Key Tigers Players Whose Free Agency Could Shake Up Offseason
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The Major League Baseball season for 2025 is quickly coming to a close which means one thing for the Detroit Tigers, free agency. The World Series ends tomorrow which technically means free agency will begin, but a five-day "quiet period" prohibits players from signing outside of the organization. Once that period is over, all bets are off.
As most teams do, the Tigers organization has a few key players who will be up for free agency in the next 24 hours. Tarik Skubal speculation has hit every news outlet in the last couple of weeks, but it has been overshadowing the players who actually are up for grabs starting tomorrow. Skubal is under the Tigers' control until after the 2026 season.
The main concern going into this period has to be surrounding second baseman Gleyber Torres, relief pitcher Kyle Finnegan, and starting pitcher Jack Flaherty. These three were key parts to the Tigers' season and the franchise; they ultimately should be pursued.
A Look at the Three's Contracts
Torres signed a one-year $15 million deal back in the offseason of 2024, and he proved to be an exceptional defender, and despite his struggles swinging a bat in the playoffs, he was one of their more consistent offensive weapons during the months prior.
Their second baseman ranked at the top of baseball defensively at his position across the board.
- 310 Assists (sixth)
- 197 Putouts (sixth)
- 5 Errors (fifth fewest)
- 75 Double Plays (tied for fourth)
- .990 Fielding Percentage (fifth)
Finnegan was arguably one of the best moves that management made this year. They let go of two pitching prospects to the Washington Nationals in exchange for the best reliever in their bullpen. He was used in 16 games in the second half of the season and posted a 1.50 ERA with 23 strikeouts.
Switching teams mid-season and immediately throwing 14+ scoreless innings is rare.
— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) August 31, 2025
Prior to Kyle Finnegan, the last MLB reliever to do so was in 2018 (Erik Goeddel) and the last Tigers reliever to do so was in 1983 (Doug Blair).
(via @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/pETDYXymu9
Flaherty, on the other hand, is one of the expensive contracts that the team has right now. He signed a two-year $35 million deal that included a $5 million signing bonus. There is a player opt-out clause in his contract that he can now exercise if he chooses to.
During the regular season, he posted the second-most strikeouts on the team with 188, trailing only Skubal. His strikeout production wasn't the problem, but the earned runs. Flaherty finished the year with a 4.64 ERA and went 8-15 overall.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next week for these free agents as the Tigers need to pursue a big bat, or two, and need to solidify their pitching staff to help support Skubal. Finnegan should be a no-brainer, as one thing is for certain: if the Tigers lose again in the playoffs in the ALDS for the third consecutive season, Skubal will not return to the team.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.