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The Detroit Tigers are one of the best teams in the American League, but Scott Harris, the team’s president of baseball operations, decided not to take a swing at one of the marquee relievers on the market.
Bullpen arms such as Mason Miller, Ryan Helsley, David Bednar, Griffin Jax, and Jhoan Duran moved last week, but the Tigers decided not to put the prospect capital to land one of these players. For Mike Valenti of 97.1 The Ticket, it was a mistake by Detroit not to land a big-name reliever.
On Monday’s edition of “The Mike Valenti Show with Rico,” Valenti noted that he was jealous of the Philadelphia Phillies for landing Duran from the Minnesota Twins, one of two bullpen arms he wanted the Tigers to trade for, the other being Jax.
“I watched [Duran on Sunday night], and I was jealous,” Valenti said. “I admit it. I was jealous because I looked at Duran coming into that game, and I'm like, 'That should be Comerica. That should be us.' We have this team that's 15, 16 [games] over [.500]. They're clearly the best of this bad division, if not the best teams in the AL. We have a real chance as this special thing.”
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Duran isn’t a rental trade for the Phillies, which is why Valenti is frustrated with the Tigers not pulling the trigger on a trade for the 27-year-old. Philadelphia will have the reliever for this season and two more seasons as he’s not an unrestricted free agent until 2028.
“My view is this: Take a Duran or a Griffin Jax—Duren, specifically—signed this year, next year, and the year after. How would you possibly regret that, linking up an elite closer in the [Tarik] Skubal window?”
This postseason will show whether the Tigers made the right move not to give up the prospect capital for Duran or if the lack of an elite arm in the bullpen comes back to haunt Detroit.
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