Bless You Boys

Pitchers and catchers are due to report a week from today on February 14. The first full squad workout is February 19. So we’re getting close to major league activity, if not yet actual games. Truck day will be here before we know it, and by the last week of February we’ll be into the

Monday afternoon, the Tigers announced that infielder Nick Maton has been designed for assignment. After being acquired from Philly in the deal for flame-throwing reliever Gregory Soto, Maton was expected to be a useful utility piece, if not an everyday infielder. He got out to a hot start in spring camp and quickly endeared himself

With just eight days left until the Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland, the club released their spring training television and radio broadcast schedules on Monday. As usual, we’re going to get really excited for baseball, and then get just a handful of games to watch until Opening Day. Fortunately, the dulcet tones

RHP Freddy Pacheco The Cardinals hoped to sneak Pacheco, who was experiencing elbow discomfort, through wavers late last offseason after the bulk of teams had mostly wrapped up their 40 man moves. Detroit decided to step in and sequestered the recuperating reliever on their 60 day IL, burning an option year while he accrued a

With spring training just around the corner (at last!) the Tigers lineup seems mostly established. But the final version heading into March may still have some question marks. It seems like it could be an ideal opportunity to issue some minor league contracts with an invitation to spring training for some of the market’s remaining

Long-time readers of Bless You Boys know we were big fans of the one-two punch from Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel as the lead prospect writers for FanGraphs. Between the comprehensive coverage, and their book Future Value, which is one of the best books written on the game since Moneyball, it was a bit of

On Monday, the Detroit Tigers announced that their top position player prospect, second baseman Colt Keith, had agreed to a six-year contract with three option years attached. The contract locks in Keith’s salary at very modest rates for his years of team control, but does frontload him additional money beyond the major league minimum he’d

The Detroit Tigers have signed infield prospect Colt Keith to a six-year guaranteed major league contract. The move is unprecedented for the Detroit Tigers organization. Keith will make $28,642,500 over the first six years of the deal: $2.5M in 2024, $3.5M in 2025, $4M per season from 2026-27, and $5M per season from 2028-29. The

In writing up our annual reports on the Tigers farm system, I try to keep a wider reading audience in mind, who may not be as familiar with the players than our regulars or prospect hounds in general. As they say, prospects are a volume business, and volume is a bit of a theme of

It’s that time once again. Winter has finally located the glorious Great Lakes state, and while attention is firmly focused on the Detroit Lions, pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Lakeland just a few weeks now. And so, before we get into preseason coverage of the Detroit Tigers’ proper, it’s time for our 2024

The Detroit Tigers certainly have a “type” when it comes to prospects, and that type is typified by a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher with high velocity and a good pitch mix. There’s nothing wrong with that, either, as it exemplifies a high-use/high-value player that can either be developed within the system or traded as needed. The

On Monday morning, Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs released his Detroit Tigers prospect list for the 2024 season. Unsurprisingly, it began with right-handed starting pitcher Jackson Jobe at the top of the pile. Unlike MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, who cap their organizational rankings to 30 and 10 players respectively, FanGraphs does not limit the slots

Before our brand new prospect rankings come out later this week, there have been a few smaller news items regarding the farm system to catch up on. The Tigers announced most of their 2024 international free agent class last week, as we reported here, but the most interesting player is likely their 2025 top free

The Detroit Tigers settled their last remaining potential arbitration case by coming to terms with right handed pitcher Casey Mize on what qualifies as a multi year contract. The deal will pay Mize a salary of $830,000 for the 2024 season with a club option for $3.1 million in 2025. Mize had requested $840,000 in