On Monday, Scott Harris was joined by Tigers Manager A.J. Hinch for the end of the year presser after the Game 5 heartbreaking loss to Seattle on Friday night.  There was a lot of messaging and perhaps signs of future things to come but let's look at what the main takeaways from the press conference.

The Tigers are going to continue to build from within

Kevin McGonigle, currently playing in Arizona Fall League, along with Max Clark, more than likely, will be in Detroit at some point in 2026. McGonigle may make the team out of spring training. 

" I expect their progress to continue and I expect to be in Detroit at some point next year" Harris said. "Does that effect what we do this winter, absolutley, how does it not?"

Harris mentioned the progress the Tigers farm system has made, as MLB Pipeline at one point had them the number one farm system in baseball, and Baseball America has on a regular basis, remarked the amount of progress Detroit has made.  Josue Briceno, Max Anderson, Thayron Liranzo and Hao-Yu Lee are also among the prospects Harris was hinting towards getting a look at in the middle of the season but they still have some work to do before they can get to the next level.

While Harris mentioned most of the players are two-way players, a few struggle with constistancy in playing these positions on a regular basis. 

"We have been focused on a path of development, getting more out of the players" Harris said. 

Harris also spoke highly of Troy Melton, and why he came out of the bullpen, essentially protecting him from the amount of innings he pitched from last year to this year. Hinch mentioned he will be back in the starting rotation next year. 

Harris is just as puzzled about the team's struggles in September as fans are

There is thought out there that Harris and his staff are the smartest folks in the room but one thing that stood out was how Scott Harris based on the stats, how the Tigers struggled on offense the final month of the season. 

"We started to get more pitchable towards the end of the season" Harris said.  "We started to audible off the gameplan a little bit quicker".

Harris also said something that every fan has screamed into the void.  

"Like it or not, it was hard to watch in September, I will admit that" Harris said. 

He even admitted that the Tigers should of added a bat at the deadline. 

A.J. Hinch does not plan on running it back with the same team, which makes sense and should add some sort of comfort that the Tigers will continue to improve. Now the methods of looking internal may not be what some fans are looking for, but as Harris indicated, there will be winters they may spend money and some they may not.

The Future of Tarik Skubal

As expected, the questions about Tarik Skubal being traded were met with a simple answer from Harris:

"I can't comment on our players being traded. I can't comment on free agents. I can't comment on other teams' players. I'm going to respond by just not actually commenting on it."

Harris also mentioned how the Tigers would not be able do it without Skubal. 

"It would be arrogant and tone-deaf to claim that we can do all this stuff without him, but it's also offensive to the other players in the clubhouse to treat us as a one-player team."

Harris mentioned he hopes that he wins another Cy Young but stopped short of saying he hopes he is a Tiger for a long time. 

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