It’s no secret that since becoming the President of Baseball Operations for the Detroit Tigers, Scott Harris has not spent much money in free agency. Currently, the largest contracts Harris has given out have been short term deals to the likes of Gleyber Torres, Jack Flaherty—and yes—Alex Cobb.

Giving credit where credit is due, Harris did offer what would have been the second largest free agent contract in Tigers history to Alex Bregman in the offseason following the 2024 season—offering him a six year, $171.5 million contract. Bregman declined this offer, opting for Boston’s three year, $120 million contract with a player option after year one instead.

Now Alex Bregman is a free agent again this offseason, and Scott Harris—and the rest of the Tigers front office—have demonstrated very little interest in going after him again this offseason. A narrative that’s been circling Harris since he’s arrived is starting to feel confirmed in the minds of fans—he’s cheap.

With Tarik Skubal entering his contract season, the narrative around baseball media as a whole has been the same. The team needs to either go for it all in 2026 and capitalize on a final Skubal season, or trade him for as much prospect capital as possible.

Detroit is on the heels of back to back ALDS appearances, being one good inning away from advancing to the ALCS in 2025. Without Skubal—the now back to back AL Cy Young winner—Detroit probably never sees the playoffs in 2024 or 2025. Fans know this, generating this idea of the “Skubal window”.

A “window” is commonly brought up across all sports media. The idea is that a team only has a chunk of time—a window—to be competitive before sinking back down in the standings and having to rebuild. With a loaded farm system and Skubal prepared to walk in free agency, it’s reasonable to assume that the Tigers current window is closing. Perhaps that is true. Maybe, however, Detroit will just be closing one window and immediately opening another, rather than jumping into a rebuild.

After the 2026 season concludes, Detroit is going to have a significant amount of money come off of their payroll:

• Tarik Skubal: $22.5 million

• Gleyber Torres: $22.025 million

• Jack Flaherty: $17.5 million

• Casey Mize: $5.5 million

• Jake Rogers: $3.05 million

If they decide not to pick up the club options, they will also have:

• Kenley Jansen: $11 million

• Drew Anderson: $7 million

This is a cumulative of $88.575 million in freed up payroll, which is a hefty amount. This won’t be exact, as some players in arbitration will see a salary increase from 2026 to 2027–but the payroll will still be significantly decreased. Some of the extra payroll may go to bringing some of these players back, but maybe it won’t. Perhaps after 2026 is when the true identity of the Scott Harris era starts to take a clear shape.

The current CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) between the team owners and the Players Association, is set to expire after the 2026 season. The expectation is that there will be a large push among owners of smaller market teams for some form of a salary cap. The hope would be that this could reduce the competitive gap between teams like the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, etc. and smaller market teams like the Pirates, Reds, Twins, etc.

If this comes to fruition, it’s likely that many of the major market teams will become quickly handicapped in their ability to add in free agency. They may look to start dumping major salaries for cheap via trade. This would position Detroit extremely well. With significant room in their payroll, they could attack the free agent market with less competition, or perhaps take advantage and trade for an elite player on a salary dump.

This, however, is all speculative. There’s no guarantee a salary cap comes into play. The players will almost certainly be against it, and many fans are opposed to the idea as well.

So with all this laid out in front of him, how does Scott Harris approach the season in front of him in 2026? Well, he does so by being picky.

What fans see as being cheap, Scott Harris sees a risk/benefit value system. Most MLB free agents enter free agency in either their late 20’s or early 30’s. For the top talent available, it’s usually going to require a long term contract that carries them well into their anticipated regression years.

Some players are worth taking a contract like that on for, but often times they aren’t. For Scott Harris, it also involves trying not to block some of the best young players and prospects in baseball.

Here’s a list of position players that—barring injury—should be an integral part of the 2027 Detroit Tigers team:

• Riley Greene

• Spencer Torkelson

• Kerry Carpenter

• Colt Keith

• Dillon Dingler

• Kevin McGonigle

• Max Clark

This is the core group, which is already seven players deep. Take into consideration these names as well:

• Hao-Yu Lee

• Max Anderson

• Parker Meadows

• Jace Jung

• Wenceel Perez

• Matt Vierling

• Trey Sweeney

• Eduardo Valencia

• Thayron Liranzo

• Trei Cruz

• Jahmai Jones

• Justyn-Henry Malloy

• Josue Briceño

It’s a long list of additional names, all either at or near the MLB level. Most of them will likely never be more than a role player or AAAA (shorthand for too good for AAA, but no good enough for the big leagues) talent. That being said, if even one or two of those names become impact players, the offense starts to become pretty full.

This is not an excuse for the team not to improve via external additions. If nothing else, it’s just reason for why Scott Harris has to be picky about what those external additions are. The same remains true for the pitching side of the equation.

Perhaps the most difficult decision Scott Harris will have to make is what to do with Tarik Skubal. If they trade Skubal, their pitching rotation is almost certainly an immediate weakness in 2026–even if they get some MLB ready starting pitching in return. If they keep him, fans are going to expect a World Series competitive team to take the field.

But the biggest question is what Harris will do once Skubal reaches free agency. There’s no question the team would be able to afford to give him the contract he will require to bring him back. Instead the question is this: How would that contract fit into Harris’ risk/benefit value system?

Assuming Skubal will receive a contract for around $40 million annually for between 8-10 years, the Tigers would want to be sure that they will receive enough value from him during the contract to justify its cost. Skubal will turn 30 roughly a month or so after the conclusion of the 2026 World Series, meaning his projected contract length will carry into his age 38-40 seasons. Even if the team were to receive 3-4 more elite seasons from Skubal, there’s a very real chance the contract could become an albatross for the majority of its length.

Harris is young, and it’s reasonable to assume he wants to maintain being a competitive organization for a very long time. Perhaps in his eyes, the money that would be spent on Tarik Skubal during those years could instead be allocated in a variety of ways to improve the team without risk of a major contract burden.

It will not be easy for fans to often times say goodbye to beloved players, but it’s likely to happen at least a few times in the Scott Harris era of Detroit baseball. His and the rest of the front office’s methods are inherently a risk, knowing that prospects and players don’t always work out for a variety of reasons. But perhaps—if fans can see this through—Scott Harris will bring a World Series championship back to Detroit for the first time in a very long time.