So, Bill, I like to ask you this question, like
on the eve of the season starting here, like,
what is your biggest hot take for the Detroit
Tigers in 2026 at this point? Inmanuel DeJesus
in the 26! Any! But what's the hot take in that?
Nothing. Nothing. You're just shocked and you're
happy. He was the first guy you mentioned in
our preseason gig a couple weeks ago. Now, Kevin
McGonigal's on the opening day roster, and let's
go Tigers. You're listening to The Litterbox,
a Detroit Tigers podcast with your hosts, Chet
West and Bill Patterson. Tigers Litterbox listeners,
welcome back. We got the kickoff to the 2026
season for you a day away. We are doing this
podcast on Wednesday and we've got our first
game of the major league season this evening
between the Giants and the Yankees out in San
Francisco. I'll probably watch a little bit of
that. Bill, we got a 26 man roster to blow through.
They kind of released this a little later than
some other teams. We didn't get it until about
Tuesday morning this week. What are your thoughts?
Do you have any takes? Why don't we go through
the roster? Give us what we're looking at here
for the 2026 season to kick things off. So, Chet,
it's very expected what we're seeing on this
26 man roster. Not a ton of surprises. However,
there's a couple question marks that we really
need to, you know, digest as we go through this.
So listeners of the Litterbox, bear with us.
Our starting rotation is going to be Tarek Scoobel.
He's obviously a lefty. Framber Valdez, another
lefty. Jack Flaherty, JV, Justin Verlander and
Casey Mize. No surprises there. Chet, do you
have any thoughts on the starting five? So as
it stands, it looks like Verlander is holding
down the fourth spot in the rotation. Mize gets
the fifth spot. Do you think that probably would
have been the intent there would have been to
have that flipped? It might not had such a struggle
this spring. Yeah. And I mean, obviously, Reese
Olsen setbacks throw this whole thing into a
tizzy. I mean, that's why JV is pretty much here.
So yeah. Yeah. Well, OK. So give me the bullpen.
I'm curious about the bullpen here. So I'm going
to start with the usual suspects. We're going
to hear a lot about. These three, we're going
to hear their names a lot because I imagine they're
going to be in to close out a lot of games. And
that's going to be Will Vest, Kenley Janssen,
newly signed, re -signed Kyle Finnegan. And then
my guy from last year, the lefty, the big guy,
Tyler Holton. Your guy. And then we're going
to go over to our another H who's a lefty, the
4 -H club. But there isn't a 4 -H club this year,
but keep going. We'll touch on that in a minute.
Two leafs were torn off that little... Yes, they
were. They were. Who else we got? Drew Anderson,
who I am kind of high on, being able to be either
the sixth starter or do some long innings in
the bullpen. We'll see. I don't think you're
on your own on that. I think a lot of people
are excited for some Drew Anderson this year.
And then my guy that I already mentioned, N.
Manuel de Jesus, really a star rising through
the world baseball classic. And it basically
propelled him to a roster spot. Any time, any
place, any day. Jesus. That's going to be the
thing this year. He's going to shut people down.
That's a t -shirt or a bumper sticker. Could
be. Could be. And then the last guy on that list,
a question mark. This guy, Carl's already chiming
in. Carl hates him. He hates him. Yeah. So this
is a weird one, listeners. It's Connor Siebold.
And if anybody's raising an eyebrow saying whom
or who, here's the deal. He was just cut by the
Blue Jays and picked up by the Tigers and somehow
found his way onto the 26th man. I don't get
it. So Dillon Smith, who had a pretty decent
showing last year, he was crazy good, but he
had some potential, got designated for assignment.
They say make room for McGonagall. That's the
reasoning for it. And he's no longer on the 40
man. He could get picked up by another team.
Brennan Hannafee. Okay. A leaf of the 4H was
optioned to AAA Toledo. And you know, you've
got Bailey Horn is on a 15 day IL. You got Sawyer
Dipson Long on a 15 day IL. I just wondered like,
why Seibold instead of say Hannafy, was Hannafy
looking that bad in spring training? Why lose
a Dylan Smith who I think could be a talented
reliever in exchange for Seibold who is, I just
don't see it. I don't see it. I don't see it
either. And time will tell. Yeah, I agree. Let's
let's get out of the pitching side of things.
