the stretch of the regular season to set up their World Series run.

The problem with Flaherty’s future relationship with Los Angeles, was that he sort of crumbled once they got into the postseason.

He finished with a 7.36 ERA, giving up at least four runs twice and getting shelled for eight another time. While he didn’t ruin their chances to win, re-signing him won’t be too high of a priority.

Coming back to Detroit would make sense for Flaherty, as it seemed that he found something that worked for him. He posted a 2.95 ERA with 11.9 K/9 over 18 starts with the team.

The Tigers also clearly need more real starting pitching for a postseason run of its own. So a reunion of this type shouldn’t be ruled out of the equation.