We're still a few weeks from MLB's free-agent marketplace officially opening – players can hit the market and sign with new teams five days after the final out of the World Series – and, thankfully, a couple months from baseball shutting it all down.
MLB's 30 owners are all but certain to lock out the players as the next step in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement when the current CBA expires on Dec. 1. What the next economic environment will look like for MLB – salary cap, salary floor, complicated rules that no one outside the sport really understands – we can't really say. (Well, except for that last one; it's pretty much a constant.)
But before
then, let's take a look at 12 potential MLB free agency targets for the Detroit Tigers, with three caveats:
- Some targets are more realistic than others.
- We're going to write nice things about the Chicago White Sox.
- And, finally, we're all for spending Christopher Ilitch's money, not our own.
That's more of a public service, though, just so he doesn't have to hear more "Sell the team!" chants whenever they get around to throwing out the first pitch at (sigh) Fifth Third Park in 2027.
Outfield
Two of the Tigers’ three outfield spots appear filled, with Riley Greene in left and Max Clark in center. They both hit left-handed. Then there’s speedy Parker Meadows, who missed nearly all of 2026 after a collision with Greene in the field; he hits … left-handed. In right, there could be Kerry Carpenter … another lefty. Ben Malgeri – a righty! (Who has generally hit righties better over the past three seasons.) So, at the risk of crowding the outfield even more (though we also have a DH spot to play with), let’s go get a right-handed hitter.
Big spend: Randy Arozarena
The three-time All-Star and 2021 AL Rookie of the Year is coming off his sixth straight season with at least 20 homers and 20 steals, and he set full-season career highs in batting average (.281), doubles (34), runs (113) and slugging percentage (.484). And he did that while playing half his games in Seattle’s offense-swallowing T-Mobile Park. (Seriously, 113 runs for an M’s team that scored just 664!)
He wouldn’t come without a couple of (semi-related) downsides, however: His age, and his defense. After a late start from getting buried in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, Arozarena is hitting free agency for the first time heading into his age-32 season; he’ll probably be looking for a decent bump from the $15.6 million he made in 2026. But, again, at 32, he’s probably not a candidate for a long-term deal – three or four seasons at $25 million (basically, filling Gleyber Torres’ salary slot) per could get it done.
And really, keeping the deal short is going to be important, since his defense – in left field the past few seasons – isn’t going to get better as he ages, and he logged minus-0.7 defensive WAR (per Baseball Reference) last season. Good thing Max Clark has speed, right?
In the middle: George Springer
At 37, Springer is actually the second-oldest righty on our list (behind only 38-year-old Tommy Pham, who already has an, uhh, personal relationship with Tigers fans) and the best-paid last season (making $25 million in the final season of a six-year, $150 million deal in Toronto). So why is Springer on our list, nearly a decade after he was the World Series MVP for A.J. Hinch’s Houston Astros.
Well, experience, and leadership; Springer could be willing to take a two-year deal for one last shot at playoff glory with the skipper he won it all with in 2017. Oh, but it wouldn’t be all tequila-sunrise tales and Astros mind tricks (‘Do, or do not bang the trash can; there is no try …”) for four-time All-Star. Springer still has a solid combo of power and speed, with 15 homers, 23 doubles and 12 steals in 126 games in 2025; his .726 OPS was better than that of every Tigers outfielder save for Greene, Clark and Malgeri.
Oh, and he knows the soon-to-be-Fifth Third Park territory well: Springer is a career .325/..380/.513 hitter in 29 games at Comerica Park.
On the cheap: Randall Grichuk
Not every great signing comes in the offseason, and some of them even happen on the South Side of Chicago: Grichuk signed with the White Sox in early May, after getting cut loose by the NY Yankees, and absolutely torched left-handed pitchers, with a 1.025 OPS (including 19 doubles and 11 homers) in 178 plate appearances. He also mustered a mere .636 in 102 PAs vs. righties, but we’ll blame the ChiSox for not having a proper platoon partner for him in his age-34 season.
Rotation
The Tigers seemingly head into 2027 with a full stable of young right-handed talent – including Jackson Jobe, Troy Melton, Keider Montero, Reese Olson (who missed all of 2026 due to injury) – and lefty Framber Valdez penciled into the rotation. But, as the old cliché goes, you can never have too much pitching – just ask the 2026 Tigers.
Big spend: LHP Tarik Skubal
You knew this one was coming, right?
Tigers fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up for a Skubal reunion. He’s arguably the best free agent pitcher available since Roger Clemens signed with the Toronto Blue Jays 30 years ago, his contract is going to cost a bajillion dollars and there seem to be unsettled disagreements about how his contract negotiations went down in Detroit. Not good signs for a team that rarely gets the biggest free agents.
On the other hand, there are signs a return is possible. Skubal said soon after his trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers that he “would love to return” to Detroit. A recent ESPN report has several MLB front office executives pegging the Tigers as one of three serious contenders for Skubal’s services. And bucking a recent trend, the Tigers actually did sign a free-agent pitcher to a nine-figure contract in 2026, inking Framber Valdez to a three-year, $115 million deal. And while Skubal’s deal might be three times that size in length and money, that might be the only thing standing in the way of a return to Detroit’s rotation.
In the middle: RHP Tyler Mahle
Tyler Mahle has reinvented himself over the last three seasons by buying into the recent trend of all fastballs, all the time. Kind of.