Let's go to the offense here. Give me the catchers.
Let's start. No surprise there. It's our guy,
Dylan Dingler and the stachio Jake Rogers. There
are no shocks there. I mean, Rogers had the concussion
injury, whatever, from the, I think it was a
cage incident or something along those lines
that put him in concussion protocol for a while.
But he seems to be fine and he's back. No shocks.
Love to see Dylan Dingler leading the charge
there for the battery. How about infielders?
Let's do some infielders here. Who do you have
for me? Torque at first, Glabar at second, KMAC.
I'm going to get used to saying that is short.
And Colt Keith at third base. Yeah, so. What's
interesting here is you've we have a utility
section below there We'll talk about that one
next because it's very related to the infield
But you've got a utility section here in our
notes was Zach McKinstry and Javier Baez If it's
Javier Baez, do you see go from being utility
to everyday? What are you doing with him being
in utility? Do you feel like he's just not gonna
start much now that McGonagall's up? Do you feel
like he's gonna be used as a piece all over the
field? Maybe some centerfield, maybe some short.
What are your thoughts for him? Or do you just
kind of forget about them like I do sometimes?
Well, actually, this came from MLB. This is via
the Detroit. Tigers. So they called him a utility
player. So this is what they're calling them.
Interesting. What I think is going to happen.
And if I can, let me do the outfielders and circle
back to this question. Circle back. Okay, fine.
We'll circle back and touch on that. You got
Riley Green and left. You got Kerry Carpenter,
either DHing or in right. You've got Matt Vierling
playing wherever he can. You've got Parker Meadows
in center. And then you've got Jami Jones playing
wherever he can. Back to Javier Bayes or Javi
Baez. Yeah. And the thought is that I think Parker
Meadows has a really short leash. And I think
Javier Baez is going to be. His love for centerfield.
Yes. And if not, then you've got Veerling there.
So you take all these guys into consideration
one through nine. What's your order look like?
Where does Veerling fit? Well, I think he's going
to be your nine hitter chat in this either here
McKinstry, which actually, I think, strengthens
this team. I would say that. I think their lineup
is maybe a touch stronger this year, even though
the only real addition to it would be McGonagall
if he plays every day. heard in red is that he
would slot into that eight slot in terms of a
one through nine. So kind of the weakest spot
in the order right now as constructed because
the nine, the nine is renaissance into a secondary
lead off guy type thing or something. It's like
one B to one B to one B to one A basically. So
I'm curious and this is just, I'm throwing things
around here. Where would you hit Kerry Carpenter
right now? Is he your cleanup guy? Or is Riley
Green? No, Green's your clean -up guy. Torque
behind him. Okay, is Kerry your five? No, that
would be Torque. Kerry'd be your one. Kerry'd
be your one. You're going to let that lead off
with Kerry right now. Yeah. I feel like Cole
Keith would be a leadoff hitter. You could do
that as well. So it's interchangeable. We know
Glavar won't do that. No, he has to be two. He
has to be two. He has to be. He has to be. OK,
so that's what we're looking at for our kind
of one through nine there. I had a question.
We're talking about the outfielders here. And
I was reading Cody Stavey Agen's piece today,
and he had these three predictions for the season,
right? His three odd takes. And one of those
is that Matt Veerling is going to play a lot.
Will probably play the majority in centerfield,
which means Baez may not have that as an option
if Veerling is successful. Then what are you
doing around the infield with your 20 some million
dollar man, Baez? You don't care as long as you
keep on winning. That answer, winning fixes everything,
doesn't it? That answer plays in any conversation.
And Scott Harris, nobody will care. Scott Harris
basically laid his cards on the table with the,
you know, Heldaz signing in. I don't know that
that is a real concern of the Tigers going into
the season. I think if they can get the first
half, first hundred game, Javier Baez, not the
Javi Baez, they'll take it in every way, shape
and form. Yeah. I got a couple of odd ones to
throw at you. Yeah. Due to spring training and
whatnot. Trey Sweeney has been placed on the
10 -day IAL, retroactive March 22nd. He's destined
for AAA. I don't think he's coming up and taking
any of these guys' spots on the roster, at least
at this point in time. I think he is trade bait.
