Five days after the World Series, teams and players who have contract options must make their decisions known. Five days after the World Series concludes, teams must also decide whether to make qualifying
offers to their players who are eligible for free agency.
The Detroit Tigers have two pending free agents who are worthy of consideration for a Qualifying Offer, worth about $22 million, for the 2026 season. Those players are second baseman Gleyber Torres and starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.
The Detroit Tigers have four contracts that contain either a club option or a player option. Jack Flaherty has the biggest decision to make, with a $20 million player option for the 2026 season. The club holds a $4 million option on pitcher Jose Urquidy, a $10 million mutual option on reliever Paul Sewald, and a $6 million option on pitcher Randy Dobnak.
In these four options, the Tigers will run the gamut of contract options, which are worth a total of $40 million on their face. We’ll get to the nitty gritty details of how each of these options work, but it’s really all about Jack Flaherty and Gleyber Torres.
Jack Flaherty
Flaherty returned to the Tigers on a one year guaranteed contract that paid him $25 million for the 2025 season, plus a player option for at least $10 million for 2026. That option converted to a $20 million if Flaherty made 15 starts, which he did on June 20, 2025. So we are left with a straight $20 million player option with a decision due by Thursday, November 6, 2025.
Flaherty’s decision impacts the club’s off season plans, not only because of the money, but because of the uncertainty in the starting pitching rotation should he opt for free agency. He tied Tarik Skubal for the team lead with 31 starts, was (a distant) second with 161 innings pitched, and with 2.5 fWAR.
Flaherty’s unspectacular 4.65 ERA isn’t the most appealing number, but he was one of three reliable starters who took the ball every five days. The other two are Skubal and Casey Mize, both due to hit free agency after the 2026 season. Flaherty’s HR/9 and WHIP are in the same range as Mize, with a higher rate of strikeouts and walks. His 10.51 K/9 ratio ranked ninth in all of MLB among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. Using ERA, he ranked 96th in MLB. By fWAR, he was 46th. (min 100 IP)
The Tigers are already two starters shy of a five man rotation, and while they may find help from within- Reese Olson and Troy Melton come to mind- losing Flaherty would mean one more starting pitcher is added to their shopping list.
Qualifying Offer- since Flaherty has not previously been tendered a qualifying offer, he is eligible to be offered should he opt for free agency. He was not eligible a year ago because he was traded in mid season from the Tigers to the Dodgers. If he declines the Qualifying offer and signs a multi year contract for more than $50 million total value, the Tigers stand to receive an extra draft pick in round A, just after the first round. If he signs for less than $50M, the compensation pick is in round B, after the second round.
The qualifying offer is around $22 million this year, which would be a 10 percent raise for Flaherty over his option salary. He can surely get more than that amount as a free agent on a multi year deal. Should he decline the qualifying offer, any team signing him would lose a draft pick or two as compensation, although first round picks are protected. Qualifying offers are also due on Thursday, November 6.
Gleyber Torres
Torres doesn’t have any contract options, but he certainly is worth consideration for a qualifying offer. He underwent surgery for a sports hernia after the season, which complicates matters, but until that injury occurred it looked like an easy decision.
Torres signed a one year “prove it” contract with the Tiger with a $15 million salary for the 2025 season. He logged 629 plate appearances in 145 games, posting a wRC+ of 114 with 16 homers and 74 runs driven in. His season seemed to mirror the Tigers overall performance, slashing .281/.387/.425 before the all star break, and .235/.316/.382 after the break. How much of that drop in performance was due to the injury will be the key thing teams try to uncover in researching him for potential free agent contract offers this offseason.
The Tigers could decide to move on and promote rising young prospects like Kevin McGonigle, Hao Yu Lee and Max Anderson, but this is a lineup that desperately lacked steady, professional at-bats and Torres consistently provided them, at least for the first part of the season. His overall performance was good for 2.6 fWAR, ranking eighth among second basemen in MLB, and an improvement on his 2024 performance with the Yankees.
The conversation begins with a qualifying offer. Torres was quoted “hopefully we get a really good conversation here. I feel really good with this group….It was really special this year.”
Whether the surgery will deter teams from pursuing Torres in free agency is not known. Declining a qualifying offer would add another deterrent to potential suitors, who would have to surrender a draft pick to sign him. Still, because it’s only a year commitment for not much than they paid him in 2025, you can probably expect the Tigers to make the qualifying offer. Should he accept it, the Tigers can then wait to see if the prospects come up and perform, making Torres a possible trade chip in July.
Jose Urquidy
Right-hander Jose Urquidy was signed by Detroit to a one year contract worth $1 million, and a club option for 2026 worth $4 million. The deal was designed so that Urquidy could rehab from Tommy John surgery and hopefully provide some solid depth to the rotation or bullpen down the stretch, leaving the Tigers with the option to keep him on the cheap in 2026. The first part did not work out, but the Tigers may well view the veteran starter as good, inexpensive insurance for the 2026 rotation. There is no buyout should the team decline to pick up the option.
Urquidy pitched just 2.1 innings for the Tigers in 2025, both in relief. He is a veteran of over 400 major league innings with a 4.00 ERA over six years and 70 games started, all with the Hoston Astros prior to the 2025 season. He stood to have his 2026 option increased if he reached certain targets in number of games started, but he made no starts for Detroit. He would be a bargain if he could return to the form he showed in Houston from 2019- 2022, but that is completely up in the air right now. Probably the Tigers will pay the price and see how Urquidy looks after his first healthy offseason in a few years.
Paul Sewald
Right-handed reliever Paul Sewald signed a one year contract with the Cleveland Guardians for 2025 plus a mutual option for $10 million for 2026. The option has a $1 million buyout. In reality, mutual options rarely are exercised by both sides.
Sewald is a 35-year-old veteran, with the Tigers being his fifth major league stop. He previously played for the New York Mets, Seattle, Arizona, and Cleveland. He has a career ERA of 4.11, WHIP of 1.15 and has 86 career saves, the vast majority of those with the Mariners. In 2025, he made 22 appearances with a 4.58 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 1.22 WHIP, and two saves.
What happens here is that Sewald will pick up his option, triggering the buyout as the club will decline the option unless the Tigers believe that he can return to form. It’s highly unlikely they’re willing to commit $10M to find out.
Randy Dobnak
This right-hander came to the Tigers along with pitcher Chris Paddack from the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline, in a deal that sent 19-year-old Venezuelan catching prospect Enrique Jimenez to the Twins. Dobnak has an interesting bio, signing as an undrafted free agent born in South Park, PA. He signed a five year contract extension with the Twins worth $9.25 M after the abbreviated 2020 season, when he made 10 starts with a 4.05 ERA
Dobnak is now 30 years old with three seasons of major league work under his belt in the Twins’ organization. He earned a salary of $3 million in 2025, pitching only 5.1 innings. In 2024, he pitched only 9.2 innings earning $ 2.25 million. He did not pitch in the major leagues during the 2022 or 2023 seasons, pitching at Triple-A St Paul with disappointing numbers.
Dobnak’s contract contains three team options over the next three seasons; $6 million in 2026 with a $1 million buyout, $7 million in 2027 with a $ 100,000 buyout, and $8.5 million in 2028 with a $100,000 buyout.
He has been DFA’d, outrighted, picked back up by the Twins, and outrighted again. The Tigers took his contract as part of a salary dump by Minnesota, along with Paddack. Another DFA is in store here, as Dobnak is bound for a minor league deal and a prove yourself type contract from another team.
