The Detroit Tigers agreed on a two-year contract with Jack Flaherty almost five days ago. The deal will pay the right-hander $25 million in 2025, with a player option for $10 million in 2026 that becomes a $20 million player option should Flaherty make 15 starts in 2025. The lack of a big multi-year offer from other teams was a bit of a surprise, but it reflects a little concerns about Flaherty’s health, which is also indicated in the way the Tigers and Flaherty structured the contract.
We only mention this because it’s just a little interesting that five days on from the announcement of the signing, it hasn’t been made official and is still pending Flaherty’s physical at this point. Presumably that will be resolved shortly. The Tigers already know what they’re dealing with and were clearly happy to bring Flaherty back on a short deal with minimal risk anyway.
The other result is that we still haven’t had a player designated off the 40-man roster to open a spot for Flaherty. Since there’s time to consider it and no corresponding move has been announced, let’s walk through the likely players under consideration.
First up is right-hander Mason Englert. The Tigers seem to view the 25-year-old as a potential Reese Olson in reliever form. Englert has a good slider and a good changeup, but his fastball remains a bit too hittable. Still, he had a solid season in the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens bullpen, punching out a whopping 35.3 percent of hitters faced. One the other hand, the walk and home run rates remained just a bit on the high side for a reliever who isn’t exactly overpowering.
Englert clearly has the stuff to succeed, and he still has two options remaining. Probably the Tigers would prefer to keep working with him. Alex Faedo was designated as a similar quality reliever, but the big issue there was that Faedo was out of options. Ultimately the Tigers traded him for an excellent defensive catching prospect with big questions about his bat. Englert is certainly one who could be designated for Flaherty, but the Tigers have hung onto him for two seasons already despite the fact that he hasn’t broken through at the big league level. They still seem to like him, so perhaps he’s got a pretty good shot to stay on the 40-man roster.
Another possibility is right-hander Chase Lee. The 26-year-old Lee has yet to pitch in the major leagues. However, he did have a really good run with the Mud Hens after coming over from Texas in the Andrew Chafin trade.
Lee throws a mix of sinkers and fourseam fastballs from a tricky sidearm slot. Despite only averaging 89.3 mph, he generates his fair share of whiffs on both fastball types with movement and deception. He’ll likely be a bit home run prone at the major league level, but at Triple-A was able to keep contact under control. His primary breaking ball is a slider that doesn’t get whiffs but is rarely squared up. He’ll also mix in a cutter against left-handers to jam them and keep them from leaning out over the plate.
Overall, this isn’t the kind of stuff that screams major league relief ace. Lee is funky and interesting, and could make for a decent lower leverage reliever. If the Tigers DFA’d him, there wouldn’t be many teams running to claim his services, however. The lack of velocity alone would probably keep him from getting more than a glance from most teams. There are a few clubs that really like a mix of arm angles, the Rays come to mind again, but there’s a good likelihood Lee would end up re-signing with the Tigers on a minor league deal.
Another option remains shortstop Ryan Kreidler. After a nice breakout as a prospect back in 2021, Kreidler has struggled mightily to get it going with the bat. He’s had repeated wrist and hand injuries from being hit by pitches, and even at the Triple-A level hasn’t been able to get any traction. He’s now 27 years old, and there’s no sign of even enough offense to make a utility player.
Kreidler is an easy choice for a DFA, except for the fact that the Tigers don’t really have a legit shortstop in the system above A-ball. Kevin McGonigle certainly looks to be next, but he probably won’t reach Double-A until the summer months this year. Should Trey Sweeney and/or Javy Báez be injured, the Tigers would be down to Zach McKinstry as their only real option at the position. Things look a little different if Alex Bregman is in the fold, as Bregman could likely handle a short stay at shortstop without issue. That gives them two options beyond Sweeney/Báez. There is also Triple-A shortstop Andrew Navigato, who isn’t really a full-time major league shortstop from a defensive perspective, but can handle himself and is a better bet to contribute something offensively than Kreidler.
He’s hung around on the roster due to his ability to play a solid shortstop, but if the Tigers finally decided it was time to move on and use Kreidler’s spot for Flaherty, it wouldn’t be a big surprise.
Finally, the last option is to make a trade. Right-hander Matt Manning has entirely stalled out in the Tigers’ system at this point. The talent is there, but the command, particularly of his breaking balls, just hasn’t come along over the last few seasons. Possibly the Tigers could make a small trade to a team that has more space on the roster to keep working with Manning. He does have an option remaining.
I can’t see the Tigers trading Casey Mize at this point, but Manning is certainly a real possibility. Spencer Torkelson is another possibility if they decide to solve the roster crunch with a trade. It’s going to be hard for Torkelson to break into this roster in 2025 unless he absolutely figures it out and is going nuts in Triple-A to a degree we haven’t seen before.
Maybe Flaherty’s medicals are taking a little bit to sort through. Maybe there is some debate over the various fine print in his contract. Possibly the Tigers are just giving themselves some time to make a deal before having to DFA someone like Manning or Torkelson, devaluing them a bit in any further trade conversations.
We may never find out what the little hold up is, and a week between announcement and a formal signing isn’t really that unusual, but we’d expect to here a corresponding move for Flaherty and an official announcement of the signing, within the next few days. The Tigers 40-man roster is pretty strong these days, but they still have numerous ways to open Flaherty’s spot without doing any real damage to the roster.