Bonus: Kevin McGonigle era begins with Detroit Tigers' Opening Day win

Hello and welcome to a bonus opening day episode of the Days of Raw podcast.

I'm Evan Petzel, the Tiger's B-Rider for the Detroit Free Press, and I'm joined by

my co-host Chris Brown from Tiger's Minerally Report.

The Kevin McGonagall era is underway.

How about that?

Yeah, that was a special performance about as good a debut as you could possibly imagine.

I think it's the second Tiger's rookie ever to have four hits in this debut.

But beyond that, the results were amazing, but you got to see just about everything that

he can do.

You saw the pure hitting ability, the bat speed, the power.

He nearly had a home run, the speed, and most of the instincts, his instincts are just

immaculate.

So both of his doubles could have been singles if he didn't bust it out of the box.

He dodged the tag, he beat on an infield single.

He scored on a Parker Meadows kind of blue shot that you just got a perfect read on.

Later on, he made a defensive play where he cut from a hobby bias.

He didn't worry about offending the veteran, right?

He just makes the right baseball play and the result was, yeah, an amazing debut.

I think he's going to have a hard time living up to that every game, but he's not going

to get four knocks every game.

But what you saw today is the player that Kevin McGonagall is and he's got a chance to

be really, really special.

I think Riley Green said it best when he said that it seemed like it was Kevin McGonagall's

700th MLB game, not his MLB debut, but of course it was his MLB debut.

So much happened in this game, not only did Kevin McGonagall make the opening day roster,

which we'll get into, but yeah, 25th player MLB history to collect four hits in his debut

and he did it on opening day, batting sixth and playing third base.

The Tigers won eight to two against the San Diego Padres.

It was Thursday at Petco Park, led by McGonagall and none other than three time opening day

starter, two time American League sound winner, Tarek Scoubel.

Right now those guys are the favorites for AL, rookie of the year and AL saw young and

they're off to a good start.

As are the Tigers, you really couldn't have asked for a better opening day, like the

played appearances in the first few innings, like they were just outstanding against Nick

Pavetta, who could not locate his fastball.

And then Kevin McGonagall of course has four hits in five trips to the plate, including

a double on the first pitch he saw in the first inning.

Tarek Scoubel, he tosses six innings of one run ball, but it was an unearned run.

So the ERA is triple zeroes after one start.

His fastball command, I didn't think it was great, but the change up, that was dynamite.

And once the Padres got into swing mode against him, I thought he did a really good job

of taking advantage by getting early count outs to keep his pitch count low, only 74 pitches

across six innings.

And then even Javi Baez of all players won the first ABS challenge in Tigers history.

He overturned a strike into a ball and then hit a single on the next pitch.

And most importantly, the Tigers got a win.

They're 1 and 0 to start the 2026 season.

And doesn't it feel great knowing that they're 1 and 0 and Framber Valdez is going to start

in game two with a chance to win their first series of the season.

Like having Tarek Scoubel won Framber Valdez, too.

I don't think it gets much better than that, especially when you win that game one, going

into game two, knowing you have another horse going out on the mountain for you.

Yeah, it's kind of funny to me that that getting Framber Valdez kind of feels like the

fourth story for the Tigers this year.

You've got Scoubel, you've got McGonagall, you've got Verlander coming back, and then

oh, by the way, the biggest pitching contract you've ever signed, or at least the most expensive

annual value.

Yeah.

And that's, that's amazing.

You've got, so you go out there and it's funny.

I think on our last show, I was like, yeah, the Tigers have never hit Nick Pavella

very well.

They only scored seven runs in 27 innings and then they go six runs and, you know, an hour

of running innings.

That's the beauty of baseball, right?

He's just, it never makes any sense.

But yeah, so you got another great pitching matchup tomorrow, I guess, Michael King.

And then you have, I think, you know, I touched on it before, you know, Randy Vasquez in

game three, I don't think he's particularly good.

So you got a chance to win the series for sure and maybe even sweet, but you know, you

don't want to put the car before the horse, but yeah, really, really good start this season

about as well as you could ask for the early, you know, the care carpeter to get it,

to get any hits, you know, to Anderson looked a little rough, a little nervous, maybe.

But yeah, beyond that, and you know, Scoubel, his excellence was almost kind of boring

today.

Like if it makes sense, you know, he was just so, he was two hits in the first inning,

and then he got the next 15 batters on, I think 48 pitches, it took him to get the next

15 outs, just like Greg Badex out there, just, just, you know, getting early outs.

And then when he needed strikeouts, he got him.

And if this were a more important game, he probably could have gone or a closer game,

he could have gone another inning, maybe two, but they had a big lead.

So they, you know, let him took him out early and gave some other guys a chance.