The righty throws his four-seamer about half the time and uses his splitter as a pseudo-changeup, while he threw his cutter a career-high 15% of the time last season (per Statcast). It’s the kind of profile the Tigers like from their starters (with Troy Melton as the best example), and even though Mahle struggled with the San Francisco Giants to start this season, he turned into one of the best starters in baseball (1.99 ERA over 54⅓ innings) after a midseason trade to the Atlanta Braves – albeit over a small sample size of nine starts.
On the cheap: LHP Jose Quintana
The 37-year-old lefty Jose Quintana thought his career was over after suffering a UCL sprain while pitching for the Colorado Rockies in 2026. But the 15-year veteran avoided surgery, made two starts in September for the last-place Rockies and generally showed the consistency that has made him a staple on several big league rotations throughout his career.
Quintana comes with risk, as his strikeout rate plummeted this season and his hard-hit percentage skyrocketed – though you can probably blame Coors Field for most of that change. Again, with the Tigers' rotation potentially skewing young next season, having a veteran like Quintana around may be worth a low-risk, one-year deal.
Bullpen
There may not be many openings in the 'pen for 2027, especially if the Tigers exercise their options on righties Drew Anderson (smart!) and Kenley Jansen (uhhhhh). But, again, YCNHEP (see our rotation intro), even in relief.
Big spend: RHP David Bednar
Over the last four seasons, only one player has more saves than David Bednar’s 124 – Raisel Iglesias with 130. But even though Iglesias is also a free agent heading into 2027, Bednar is five years younger and comes with the best splitter in baseball, per Statcast run value.
So while Bednar hasn’t been a big-name closer outside of his All-Star season in Pittsburgh in 2023, he has closer stuff and should get strong offers from any team in need of a shutdown reliever. And would you look at that – the Tigers need one of those.
In the middle: RHP Evan Phillips
Evan Phillips was the go-to man in the Dodgers’ bullpen for three seasons (2022-24) after the team revived the journeyman’s career, with the Dodgers essentially telling him to throw his fastball a lot less and his sweeper a lot more. And it worked, until injuries wiped out much of his last two seasons.
Phillips might need to tinker with his arsenal, but his fastball velocity (96.8 mph on average) still rated highly in short bursts in 2026. That’s a good starting point for a Tigers bullpen without much heat.
On the cheap: RHP Craig Kimbrel
Yes, this looks like a retread of the Kenley Jansen strategy from 2026, only Kimbrel would be older than Jansen if he signs, almost certainly worse and on his 13th team in his 18th big league season. So, what’s the plan here?
Kimbrel would almost certainly not be a candidate to close for the Tigers, but he has been an above-average reliever by many metrics over the last two seasons. His total salary would also be something like two innings of a Skubal start, so it would be very low risk for a potentially delightful addition. (Plus, it would bring the Tigers to having employed a whopping 10 of MLB's top 24 in career saves; Kimbrel is fifth, with 441.)
Others!
As noted earlier, the Tigers’ infield is plenty crowded, and that’s before potentially adding rookie talent in Max Anderson, Josue Briceño and Thayron Liranzo sometime later in the season. But let’s dream big on some talents that might force a reorganization of plans …
Big spend: 2B/3B/OF Jazz Chisholm Jr.
The Tigers would probably like to leave second base open with an eye toward sliding Kevin McGonigle Jr., Hao-Yu Lee or Colt Keith there, eventually. But if they could land a former 30/30 hitter who’s still on the right side of 30? Jasrado Hermis Arrington Chisholm – Jazz on his baseball cards – entered the 2026 season the precipice of a $350 million mega-deal, after swatting 31 homers and stealing 30 bases in a Silver Slugger season split between second base and third. But last season, while not a disaster (19 homers, 41 steals, .711 OPS), probably brought him back to a deal worth $200 million, perhaps with multiple opt-outs and backloaded money, in the growing fashion.
In the middle: 3B/OF Teruaki Sato
Once a Tiger, always a Tiger? This year’s top import has put up video-game numbers in his age-26/27 seasons – over the past two years with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Central League, he has 79 homers and 207 RBIs while slugging .600. Granted, NPB competition isn’t on the MLB level, but consider breakout White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami, who put up 57 homers while slugging .529 in his final two Japan seasons (at ages 24 and 25) before hitting 35 homers and slugging .478 as an MLB rookie this season.
Of course, that prodigious production has lured plenty of big-money suitors, with NY Mets exec David Stearns sighted scouting Sato last month, and Dave Dombrowski’s Philadelphia Phillies also reportedly interested. But there are also concerns about Sato’s contact and walk rates – both below the younger Murakami’s merely OK marks, which scared away most teams last offseason before the ChiSox landed him on a two-year deal. Could a risk by the Tigers provide the perfect power bridge till the next wave of homegrown infielders are ready?
On the cheap: 1B Ty France
Granted, the Tigers appear set with their own high-variable first baseman in Spencer Torkelson – who, yes, has three seasons with at least 26 homers, but is also just a season removed from hitting 10 and getting sent back to Triple-A. But if they want some insurance that comes with a Gold Glove, there’s France, who parlayed 500 plate appearances with the San Diego Padres this season into 21 homers and an .865 OPS. He likes to hit in Detroit, too (and certainly more than he does in Milwaukee); he has a career .916 OPS (as we wrote last year) with two homers in 12 games in the Motor City.
Still, there’s risk here: As much as 2026's return to his 2022 All-Star form could raise his next payday, France will still be 32 next season, and just a season removed from a .675 OPS over two seasons spent with four teams.
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Ryan Ford is deputy sports editor for the Free Press and has been with Freep Sports since January 2006. Contact him at rford@freepress.com or follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford and on BlueSky at @theford.bsky.social.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 12 top 2027 MLB free agents Detroit Tigers could target in offseason