You think he's trade bait? I was just about to
say, when he comes off that IAL, how quickly
are we looking at trading him and can they get
much for him? Well, we just explained... in other
terms, I guess, if you would. You've got KMAC
is a potential shortstop. You've got J .M. at
his spot. You've got a Javi that can play it,
or Javier. You've got ZMAC that can play it.
And then you could, I wouldn't love it, but you
could put Vierling there as well. I'm going to
throw another name at you, two more names at
you. Please. How you Lee. Yes. Prospect that
we've talked about a lot in the preseason so
far. He did have some injury issues, but he did
play in an exhibition the other day. He's a third
baseman by trade. But he could play the hot...
He could play the hot corner, he could play the
shortstop. McGonagall's even played some hot
corner. Exactly. We have some interchangeable
pieces there, but I think Howie Lee will stay
in AAA until he hits the cover off the ball.
And somebody else on our infield doesn't somewhere.
And unfortunately, I have a feeling it'd end
up being McGonagall, if anybody, or McKinstry.
But what do they do then? Jemai Jones? I don't
know. It gets very, we don't have a lot of room
to bring guys up. And you look at a guy like
Jace Young, who had a wonderful spring training.
Wonderful. And he's not going to get his shot
on the big league club as things stand now. You
can look at that also as having, hey, we might
have some depth, some young depth to come up
as somebody gets injured or we need to move some
guys around. So there's options out there. I
think in case we run into injury, at least on
the infield, probably an option or two in the
outfield. It makes me feel feel pretty good about
this lineup. Now. What does this do for us? It
does a lot of things. What does it look like
for the division? What does it look like for
your win -loss prediction? So going back to your
initial question, what does this do for us? A,
I think it's sending a ripple effect across Major
League Baseball. A, the Valdez signing. B, having
Kevin McGonigal come up and be part of the 26
man. The Tigers aren't playing any, you know,
hokey. terrible salary cap, arbitration, service
time, games. They're just saying, you've earned
it, let's see you go. You can skip AAA. And hope
you get more than four hits over the course of
the first month of the season like you did in
spring training. Exactly. Exactly. Yes. With
that, I think this is a 90 -91 win team, Chet.
They've strengthened the greatest weaknesses
in terms of we have a legit five, and I mentioned
Drew Anderson as a potential six starter, and
that is not doing, you know, chaos, Chet. That's
just one through six. And that's without talking
about the reinforcements that are coming in terms
of, you know, some of the guys that you really
like as well that unfortunately are just injured
right now. Sure. Some of the younger guys part
two, I think we have a real bullpen this year
with defined roles. I think we have a much improved
bullpen this year. I think our staff from the
rotation to the bullpen has gone from being about
a C I mean, not the rotation, because Scoot Bowl
takes any staff and boosts it up. It's fine.
C plus, B minus. From a C plus, B minus staff
overall between rotation bullpen that we had
last year to being an A minus to A staff this
year. I think people have already said we get
the number three rotation in baseball, and that
bullpen looks pretty darn good to me right now.
And then the battery, I think, is rock solid.
If anything... The only concern there is the
fact that we've got two of our top five prospects
sitting behind Dingler and Roger. So you've got
a young catcher, you've got a Wiley veteran who
can grow facial hair. You're loaded. So that
could be another trade possibility. And then,
you know, the only thing I can see slowing this
team down is if certain players don't only, I'm
not talking to regress to the mean, I'm talking
regress below the Mendoza line. And I'm looking
at like Spencer Torkelson, you know, you know,
let's just say KMAC does start slow. Yeah. What
does, you know, does Colt Keith go through a
slump? You know, do we get first half ZMAC? Highly
doubtful. But do we get only second half ZMAC?
Geez. I don't know if he's still. Yeah. No. Okay.
Which Javi, do we get Javi or Javier? And so
those are my questions as far as the division
goes chat. The only real challenger I see is
probably a young and feisty Royals team. I know
the Guardians won't be an easy out, but they
did nothing but lose outside of re -signing a
class act and a guy that I think should be a
first -ballot Hall of Famer when he gets there,
Jose Ramirez. So I'm going to say 93 wins would
be my prediction. I'm going 93. You're in the
same ballpark as you, but I'm going to add two
more on there just in case it goes over yours.
