"Hot 'n' Ready" squad

[David Panian]

I was looking up if anything was wrong with Brennan Hanifee and found this MLive store from earlier today about the Tigers' "Hot 'n' Ready" squad in Toledo:

https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2025/09/tigers-hot-n-ready-squad-waiting-in-toledo-who-could-join-the-roster.html

They've asked 15 players — catchers Tomás Nido and Eduardo Valencia; infielders Kevin Newman, Hao-Yu Lee, Trei Cruz and Jace Jung; outfielder Akil Baddoo; left-handers Drew Sommers and Bailey Horn; and right-handers Brenan Hanifee, Alex Lange, Sawyer Gipson-Long, José Urquidy, Dylan Smith and Troy Watson — to stay in Toledo in case they're needed.

I like the corporate cross-branding with Little Caesars with the Hot 'n' Ready name.

David

[Peter Welch]

Hanifee being buried in Toledo is annoying.  Hanifee hasn't been as good as last year, but he was doing better, then Hinch/Harris decided to bury him in Toledo because of their bullpen roulette wheel.  Hanifee is pretty good at getting hitters to hit the ball on the ground.  He would have been better than a rusty Sewald or Urquidy.

The Tigers also seemed to give up on Lange pretty fast and sent him back to AAA.  

Dylan Smith also sort of disappeared after the Tigers were kind of high on him earlier this season.  Smith spent time on the IL with Toledo and did some rehab appearances with Lakeland and West Michigan and then resurfaced with Toledo in September.

I kind of wish Valencia got a shot this September.  The guy has been destroying AAA pitching after destroying AA pitching.

Malloy and Valencia might have been a shot in the arm to the offense if they had been given a chance.

(I don't know about Baddoo, who never seems to hit when given a chance with the Tigers).

Jung is a disappointment.  I think he might be a bust.  He can't seem to make hard contact against major league pitching.  

The Tigers would probably call up some veteran scrub like Kevin Newman in an emergency before somebody like Valencia.

Peter

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From: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of David Panian <dpa...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2025 9:40 PM
To: Tigers List <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: "Hot 'n' Ready" squad

 

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