The Detroit Tigers already have plenty of money tied up in the shortstop position, but should that keep them from pursuing one of the best players in free agency?

Pitching chaos led the Tigers on their surprising postseason run with the offense trying to keep up. Heading into the offseason, it is clear what Detroit needs the most should they decide they want to compete.

There are only a couple more guaranteed years of Tarik Skubal in a Tigers uniform. He looks the part of a leader for a World Series team, but they have some work to do in free agency if they want to avoid wasting him.

R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports expects Detroit to be active in the free agent market as he listed them among the top landing spots for former Milwaukee Brewers star shortstop Willy Adames.

“For the most part, Adames is the same player he has been for years: he’s capable of impacting the baseball frequently enough to overshadow his swing-and-miss tendencies; he’s not a Gold Glove-caliber fielder, but he’ll remain at shortstop for the time being; and so on,” said Anderson. “The one interesting wrinkle he added this season was a newfound willingness and ability to steal bases.”

The 29-year-old is coming off of the best campaign he has put together in years. He posted a .251/.331/.462 slashing line with 32 home runs and 112 RBI.

Maybe most impressive is that he played in 161 games. He has been a very reliable player throughout his career.

This season, the Tigers produced a measly .190/.238/.315 slashing line from their shortstops.

A large portion of that underperformance can be tacked on to ultimate failed signing Javier Baez.

Detroit handed a six-year, $140 million deal to Baez out of free agency and it has been one of the worst contracts in baseball history. He has completely forgotten how to hit a ball since putting on a Tigers uniform.

His deal might be bad enough for Detroit to opt not to spend even more money for another player at the same position.

Having over $300 million tied up in one lineup spot is tough, but playing Baez any more seems like sunk-cost fallacy. They simply cannot expect to be serious competitors with him acting as a black hole in the batting order.

Though they have other intriguing young bats in their card, Adames would immediately be one of their best sluggers.

The Utah Jazz couldn’t manage to secure two wins in a row on Thursday night in a tough road environment, as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks in not-so-close fashion, the final score ending up as 100-124.

It was a big night for the star tandem in Milwaukee of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, as the two combined for 65 points, each shooting above 50% from the field, while Lillard also cashed in four threes from deep in the process. Facing these two star-level talents is a tough defensive assignment for any team, but it especially showed against this young Jazz team.

Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen was asked after the loss on how he felt the team did against a tough matchup in Antetokounmpo and Lillard, where he kept things honest about the team’s efforts.

“Not good enough,” Markkanen said. “There was times that we did a good job on them, but obviously, we just got to be able to do that for the full game… We had a couple of good quarters that we played– tied at halftime. We’ve just got to be able to keep the dark moments shorter. [The Bucks] had an eight-minute run where they really made us pay for our mistakes and turnovers… There’s some good in that game. Of course, there’s always something we can learn. Keep moving on, and just try to get the next one.”

We didn’t see the greatest performance offensively from Markkanen on Thursday night, as he posted a total of eight points on 3/10 shooting from the field and 2/6 shooting from deep. While his -9 plus-minus was among the best of those who got significant minutes, Utah will need much more impact from their star forward scoring the ball if they want to get more wins on the board.

So far this season, it’s been a bumpy start for Markkanen compared to the numbers we’re used to seeing, as he’s currently putting up his worst point and rebound average since being in Utah, also shooting a career-worst from the field at 37.1%. It’s far from ideal to see such a stat line, but a long year lies ahead for the 27-year-old to return to form.

Markkanen and the Jazz will get an opportunity to get back on track come Saturday night, as the team will take on the fourth of their four-game road trip against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.

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Lulu Rucinski and Brynn Heising scored two goals apiece in leading the Benilde-St. Margaret’s girls’ hockey team to a 9-0 win over Minneapolis on the opening night of the season.

Talla Hansen added four assists for the Red Knights who coming off a 21-4-2 record a year ago.

B-SM scored three goals in each period and outshot Minneapolis 73-8.

The Red Knights play their next game at Maple Grove on Thursday.

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