The Detroit Tigers enter the offseason at a tipping point. Aside from the Tarik Skubal drama, the club is coming off back-to-back playoff appearances after a long postseason dormancy, but this year’s late-season collapse proved that the young squad hasn’t quite ascended to the upper echelon of contenders yet.
How they handle this offseason will determine how likely they are to stake their place alongside the game’s elite. Scott Harris has made it clear that the club’s blue-chip prospects will have the opportunity to play major roles in 2026. That’s a solid plan, but only if the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in the direction of youth.
Detroit needs to balance its young guns with an aggressive offseason plan. Adding veteran firepower in addition to mixing in the promising next generation is a recipe for arriving on the scene as World Series contenders in 2026, while also setting themselves up for many more deep runs in the future. Fortunately, a weak free agent class has been bolstered by three stars who opted out and could present the Tigers with the star power they need.
Pursuing these stars who opted out could supercharge the Tigers’ ascensionThird baseman Alex Bregman
Alex Bregman was a key target for the Tigers a year ago, and this winter, nothing has changed. If anything, the pitiful performance by the cohort of players Detroit ran through at the hot corner only heightened the need. Tigers third baseman tallied a collective .628 OPS, which was 27th in baseball.
Meanwhile, Bregman’s 2025 campaign only strengthened his case. An uncharacteristic dip in walk rate in 2024 (6.9% versus a career mark of 11.8%) led to Bregman posting a career-worst .768 OPS, but his rebound to a 10.3% rate of free passes brought his OPS back up to a much more formidable .821.
Bregman rarely strikes out — 13.4% for his career and 14.1% in 2025 — which addresses another huge flaw in the Tigers’ lineup after their 23.9% K-rate came in as the fourth-worst in the MLB. Detroit saw the star reject a reported six-year, $171.5 million offer a year ago, and it will likely take at least that to convince him to come to the Motor City this go around.
Center fielder / First baseman Cody Bellinger
Outside of third base, the biggest problem area in the lineup has been center field. For all of his potential, Parker Meadows struggles to stay healthy and productive, putting his standing in the organization in a tenuous position. The 26-year-old managed just 58 games in 2025 while posting a career-worst 75 wRC+.
Cody Bellinger opting out of his deal with the Yankees gives the Tigers a solution in center, as he is what the Tigers hoped Meadows could become. Not only that, but like Bregman, Bellinger would give Detroit another low-strikeout bat to plug into the lineup, with the 2019 NL MVP posting a sterling 13.7% K-rate in 2025.
The kicker is the versatility Bellinger provides. AJ Hinch has shown that he prefers to move players around the field, and Bellinger can play above-average defense at all three outfield positions plus first base. That would give the club the flexibility to reconfigure the lineup as needed to avoid slumps. Additionally, Bellinger’s versatility would allow the club to work in top prospect Max Clark slowly without blocking his path to regular playing time in the future.
First baseman Pete Alonso
Pete Alonso might seem like a luxury after Spencer Torkelson redeemed himself with a 2025 campaign that finally showed he can be some semblance of what the Tigers hoped for when they drafted him first overall back in 2020.
But just because Torkelson has finally become “good enough” doesn’t mean Detroit shouldn’t look for a better power bat to slot into the heart of the order. First, as good as Torkelson’s 2025 was — 31 homers and a .240/.333/.456 slash line — that performance basically matches Alonso’s .240/.329/.459 34-homer campaign in 2024, which was one of the worst seasons of his career.
If the playoffs taught the Tigers anything, it’s that as good as the likes of Torkelson and Riley Greene are, the club still lacks a true threat in the middle of the order. Alonso is a battle-tested playoff performer who fits that bill.
Signing Alonso would allow the Tigers to flip Torkelson for different assets, either to fill another hole on the big league club or to add more prospects to the impressive talent pipeline they’ve built up over the last few seasons. So in that way, moving on from the younger player in favor of the grizzled vet could actually make the Tigers better positioned for the future.