This evening, the Tigers will have to finalize their 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft at baseball’s Winter Meetings on December 10. Any Rule 5 eligible prospect that isn’t added to the 40-man will be available
for teams to select in the draft. The Tigers certainly have some prospects who will need to be protected, and those additions to the 40-man roster will require spots opened by releasing players current on that roster.
Players drafted in the Rule 5 cost $100,000 paid to their current club, and they have to be added to their new team’s active roster and kept on that roster all of next season, other than stints on the injured list, in order for the claiming team to keep the player’s rights beyond 2026. They can only release a Rule 5 selection by offering him on outright waivers, available to every team. Should he clear waivers, which they typically do because they still have to stay on the active roster, the player is then offered back to his original team for $50,000. Should the original team decline to reclaim the player, he can then be outrighted to the minor leagues.
The Tigers have three really notable prospects who will be exposed to the Rule 5 if not added to the 40-man roster. They also have several older minor leaguers at the Triple-A level they may consider protecting.
Thayron Liranzo
The 22-year-old Liranzo is a catcher, and the Tigers highest ranked prospect who has to be added to the 40-man. A 2025 season in which he spun his wheels at the Double-A level had him slipping off national top 100 prospect lists this fall, but with his age and amount of responsibilities, a down year really wasn’t that surprising and doesn’t change his potential. Switch-hitting catchers with an eye for the strike zone and 70 grade raw power from both sides of the plate do not grow on trees. He would absolutely get picked in the Rule 5 draft.
It’s true that Liranzo’s defense needs work, as does his conditioning to help him hold up to the workload over the course of the season. The advent of the ABS challenge system is going to make framing less of a factor, and Liranzo’s arm and blocking ability need work but are potentially good enough to make him a slugging option as a backup catcher who spends some time as a DH and first baseman as well.
Better teams will not be able to hide Liranzo on their active roster all year. He has too much swing and miss in his game and needs more exposure to upper level pitching. His Double-A debut in 2025 saw him strike out 31.7 percent of the time. Of course, there are a lot more developmental demands on a young catcher, particularly a switch-hitting one, so it’s no surprise he stalled this year. He was never going to rapidly ascend to the major leagues.
At this point, Liranzo would be a nice trade chip. The Tigers have Dillon Dingler and a deep enough roster and farm system that keeping Liranzo for another two years to allow him to develop on a reasonable pace will be difficult. But they can’t expose him to the Rule 5 draft either. You can be certain a bottom feeder team would leap at the chance to land a switch-hitting backup catcher with this kind of power profile.
Hao-Yu Lee
Another one guaranteed to be protected is infielder Hao-Yu Lee. The right-handed hitter from Taiwan hit his way through the Double-A level before his 22nd birthday. He stalled out at the Triple-A level this year, but his combination of above average raw power and good plate discipline leaves plenty of appeal if he can learn to handle better breaking stuff more effectively.
Defensively, Lee can handle second base and with more work, which began just this season, will make a serviceable third baseman. He’s an aggressive, hard-nosed player who takes the extra base and isn’t afraid to crowd the plate either. Most of his damage comes against left-handed pitching at this point, and a team could comfortably take him and use him in something like an Andy Ibáñez role in 2026, hoping that he breaks out into a solid everyday player.
At this point. Lee is pretty blocked in the Tigers system and the ideal would be to move him or some combination of Jace Jung or Max Anderson for a younger player who doesn’t have to be rostered yet. But the Tigers won’t be exposing Lee to the Rule 5 draft and giving him away. Considering that Scott Harris liked him enough to make the Michael Lorenzen trade in 2023, presumably the Tigers value Lee as much as anyone in the league.
Jake Miller
This southpaw out of Valparaiso has proven another excellent later round draft pick from Al Avila’s last draft. Taken in the eighth round, Miller got the minimum $150,000 bonus and has gone on to overachieve signficantly to date.
Miller sits 93-94 and can touch 96 mph, packing a quality slider and a very good changeup. He wields this mix with advanced command and probably would’ve pitched for the Tigers this season had a shoulder injury not limited him to just 20 innings in 2025.
Miller looks like a good future swingman who can handle right-handers and give the Tigers spot starts, bulk relief, and setup work as required. If his fastball pops a little more, the 24-year-old could end up a pretty good starting pitcher. His upside is a mid-rotation starter, but his more likely outcome is in the type of hybrid role that Brant Hurter has occupied over the past year. His command makes that a pretty high percentage outcome.
