The Quote the Detroit Tigers Can't Afford to Have Haunt Them Again in 2027
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The Detroit Tigers went into the 2025 offseason with their heads hung low after losing Game 5 against the Seattle Mariners and getting eliminated from the MLB playoffs. After seeing which areas were weak and which were strong, the front office decided to keep most of the roster the same.
The Tigers made the postseason as a Wild Card team after blowing the AL Central to the Cleveland Guardians due to poor offensive performances down the stretch. Instead of tapping into free agency to help the young offense, Detroit's biggest offensive addition was rookie Kevin McGonigle (and even then, going into the offseason, they didn't know he would make the Opening Day roster).
This leads us to high expectations in 2026 after making the playoffs two straight years. The front office did make some free-agent additions, but only one move on offense, which was offering Gleyber Torres a qualifying offer, who was already on the team in 2025.
The Scott Harris Dec. 2025 Quote
After not making big splashes in free agency, President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris dropped this quote to 97.1 The Ticket's Will Burchfield.
"I think there's an important point here: just because a lot of the names look the same doesn't mean the team is the same," Harris said.
That quote stayed with Tigers fans all season, and seeing how the franchise took a step back, finishing 76-86 with a team batting average of .241 (20th in MLB) compared to a .247 team batting average in 2025, Harris might've dug himself too deep.
Additionally, the roster that featured several familiar names saw other offensive numbers decrease from 2025, such as team home runs (2026 = 181, 2025 = 198), team OPS (2026 = .720, 2025 = .730), and hits (2026 = 1,315, 2025 = 1,346).
The Scott Harris Sept. 2026 Quote
Adding McGonigle improved the offense, but then again, a rookie shouldn't have been the best hitter for an offense with players getting three or four years into their MLB careers. When asked about his 2025 quote in his 2026 end-of-season press conference, Harris had this to say about the potential of adding a veteran right-handed bat this free agency.
"If you look at the trend line of our team's WRC+ for four straight years, it's going straight up. I think we finished sixth this year. If you exclude May, we were second in all of baseball in team WRC+. We need to translate that better into run scoring and to make sure that our runs per game match what the underlying performance actually shows," Harris said.
"We don't get there by just signing free agent bats every single offseason. We get there by developing our players and giving them the opportunity to demonstrate that they are better players than we can acquire in free agency."
For Detroit, adding a veteran right-handed hitter this offseason would benefit the offense. Harris said he would participate in free agency this upcoming offseason, meaning the Tigers could fill that offensive need, but then again, Harris doesn't want to build through the open market; he wants to develop those already within the organization.
For the betterment of the franchise, getting one more established bat, even if they come off the bench, should be a priority for Detroit this offseason.
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Dominic Minchella is a 2024 Eastern Michigan University graduate with a BA in Communications, Media, and Theatre Arts and a Journalism minor. He covers Major League Baseball for On SI and spends his free time watching games and sharing his insights.