I get the win. As far as the division goes, I
think we will have to win the division. You and
I have talked about this before. The person who
wins this division gets the playoff spot. I don't
know unless things go awry in other divisions
and other AL divisions that we aren't predicting.
to go awry. If those things go awry, then maybe
we get a second team from the central into the
playoffs. So I do think you have to win the division.
You're going to go through a gauntlet, though.
You kind of looked at the division as being somewhat
weak. I think the Royals are going to be a better
team. I think the Guardians are going to be the
same pain in the butt that Stephen Kwan and Ramirez
and everybody else have been to us. And I think
the I'm going to throw a team out there right
now. I think the White Sox. are going to present
some problems this year for us. They have a lot
of good young pitching coming up. They have a
lot of good young hitters coming up. Guys like
Colson Montgomery probably going to make a name
for themselves this season. I don't know if it's
enough to be competitive in the division. Maybe
they'll be like the Royals of last year or the
year before. I'm not sure. No, no, no. No. You're
sour on the White Sox right now because of what
they're doing to Frank Thomas. I get it. You
don't want to see a team succeed that operates
like that. But I gotta say, I think they're gonna
be competitive. And the Twins, good luck. No.
Yeah, good luck. The best thing the Twins got
going from right now is that Mick Abel can keep
his trajectory going and they got two very good
starting pitchers. And they got a couple of guys
on offense, but nothing that can stay healthy.
So I think the Twins are gonna be in the basement
for this season. So can we come back to why we
think that you have to win the division? And
it's because both you and I think that... Whoever
wins the American League East, it's going to
be really competitive. Like possibly the most
competitive division in all of baseball. The
Yankees look formidable. I think the Red Sox
even look better. They're younger. They've got
a better staff. Roman Anthony is going to be
a beast this year. That kid's going to be crazy
good. And then the Orioles made all sorts of
improvements. Pete Alonso and the Blue Jays,
I mean, They were, what, you know, a couple innings
and a few outs away from being World Series champions.
That division's a meat grinder. A meat grinder.
I don't know who comes out of that whole thing.
However... it supports our hypothesis that you
might not get two teams out of the ALS. Exactly.
And then you go over to the West, you've got
the Mariners who gave the Blue Jays everything
they could handle. You've got the Astros who
are similar to the Guardians, always a pain in
your rear. And then the Rangers, I would say
underperformed last year. And then the other
two teams, you know, the Angels and Athletics
fall into, you know, somewhat the raise and in
twins camp of probably not going to be that competitive
this year. So that's basically your American
league outlook for that. Tigers win the division
and host at home. I think they advance beyond
the ALDS and into the ALCS. And I think it all
depends, Chet, and I know this is a weak answer
on who they face. I think they would fare best
against one of those ALA teams. And why I'm saying
that is just because they'll have been through
a meat grinder and I don't see one of those teams
with the pitching depth to match ours. I don't
think anybody would disagree. We are up on this
team right now. I mean, we, these guys are, the
trajectory is flying through the roof at this
point. I mean, the Framber signing, the Girlander
signing, the bullpen signings of Kenley Jansen,
just really beefed up that pen. The signing of
Connor Siebold just pushed me right over the
ledge. I don't know what happened there. But
if these guys can hit a little like they did
in 2024 and most of half of 2025, I think sky's
low. We got to have 100 win season. I know that
sounds crazy and I don't want to put that number
out there because it's just so pie in the sky,
but we'll see what happens. We got our first
game tomorrow in San Diego. We get to play in
a pitcher's ballpark to start things off, which
should work out great for Tarek. We'll see how
that goes. They're going to be a pretty good
team, too. They got some good ballplayers. So
we'll see how that works out. Everybody stick
around. We'll be back to report on the series
when it's over this coming weekend and to look
ahead at what comes for next week. But baseball
is back, Bill. Go Tigers. Go Tigers. All right.
That's gonna do it for this episode of the Litterbox,
a Detroit Tigers podcast. Thanks for hanging
out with us. We're Bill and Chet. We'll be back
soon with more Tigers Talk. If you're enjoying
the show, be sure to follow or subscribe on Spotify,
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And hey, if you got a minute, leave us a quick
review. Till next time, go Tigers.