We didn’t get any specifics on Miller’s injury this season as the Tigers like to keep these things close to their chest, so it’s hard to know how he might be affected long-term. He was initially slated to make up some innings in the Arizona Fall League, but the Tigers changed their minds on that at the last minute. Is that because an injury flared up? Or were the Tigers concerned about exposing him to a lot of interested eyes in the Fall League who would then take him in the Rule 5 draft?
If it’s the latter, the Tigers probably aren’t being slick enough here to avoid a claim. Unless there’s a major issue that might cause him to miss a lot of time in 2026, they would be wise to add him to the 40-man roster.
Best of the rest
There are three other particularly notable players the Tigers might protect.
The first is catcher-first baseman Eduardo Valencia. The 25-year-old right-handed hitter absolutely erupted in 2025, mashing his way through the Double-A and Triple-A levels. For years, he battled injury in the Tigers’ system and never really developed enough defensively to look like a future catching option, and so he was generally absent from prospect lists. He’s still more of a first baseman than a catcher, though he did improve this season. However, a few minor swing changes combined with finally getting a full season of plate appearances in 2024 really unlocked his offensive potential this season.
Valencia hit 24 homers in 433 plate appearances while walking 12.6 percent of the time and striking out 19.1 percent of the time. His Triple-A metrics show him crushing fastballs and handling velocity well, but he was quite good against the better breaking and offspeed stuff he saw as well. The problem is that he’s really not ready to catch at the major league level. His blocking and framing improved this season, but he’s still lackluster in terms of shutting down opposing running games. So he’s a better fit at first base, and the Tigers have Spencer Torkelson in place there.
Unless the Tigers were convinced enough in Valencia’s bat to deal Torkelson as he gets more expensive in arbitration, there just isn’t a path to much playing time. The Tigers have enough guys they could cut from the 40-man to make room for Valencia, but it’s hard to see them doing that for a backup first baseman, and I don’t see Valencia getting through the Rule 5 draft without getting picked. He’s a decent candidate to be dealt in a small trade before that happens.
Second we come to utilityman extraordinaire, Trei Cruz. Now 27 years old, Cruz stalled out as a prospect but finally broke out in his age 26 season. For years, Cruz was that player who does everything pretty well defensively but doesn’t quite stand out as a hitter. He’s a capable center fielder and shortstop, and has the arm strength to play anywhere on the field. In short, he’s a bit of an upgrade over Zach McKinstry in terms of defense and versatility. He’s also a switch-hitter.
The problem has always been too many strikeouts and not enough power production. Cruz is a very disciplined hitter who has always walked a ton. The problem was a lot of swing and miss in the zone against breaking stuff and offspeed. He hasn’t fully cured those ills, but he did walk 19.9 percent of the time while striking out 22.8 percent of the time, and is a truly pesky at-bat for most pitchers. Cruz hit 13 homers in 564 plate appearances split between Erie and Toledo, while stealing 17 bags.
Unless the Tigers are looking to replace McKinstry, there really isn’t a spot on the Tigers roster right now for Trei Cruz. However, they’d very much like to have him in Toledo as a Swiss Army knife for any contigency. He’s a decent bet to get a look from someone in the Rule 5, but I don’t think the Tigers will end up protecting him.
Finally we have right-handed sinkerballer RJ Petit. The decidedly non-petite six-foot-eight, 300 pound reliever has a lot of interesting traits, he just never developed into the power pitcher the Tigers hoped for when they drafted him back in 2021.
Petit typically sits 94-95 mph with a quality sinker and solid command and occasionally can reach back for a little more, though the consistent high velocity the Tigers hoped for has never quite materialized despite his enormous frame. Petit backs it with a pretty nasty breaking ball that registers as a slider but works more like a power curve with more north-south movement than horizontal break. It has a lot of depth and Petit controls it well and can spot it for strikes consistently. It’s not the biggest whiff generator, but he improved in that regard this season and punched out 34.4 percent of his hitters at the Triple-A level with a 2.74 ERA/3.19 FIP combination. He’ll still give up a few more walks than you’d like to see, but only by a small degree and Petis also suppresses home runs really well.
I thought there was a chance that Petit might get his first look in September as the Tigers scrambled to hold the bullpen together, but the call never arrived. He has a solid chance for a career as a middle reliever who might graduate to regular setup duty, but it took a a bit longer to arrive on the scene than was initially hoped. He recently turned 26. If the Tigers really liked him enough to protect him, it feels like he would’ve gotten a look in 2025 at some point, but he’s basically Brenan Hanifee with a better breaking ball and a bit less command, so it would be a good idea to hang onto him. It’s just that you can’t hang onto everyone.
Rosters have to be finalized by 6:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, so it won’t be long until we get a better feel for how the Tigers regard these six players, and how they are setting up the roster for 2026.