But yeah, really strong overall performance by the team.

Let's take you inside the clubhouse.

Here's what Terrick Scoubel said about the opening day win eight to two over the Padres.

It's great.

We're one and all.

That's the most important thing.

You know, one and all with an opportunity to win a series tomorrow with Framber going

so winning is the most important thing in this game.

And to start the season one and all is, is a big step and, you know, I want to be two

and all after tomorrow and when we win tomorrow, you want to be three and all, you know, and

have a winning, you know, road trip and then we get home and get to playing front of our

own fans.

So, winning is the most important thing.

And then here's what Terrick Scoubel said about Kevin McGonagall, his historic debut,

the first Tigers player with four hits in his debut since the late Billy Bean in 1987.

I mean, he's a special talent, obviously, you know, as I said it yesterday, he doesn't

need any help, you know, he just needs to be Kevin and he's a really good baseball player

and he should be proved to today.

But, you know, what I love about him is I don't think he's going to think about today

tomorrow.

He's going to come with the art and have a crush like you ready to go to work again and

that speaks to who he is as a, as a human, you know, just as a confediter and I'm excited

that he's on our club.

So, let's get into Kevin McGonagall making the opening day roster because that's been

the biggest news this week.

It happened Tuesday morning at about 9 a.m. pretty much 52 hours before opening day.

And here's the story of how it went down.

Kevin McGonagall, he wakes up at like 8 a.m. on Tuesday in his hotel room in Scottsdale,

Arizona, just before the final spring training game against the Colorado Rockies and he has

a text message on his phone that reads meeting at 8.55 a.m. and he knew exactly what it meant.

The team had a breakfast before that meeting, but Kevin said he couldn't eat.

That's how nervous he was to find out whether he would make the opening day roster or end

up packing his bags and going to triple a Toledo.

I thought it was cool, by the way, when Kevin said that he started thinking about making

the opening day roster in the off season, back when he got his invite to NLB spring training.

It's not that he expected to make the opening day roster, but that's when he figured he

had a chance to make it and he told himself back then that he would do everything he could

to make the team.

I think that tells you like when this kid sets his mind to something, he is going to find

a way even if the odds are stacked against him, even for the rest of the story, he finally

meets with AJ Hinge.

That happens 8.55 a.m. and AJ gives him the run around for like 10 minutes before finally

getting in the news that he made the Tigers opening day roster.

During that meeting, AJ called Kevin a winning player, and I think that's when Kevin first

got the sense that he was going to make the team, but then he had to just wait for AJ

to officially say it and then once it happens, of course, he calls his parents.

He calls his friends.

He calls his agent.

It sounds like it was a really special moment for everyone, definitely one that Kevin's

never going to forget.

And now he's in the big leagues, like we've been talking about it all spring.

Now that it's happened, what do you think about the Tigers decision to put Kevin McGonagall

a 21 year old who hasn't played above double a.m.y. on to the opening day roster?

I think it was the right decision.

I think, you know, there's there's there are a lot of talented baseball players out there

and McGonagall has a ton of talent, but I think what won them over was was his approach

and his mentality the whole way and it talked about it or Scoople talked about it, the

thing that he likes about the McGonagall is that he's not going to, you know, live off

this forehead performance.

He's going to go out there and do it all again tomorrow or try, you know, have another

approach.

And he even heard him in the post game interview talking about how he's just glad he helped

him get a win.

And I think that's, you know, when Hinch is talking about a winning baseball player, that's

the sort of thing that they mean.

He's a guy that just wants to contribute to wins and he's got a lot of different ways

to do it.

I think, you know, I don't know if they wouldn't have Scott Harris and AJ Hinch would ever

tell anybody, but I feel like they decided fairly early on that he was going to make the

team add it up early on, but I don't think they waited until the very end.

I think they knew for a while.

Well, one thing to note about that is that Scott Harris, Jeff Greenberg, AJ Hinch, the

leaders of the Tigers, they talked in the off season about the chances of Kevin McGonagall

making the opening day roster and back in the off season as they were preparing for

spring training, they all decided to keep an open mind about it.

And I thought that was really impressive that it wasn't like slamming that door shut.

They allowed that door to be cracked open a little bit.

And then of course, McGonagall with his performance really opens that door wide and he ends up

running through that door and making the opening day roster.

But I do commend the Tigers for keeping that door open 22 games for Kevin McGonagall in

spring training.

He hit 286 with a 20.6% walk rate and a 17.5% strikeout rate.

I was across 63 plate appearances.

It was smart swing decisions.

It was elite bat to ball skills.

It was an advanced approach at the plate.

He showed he could handle shortstop and third base.

Those are the biggest questions coming into camp was what does he look like defensively?

