The Detroit Tigers were eliminated from the postseason just five days ago, but MLB news piles up quickly in October. There’s enough to fill a weeks worth of posts. While the Brewers-Dodgers and the Mariners-Blue
Jays continue to battle it out for trips to the World Series, let’s run through some of the biggest news of the past few days. The main story is fittingly reports that Alex Bregman will opt-out of his deal once the offseason begins. That leads directly into offseason free agent talk surrounding the Tigers as they look to take the next step beyond their back-to-back ALDS losses.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported on Tuesday that the star third baseman will opt-out of his contract with the Boston Red Sox, as expected. He has two player option years left at $40 million apiece, with deferrals, on the contract signed in February after the Tigers and Bregman failed to agree on a deal.
Assuming the report is accurate, and everyone in the game anticipated this decision in the first place, Bregman immediately becomes the top free agent infielder available. He also joins outfielders Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, and first baseman Pete Alonso, as the top hitters headed to free agency this offseason.
Bregman reportedly received an offer of six years, $171.5 million with a second year player opt-out from Scott Harris and the Tigers last offseason. He and Boras eventually countered with two proposals, one for a six-year $186 million pact, and the other seven years at $200 million. The Tigers balked at that, despite Bregman being the only major free agent the club is known to have pursued in free agency during Scott Harris’ time leading the Tigers.
Bregman then accepted the Red Sox three-year, $120M offer, in part because the deal included the ability to opt-out after each season and test free agency again. The Boras crafted deal gave Bregman both security and flexibility, guaranteeing him $120M if he opted into the full deal, but also the ability to pursue the type of deal he was looking for originally this coming offseason.
Bregman did miss six weeks from late May until mid-July during the 2025 season due to a quad injury. Otherwise, he was every bit as good as expected. Bregman’s down year in terms of walks and chse rate in 2024 was the one red flag going into free agency in his age 30 season, but he restored his usual plate discipline and contact ability with the Red Sox, striking out just 14.1 percent of the time and walking in 10.3 percent of his plate appearances. He hit 18 home runs, slashing .273/.360/.462 good for a 125 wRC+ and played plus third base.
The Tigers are certainly a much more popular destination for free agents than in the rebuilding years, but it’s still not going to be the hot ticket. Not everyone the Tigers might be interested is going to be interested in return. When an opportunity that prime comes up, they really ought to strike rather than quibbling over small sums of money relative to both the contract and the team payroll. Still things change in a year’s time, and we’ll have to see if the Tigers circle back around.
They did experiment with Triple-A prospects Hao-Yu Lee and Max Anderson at third base some this season, though both are better suited for second base where Colt Keith and who knows, maybe a second date with Gleyber Torres may occupy the depth chart. Top prospect Kevin McGonigle is playing as much third base as shortstop through a week of Arizona Fall League action. Of the prospects, only McGonigle currently profiles as a future full-time player of the group and potential star. He is close enough to MLB readiness that it seems a certainty that he won’t spend much more time in the major leagues next season. It’s pretty likely that A.J. Hinch will be pushing to take McGonigle north if he puts together a good spring camp.
Bregman is also a year older now, and the likelihood of a fall off in production increases with each year. The Tigers really wanted Bregman’s age 30-33 seasons last year. Will they offer Bregman something like five years, $150 million this offseason, expecting to still get three good seasons out of him? Hard to say. The payroll clearly has the room and Scott Harris will have the resources to do a deal should he choose. The fit remains pretty perfect as well.
Bregman is exactly the sort of experienced, highly disciplined hitter the Tigers were so sorely lacking in the postseason. He would give them a plus defender at the hot corner, and he’s exactly the type to retain value well into his 30’s as a smaller, athletic player rather than a hulking slugger. He produced like a 5 WAR player this year if not for missing time with the injury. Bregman also retains a reputation as one of the most competitive and hard-working players in the game. If the Tigers are really serious about pushing to win a World Series in what is almost certainly Tarik Skubal’s last year with the club, signing Bregman would get them further toward that goal than anything else likely available to them this offseason.
So Bregman will big a big part of the free agent conversation around the Tigers as the offseason begins. The list of suitors for his services could be longer this offseason and perhaps another team more aggressive than the Tigers makes a big push early on and gets it done.
Probably Bregman will be looking for the same deal he asked for last season, minus a year. Something like five years, $145-150 million seems like the rough target. If there are more teams in pursuit this year he should be able to get something in that ballpark.
Emmanuel Clasé banned from MLB?
On Monday, reporter Hector Gomez posted on X that evidence of gambling on games against Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clasé is irrefutable, and that he would be permanently banned from Major League Baseball. That report has not been independently confirmed by any of the main MLB usual newsbreakers, so there’s no reason to be certain yet, but it’s certainly being discussed in baseball circles already.
Currently Clasé, along with teammate Luis L. Ortiz, are on non-disciplinary paid leave as MLB investigates allegations that the two Guardians pitchers placed prop bets on themselves during the season. Reportedly, they bet on themselves to throw balls first pitch in certain games. If they made those bets themselves, that seems like it’s going to be traceable, but we’ll have to wait for the investigation to be concluded. The two players are not allowed to compete in the Dominican Winter League this offseason either.
