Pitching Next Season

[Mike Coveyou]

A little early to speculate, but it beats dwelling on the season-ending loss.

I assume/hope that Kahnle will not be resigned (did I spell his name wrong).

I would put Melton in the starting rotation.  Maybe Flaherty in long relief?

Assuming Skubal, Olson and Melton are starters, do they need to sign a FA middle of the rotation starter?  I do think Flaherty is likely to remain in the rotation.  Maybe he will be one of those pitchers who has alternating good and bad seasons.

It would nice to have a lockdown closer.  I think Vest and Finnegan are both good choices in setup roles with occasional save opportunities, but neither excites me as a closer.

Mike Coveyou

[Tapu Shaikh]

On 10/11/25 08:42, Mike Coveyou wrote:
> A little early to speculate, but it beats dwelling on the
> season-ending loss.

FWIW, I've been speculating since before the season-ending loss...

> I assume/hope that Kahnle will not be resigned

Indeed

> (did I spell his name wrong).

Nope, although I had to double-check

> I would put Melton in the starting rotation.

Right.  I suspect Melton will be on an innings limit next year also.  We
can limit him down the stretch for the playoffs if our spot is safe.

> Maybe Flaherty in long relief?
>
> Assuming Skubal, Olson and Melton are starters, do they need to sign a
> FA middle of the rotation starter?  I do think Flaherty is likely to
> remain in the rotation.

I also think Flaherty stays.  Our pitching depth has been lacking, so we
need to be prepared if someone gets hurt.  With Jobe and Olson both hurt
this season, we had only mediocre options, and Pitching Chaos didn't
work this time around.

> It would nice to have a lockdown closer.  I think Vest and Finnegan
> are both good choices in setup roles with occasional save
> opportunities, but neither excites me as a closer.

I will be happy for anyone not off the scrap heap, closer or not.

Like others have said, I was pretty frustrated with the "turning nickels
into dimes" strategy.  We were a likely playoff team from the beginning
of the season, yet Harris & Co. nonetheless treated the roster like
we're rebuilding still.  We'll probably never know what deals we turned
down, but I'd have been willing to match the packages for every deadline
deal except for Mason Miller's.

Now we have only one more year of our superstar left, and then our
pitching will have a gaping hole that we'll be unable to fill.

-Tapu

[Peter Welch]

Flaherty is a head case.  Did you see him last night?  He was talking to himself like Mark Fidrych.  He was a wreck.

He had no idea where his pitches were going but somehow he didn’t give up the winning run.

Flaherty has an opt-in.  I would assume he’ll opt in and come back to the Tigers because he will probably get less money on the open market after the erratic season he had.

Flaherty actually might make an ok relief pitcher because he can be good in short stints.  He might be able to air out his fastball more in short stints.

He needs to calm down, though.  The guy wears his heart on his sleeve too much.  His body language can be pretty negative out there sometimes when something goes wrong.  It’s as if he has some sort of attention-deficit issue sometimes.

Tigers should sign Chris Sale or Brandon Woodruff or maybe Merrill Kelly.  They can probably get one of them on a short-term deal.  

I don’t think we’ll sign Verlander.  That ship has sailed plus JV is reportedly not that great of a teammate for a younger team.  Big ego.

I hope the Tigers re-sign Finnegan.  But we still need a high-leverage reliever who can miss bats.

Peter

On Oct 11, 2025, at 2:42 AM, Mike Coveyou <mcov...@gmail.com> wrote:

A little early to speculate, but it beats dwelling on the season-ending loss.

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[Roger King]

Putting Jobe on the sidelines for a second, as I’m not sure when he’ll truly be healthy again…the team still starts with a pretty decent rotation, before any moves are made.

Skubal

Mize

Melton 

Olson

Flaherty 

A healthy Jobe later in the season would bump Flaherty.  

If you include Melton, the Tigers got pretty decent starting pitching in the postseason. It was more the fact Hinch didn’t let starters go longer, as we discussed throughout the playoffs.

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[Peter Welch]

I’d still like to see them sign a good starter.  Melton should be good (please, no TJS), but will still be on an innings limit. 

Flaherty should be on a short leash.  If he’s horribly inconsistent again send him to the bullpen.

Need Olson to stay healthy.

Urquidy and K. Montero are possible starter options as well, and, maybe SGL.

Peter

On Oct 11, 2025, at 5:12 PM, Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com> wrote:



[Jeffrey Withey]

But is Jobe really better than Flaherty? I have been very unimpressed with him so far. Before his injury this year he made 10 starts with a 4.22 ERA. In 49 innings he had only 39 Ks and 27 BBs. His fastball is Matt Anderson straight and he has trouble commanding his breaking pitches. Yeah, he is still young but he does not look like a future ace at all. 

In 31 starts this year Flaherty had a 4.64 ERA, and in 161 innings had 188 Ks and 59 BB. 

Jeff

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Subject: Re: Pitching Next Season

 

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[Peter Welch]

Flaherty had a really high K rate.  He clearly can miss bats, but he has total meltdown innings that are just baffling.  I think he has some sort of focus issue.

Fetter seemed to fix Flaherty last year, but this year Flaherty never found consistency.  The Fetter Magic stopped working.

Jobe certainly didn't look like a future #1 starter this year, but he was just a rookie.  His fastball seemed too hittable.  I'm willing to be patient with him, though.  Realistically we need to wait until 2027 to judge anything about Jobe (I still think the Tigers should have drafted Marcelo Mayer or Jordan Lawlar over Jobe).

Peter

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From: Jeffrey Withey <jwi...@med.wayne.edu>
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2025 8:43 PM
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