{"id":909221,"date":"2026-11-07T15:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T15:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/909221\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T15:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T15:36:12","slug":"tigers-lose-some-celebs-as-their-2027-roster-takes-shape-but-also-gain-a-gift-or-two-with-more-drama-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/909221\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers lose some celebs as their 2027 roster takes shape, but also gain a gift or two — with more drama ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Drew Anderson has traveled far (including Korea) in his baseball life since the Phillies drafted him. But, for now, he has a home with the Tigers. (Photo by Ian D\u2019Andrea) <\/p>\n

What promises to be a hectic MLB offseason is officially underway.<\/p>\n

Teams were busy Monday getting initial 40-man rosters in order, including activating players from the 60-day Injured List.<\/p>\n

The Tigers did just that with seven players: Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, Reese Olson, Wenceel Perez, Trey Sweeney, Will Vest, and Matt Vierling. It squeezed Detroit\u2019s 40-man roster and three players were released: Sawyer Gipson-Long, Corey Julks, and Bailey Horn, who in July had Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

Odds are the Tigers would like to bring all three back on minor-league deals, but there will be competition not only from other MLB teams, but from clubs overseas. (Horn is a candidate to get a two-year minor-league deal, with rehab covering the first year.)<\/p>\n

Contract option decisions also were due Monday, with the Tigers picking up Drew Anderson\u2019s $10 million bill, while saying no to Kenley Jansen\u2019s $12 million tag.<\/p>\n

Neither decision was a surprise. In many ways, Jansen gave the Tigers exactly what they had hoped for in 2026: 3.20 ERA, 28.3% strikeout-rate, and a .154 batting average against. The stuff, mostly, was still electric, although a step back in command (12.8% walk rate, up 4.7% from 2025) led to untimely walks and home runs and, ultimately, to six blown saves. Jansen in 2027 will shoot for 500 career saves, likely with a different team.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s rollercoaster journey back to the big-leagues was similar to his 2026 season. After working as a starter in Korea from 2024-2025, he began the year in Detroit\u2019s bullpen, and after 15 appearances and 27 innings had a 4.67 ERA.<\/p>\n

On May 20, Anderson got his first start of the year, and dominated the Guardians: 4 2\/3 innings, two hits, no runs, two walks, seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n

The right-hander, 6-foot-3 and now 32 years old, moved back to the bullpen on May 24 and, outside of one spot start, stayed there until Aug. 5. A 4.50 ERA during that stretch was on the high side, but the underlying metrics showed promise: 3.52 Expected ERA, 28.2 K%, 7 BB%.<\/p>\n

Following the trade deadline, Anderson became a rotation fixture, and likely triggered the Tigers\u2019 decision to pick up that team option. In nine starts spanning 44.1 innings, he posted a 2.84 ERA \u2014 25th-lowest during that timeframe among 108 pitchers with 40 or more innings.<\/p>\n

Overall, Anderson tossed 108 innings in 2026, with a 3.67 ERA, 3.92 xERA, 25 K%, 9.4 BB%, and 48.4 GB%. His groundball rate ranked in the 82nd percentile among MLB pitchers, while a 35.3% chase rate (90th percentile) and 27% whiff rate (63rd percentile) backed up that 69th percentile strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

Anderson gets most of his swing-and-miss with a change-up (36.1% whiff rate) and curveball (33.3%). After flirting with a slider at the beginning of the season, he mostly shelved it and leaned on a three-pitch mix. The Tigers hope a trimmer menu will bring more consistency and command in 2027, and it\u2019s important to note Anderson does have a history of making adjustments. During his Korea stint he cut his walk rate by 3.4% from 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n

With the cost of back-end starters rising every year in free agency, it was a bit of a no-brainer for the Tigers to pick up Anderson\u2019s option, especially with so many of Detroit\u2019s starters coming off injuries. There\u2019s upside here for 2027, with the ability to pitch in relief a solid back-up plan.<\/p>\n

What did register as a surprise was the Tigers re-signing free agent reliever Jacob Waguespack to a one year, $1.3 million deal, with minor escalators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drew Anderson has traveled far (including Korea) in his baseball life since the Phillies drafted him. But, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-909221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909221","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=909221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}