If the league can prove the case, both players could find themselves banned from MLB permanently.
Mike Shildt leaves Padres due to stress, death threats
There have been a whole cavalcade of managerial firings and resignations already this offseason. One of the more surprising to outsiders was Mike Shildt’s resignation from the San Diego Padres manager’s chair. Shildt’s letter cited the “mental and physical” toll the job has taken over his two seasons with the club. He apparently suffered from chest pains and insomnia and found himself getting sick over and over again throughout the 2025 season. His two seasons have been fraught with struggle and disappointment, as a pretty stacked Padres roster has continued to underachieve. Shildt announced his retirement from the job nine days after the Padres were bounced from the National League Wild Card round by the Chicago Cubs.
Shildt also mentioned the stress and fear of death threats against himself and possibly his family members as well from sports gamblers. All year long players have reported the rising tide of threats, including specific threats against wives and children that players are dealing with now from gamblers upset about performance and losing bets.
Anyone think the betting sites or the league are going to do anything about this? Correct, money rules all. Unfortunately, sports leagues are going to take the money and run, and everyone just has to hope that this all doesn’t lead to a real tragedy. It’s already compromising the game, and you can pretty much guarantee that there will be more and more gambling scandals and less and less faith in the fair outcomes of games over time.
Managerial carousel
Currently there are now eight MLB teams looking for a new manager. The Angels, Braves, Orioles, Rockies, Giants, Twins, Nationals, and Padres will all be hunting for a new skipper.
After Buster Posey fired Bob Melvin as Giants manager and the Texas Rangers and Bruce Bochy “mutually” parted ways, speculation immediately started that Bochy, the game’s active leader in wins, would return to the Giants, where he won three World Series titles. Posey already shot down the idea, stating that he’d approached Bochy about returning to the Giants in a different role in the front office, but not as manager.
Skip Schumaker, still just 45 years old as teams seem to be skewing younger and younger for managerial talent, and a former Miami Marlins, is widely considered the front runner for the Rangers job, though he has been posited as an option for the Giants as well. Schumaker is currently a senior advisor to the Rangers front office.
Former Giants catcher Nick Hundley, along with their current first base coach, Mark Hallberg, and Guardians associate manager, or bench coach, Nick Albernaz, are all rumored to be candidates for the Giants vacancy.
A.J. Hinch’s bench coach, George Lombard, has been with the Tigers for five seasons. He’s interviewed for managerial vacancies along the way but so far hasn’t landed a gig despite long being considered future manager material. Perhaps this will be the season a team finally comes calling for him. Triple-A manager Gabe Alvarez is the other possible option for teams looking for a manager in the Tigers’ organization. Alvarez won back-to-back Eastern League titles at the Double-A level in 2023-2024, before taking over the Triple-A club. The 51-year-old former MLB third baseman was originally drafted by the Padres, and played for them briefly late in his short MLB career.
Ron Washington underwent a quadruple bypass surgery in June, with bench coach Ray Montgomery taking over as the Angels interim manager. The Angels declined Washington’s option for 2026 back in September, and Montgomery was offered a different role in the organization, so it appears they’ll be shopping outside for their next skipper. Good luck to whoever takes that gig. You’ll need it.
Grand slam turned double play in Dodgers-Brewers NLCS
If you missed this one, it’s worth a look.
In Game 1 of the NLCS on Monday night, the bases were loaded with one out for the Dodgers with Brewers right-hander Quinn Priester on the mound. The right-hander fired a 1-0 cutter in to Max Muncy, and the Dodgers slugger blasted it to straightaway center field. Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick ran to the wall and jumped up to catch it, but while he pulled the ball back into the field of play and then caught it before it hit the ground, the ball touched the wall on the way down. So it wasn’t a catch, but no one on the Dodgers had any way to know that just by watching the play. Instead, after several of them broke for the next base when the ball came out of Frelick’s glove, they then saw him catch it before it hit the ground, and started back to tag up though umpire Chad Fairchild was signaling no catch from the left field line.
Frelick came up firing the ball in and the relay was in time to get a very confused Teoscar Hernandez at the plate for a force play. The confusion reigned as to whether that was a tag out, or a force out, and Dodgers’ catcher Will Smith, who started the play at second base, began retreating back there after advancing toward third. Brewers catcher William Contreras realized what had happened before most watching and immediately ran down the line to tough third base to force Smith as well for a very rare, 8-6-2 double play.
Very odd. Per Elias Sports Bureau it was the first 8-6-2 in postseason history.
Small Ball
Matt Martell breaks down yet another failure from the New York Yankees and how they move forward for FanGraphs. A’s catcher Shea Langeliers talks hitting with David Laurila. Cody Christie at Twins Daily suggests Torii Hunter as Rocco Baldelli’s replacement in the manager’s chair. Royals Review ponders whether the Kansas City Royals will ever come around to emphasizing on-base percentage. Friend of BYB Sara Sanchez speaks for baseball and sports fans everywhere in this piece about the nightmare of streaming games in the postseason as leagues sell out their fans for every last dollar.
Finally, our good buddies the Guardians did the obvious, bringing back their veteran catcher.
