Early in this offseason, the Detroit Tigers’ roster has largely taken shape already. Jack Flaherty exercised his player option for 2026 and Gleyber Torres accepted the qualifying offer and will also return
at their starting second baseman. That’s $47 million, roughly a third of the projected 2026 payroll already allocated. The Tigers are signing right-hander Drew Anderson to contribute in some kind of hybrid role and perhaps take the fifth spot in the regular starting rotation, but contract details haven’t emerged yet.
So suffice it to say that the Winter Meetings, which get underway today in Orlando, Florida are unlikely to be very eventful from a Detroit Tigers perspective. The four day event often just isn’t that eventful in the first place. The Tigers may have plenty of moves ahead of them this offseason, but they probably won’t happen during the Meetings. The fear among much of the fanbase, is that they’re basically going to roll back the same roster with a modestly revamped bullpen and hope things go better.
It’s worth remembering though, that the Tigers were reportedly willing to spend over $170 million on Alex Bregman last year but just wouldn’t go higher and disagreed about the opt-out clause that Scott Boras pursued as part of the deal. Whether you think they blew it by not paying Bregman’s price, or you didn’t really want him, the point is that it established that the Tigers payroll could get in the vicinity of $180 million for the right players.
Currently they’re roughly around $145 million, with Anderson’s number yet to be reported. So a big move is certainly possible and shouldn’t be ruled out. It’s just not the type of thing that usually happens during the Winter Meetings.
Of course, the biggest topic around the Tigers over the next four days will be interest in a Tarik Skubal trade. It may not even exist, from the Tigers perspective, but no doubt the idea will take up some airtime. You can expect the baseball media to make as much hay as possible out of that storyline. Just don’t expect much more than idle chatter.
Are the Tigers looking to extend Riley Greene? Are they serious about pursuing Bregman again? Is Ketel Marte an actual trade target for the front office? What relievers are they targeting? Why the sudden fascination with converting relievers back into starters? These and other questions will probably go unanswered.
The draft lottery will take place on Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. ET. However, the Tigers aren’t eligible for it and we already know they’re picking 22nd in the 2026 amateur draft, with a competitive balance round B selection after having an A round pick in 2025.
The final big event on the Winter Meetings calendar is the Rule 5 draft on Wednesday afternoon starting at 2:00 p.m. ET and streamed on MLB.com. Last year the Tigers lost catcher Liam Hicks to the Miami Marlins, and he had a solid rookie campaign with them. The Cubs drafted infielder Gage Workman, but ultimately returned him after Workman struggled.
The Tigers roster is currently full at 40 players, so they will presumably sitting this one out, as they did last year. They might make a move in the minor league phase which follows, however.
Tigers right-handed reliever R.J. Petit has been a minor favorite of mine as a somewhat overlooked setup man prospect the past two years. He’s a popular choice to be selected in the Rule 5 after the Tigers decided not to add him to their 40-man roster last month. It wouldn’t be a major loss but Petit has some talent. We’ll see how quickly he gets picked up.
All of this is just to say that the Winter Meetings are probably going to be quite slow where the Tigers are concerned. In recent years there’s been an early flurry of signings, and then usually it goes fairly quiet until January, so the Tigers offseason is highly unlikely to be decided or completed in the next few days. But maybe they’ll surprise us.
