{"id":339059,"date":"2025-12-09T13:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339059\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:58:07","slug":"scott-harris-no-untouchables-on-tigers-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339059\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Harris: No “Untouchables” On Tigers Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris shared mostly generalities when speaking with the media on the first day of the Winter Meetings, reiterating that his club continues to look<\/a> for starting and relief pitching, and wants \u201cto try to find a way to improve our offense without blocking\u201d some star position-player prospects in the minor league pipeline (i.e. Kevin McGonigle<\/a>, Max Clark<\/a>).<\/p>\n

When asked about the persistent trade rumors surrounding Tarik Skubal<\/a>, Harris unsurprisingly didn\u2019t shed any light on whether or not the Tigers might leaning towards keeping or dealing the star left-hander.\u00a0 What the executive did cover was his broad stance on trade discussions, and why he hasn\u2019t outright stated that Skubal isn\u2019t going anywhere before the pitcher is eligible for free agency next winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty clear since I\u2019ve been here, I don\u2019t believe in untouchables at any level,\u201d Harris told The Athletic\u2019s Cody Stavenhagen<\/a> and other reporters.\u00a0 \u201cSo anyone in our organization, at any level.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a commentary on Tarik specifically.\u00a0 Sort of a blanket team-building approach.\u00a0 I think I can\u2019t do my job without listening.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do my job without exploring anything that may or may not have legs.\u00a0 Some are maybe very likely moves, and some are going to be extremely unlikely.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t actually fully vet those opportunities unless you are willing to listen.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how we\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a logical position for a PBO to take, since you never know when a team might emerge with an outlandish trade offer that is too good to pass up.\u00a0 Reports indicate that Skubal is unlikely to be dealt, both because the Tigers\u2019 \u201casking prices are enormous\u201d (as per ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney<\/a>) and because keeping Skubal atop the rotation obviously gives Detroit a much better chance of winning the World Series in 2026.<\/p>\n

How the Tigers will build around Skubal in what might be his final year with the club remains to be seen.\u00a0 Detroit has been linked to such prominent free agent or trade targets as Alex Bregman<\/a>, Ranger Suarez<\/a>, Michael King<\/a>, Zac Gallen<\/a>, Kenley Jansen<\/a>, Pete Fairbanks<\/a>, and Ketel Marte<\/a>, though the team\u2019s most significant new acquisition over the first month of the offseason is Drew Anderson<\/a>\u2019s one-year contract<\/a>.\u00a0 Jack Flaherty<\/a> and Kenta Maeda<\/a> are the only free agents to sign multi-year contracts over Harris\u2019 three-plus years in change of the front office, with the two pitchers each signing for two years apiece.\u00a0 (In Flaherty\u2019s case, he picked up a player option<\/a> for that second year rather than test free agency again.)<\/p>\n

While the Tigers have made some bigger pursuits like their bid for Bregman last offseason, Motown fans won\u2019t be satisfied about the team\u2019s direction or its willingness to spend big until the Tigers actually land a major target.\u00a0 As The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal<\/a> opined in a recent column, Harris\u2019 cautious approach to trades or free agents doesn\u2019t lend itself fully capitalizing on what might be a limited window of opportunity with Skubal on the roster.\u00a0 There\u2019s still plenty of time this winter or at the trade deadline for Detroit to add more top-tier talent, though it remains to be seen how aggressive the Tigers will be in these pursuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris shared mostly generalities when speaking with the media on the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,118166,99,4706],"class_list":{"0":"post-339059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-scott-harris","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tarik-skubal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}