The Tigers may have a decision to make this offseason, but Gleyber Torres probably isn’t going to be the one forcing it.
On Monday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the qualifying offer for 2027 will be $23.1 million, up $1.075 million from last offseason’s number, though neither MLB nor the Players Association has confirmed that figure yet. Even with that number on the board, Detroit doesn’t appear to have a path to use it on Torres.
The Tigers have only four players who are guaranteed to reach free agency this winter: Torres, Jack Flaherty, Tyler Kinley and Burch Smith. Drew Anderson and Kenley Jansen both have club options.
But only Flaherty and Smith are eligible to receive a qualifying offer under MLB’s rules, which require that a player has never received one before and spent the entire season with that organization. In-season additions are not eligible.
That makes the Tigers’ direction pretty clear. Flaherty is expected to walk, closing the book on that experiment, and Smith’s 17 innings for Detroit in 2026 make him an easy non-factor in this discussion. Torres is the only free agent who might tempt the Tigers, but he already accepted their qualifying offer last offseason, so that door is shut.
If Detroit wants him back, it’ll have to be through negotiation.
AJ Hinch and several coaches have spoken highly of Torres during his two seasons with the club, but the signs point the other way. When Torres arrived in 2025, the Tigers valued his plate discipline and the steadying influence he could provide for a young group.
That helped, but the roster has changed around him. Riley Greene turned in the Tigers’ second-best on-base percentage a year after leading the American League in strikeouts, and a wave of younger players pushed Torres and Javy Báez toward the margins late in the season.
Torres also missed a significant stretch of the 2026 season with injury, which will affect his market. Still, the broader free-agent landscape could work in his favor, because the 2027 class is thin. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is arguably the top infielder available, and that alone tells you plenty about the market.
Even so, Detroit seems headed toward a different plan. Hao-Yu Lee is more likely to rotate between second and third alongside top prospect Max Anderson, and Scott Harris has made his preference for prioritizing young players hard to miss.
Torres was popular in the clubhouse and made an impact in Detroit. But the Tigers’ next move suggests that chapter is probably closed.
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Tigers May Be Letting One Costly Mistake Shape This Offseason
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Still, theres a reason some around the game think Detroit may be extra careful about spending. MLB insider Ken Rosenthal pointed to the weight of the Javier Baez contract as a possible factor in how aggressively the Tigers move this winter, given the uneven return theyve gotten over five seasons. The same broader conversation includes the clubs major deal for Framber Valdez, which has gotten off to a tough start but is still viewed as the kind of commitment that could age better than the Baez agreement if the Tigers get the payoff they were hoping for. [Read more 🡒]