The Detroit Tigers are heading into the 2027 offseason with a quote still hanging over them, and it’s one Scott Harris probably wishes wouldn’t keep coming back.
After the Tigers were knocked out of the 2025 postseason by the Seattle Mariners in Game 5, Detroit decided to mostly stand pat. The club had reached the playoffs as a Wild Card team after letting the AL Central slip to the Cleveland Guardians on the back of poor offensive production down the stretch, but the answer from the front office was not a major push into free agency. The biggest offensive addition was rookie Kevin McGonigle, and even that was uncertain at the time because the team didn’t know he’d make the Opening Day roster.
That set the stage for a 2026 season loaded with expectation. Detroit had made the playoffs in back-to-back years, and while the front office did make some free-agent additions, only one touched the offense: Gleyber Torres received a qualifying offer after already being on the team in 2025.
Then came the line that Tigers fans kept in their pocket all year.
"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.
It was meant to explain why Detroit didn’t need to chase a big offensive splash. Instead, it became a quote that followed the club through a season that ended in a step backward. The Tigers finished 76-86, and their team batting average dropped to .241, good for 20th in MLB, after sitting at .247 in 2025.
The rest of the offense backed up the same story. Detroit hit 181 home runs in 2026, down from 198 the year before. Team OPS dipped to .720 from .730, and the club totaled 1,315 hits after recording 1,346 in 2025.
McGonigle did give the offense a lift, but that only sharpened the bigger issue. A rookie ended up being the best hitter on an offense with players already three and four years into their big-league careers. That’s not where a contending lineup wants to be.
At his 2026 end-of-season press conference, Harris was asked about that 2025 quote and about the possibility of adding a veteran right-handed bat in free agency. He pointed to the team’s broader offensive trends and argued the production was better than the run scoring showed.
"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."
Harris did say he would take part in free agency this upcoming offseason, which leaves the door open for Detroit to address the offense. But his approach has been clear: he wants the Tigers to build from within rather than rely on the open market.
Even so, the results from 2026 make the case pretty plainly. For Detroit, adding one more established bat - even if it’s a bench piece - should be a priority this offseason.
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