He answered those questions with continued development of his pre-pitch preparation, putting

him in position to make every play.

It was outstanding what he was able to do in spring training and you can't say that

you didn't earn it because he definitely earned it.

And if he wins rookie of the year, then the Tigers are going to get a draft pick.

I thought it was, again, commendable that they could have if they wanted to, they could

have kept him down for two weeks.

And if he failed to win rookie of the year upon his promotion, then the Tigers would

have gained an extra year of club control before he reached for agency.

They also could have kept him down until mid August.

And that could have set them up to get not only a draft pick, but it also could have given

them the extra year of club control.

So they could have gotten the best of both worlds rather than one of the other.

But instead they just said, you know what?

We want to win the World Series.

And McGonagall gives us the best chance to do so.

Let's put them on the roster now.

Don't care about service time, AJ Hinge said it.

Service time was not a point of discussion in any of his conversations with Scott Harris

or Jeff Greenberg.

I think that tells you a lot about where the Tigers are at as an organization and where

they're at in terms of their commitment to winning at the big league level right now.

All right.

I want to get into what everyone had to say about this.

So let's start with manager AJ Hinge on Tuesday morning.

That's what he said about the decision to put Kevin McGonagall on the opening day roster.

He continued to demonstrate his ability to handle the moment and he had a lot of moments

during camp that he was tested, you know, whether that's playing in a crazy environment

in the Dominican, whether it was the first day of sprang.

I started them in shortstop against the Yankees.

You know, working the feel with hobby and flavor and, you know, torque established big

leagueers.

And he continued to hold his own.

You know, the back quality was as advertised.

I think his defense was really impressive with the details of his first, you know, his

first step, his pre-pitch, completing plays.

You know, he never looked uncomfortable throughout the spring, even though he will tell you

there were some nerve-wracking moments.

And he should be nervous.

He's 21 and has never played with this much attention on him, albeit one of the top prospects

in baseball.

So when I met with him, you know, he made no assumptions.

He didn't know, you know, where he stood other than he was given a ton of opportunity

to, including last night when you come in and he's playing amongst every player that

started last night, pretty much knew, you know, they were on this team.

And here's what President of Baseball Operations, Scott Harris, said Wednesday afternoon, also

discussing the decision to put Kevin McGonagall on the opening day roster.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's determining factors for us when considering having to open

a game roster, where one can make us better, and two, is he ready, developmentally, for

this jump?

I think his performance in games in Lakeland, and especially the work that we saw behind

the scenes, convinced us that the answer to those two questions is yes, so he's here.

We think he's command of the strike zone, his ability to execute a game plan at the

late, and his ability to help us defensively, are going to insulate him from some of the

struggles that players see.

I will say, like, we shouldn't be surprised if there are growing pains here, he's 21 years

old, he's going to be in the big leagues.

We just trust him mentally and physically to be able to fight through some of the adjustment

here and here.

And the other factor is, like, you think about us as an organization right now.

We don't need him to be disabled, we don't need him to carry us, we just need him to help

us.

This roster is pretty good with our without Kevin, we just think it's better than him

on it, that's what it's here.

And finally, here's what Kevin McGonagall said Wednesday afternoon, looking ahead to

his MLB debut in Thursday's opening day against the Padres.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like, you know, I've always been good to just tell myself it's the

same game, the same game, and I'm going to have the same mindset going in tomorrow.

I know it's going to be in front of 45,000 fans.

I know it's at the biggest stage, but I've dreamed about being there my whole life, and

I feel like my mindset leading up to this point has always been well, and I'm continuing

to keep that mindset.

And, you know, first pitch might be a little tough, might be a little nervous, but after

that first pitch, I'm hoping, you know, it's good time from there.

Yeah, I mean, you heard a little bit of all there.

I think the thing we've been talking about, and what Scott Harris said is that he makes

the team better.

It's, you know, there's a lot of noise about being a prospect in age and all those other

things, but ultimately, at the end, you have to evaluate the player, and they've realized

this is a guy who plays position of need.

Two positions of need, really, I mean, he could play third-hand shortstop, and he's likely

to be one of their better offensive players this year.

So it's, it's, you know, it wasn't a no-brainer.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that go into it.

You touched on the service time, but if they're trying to win, he's the type of guy you

need.

So, you know, I like what everybody said about it.

And then Thursday comes around, and you've got Colt Keith with the first hit of the season,

but Glebert Torres, Riley Green, Spencer Torkelson, all of them walks against Nick Pavetta,

and then up comes Kevin McGonagall.

And this guy reminds us that, yes, he is a very selective hitter.

Yes, we love the smart swing decisions.

Yes, we love the bat-to-ball skills.

We love that he can work a walk as good as anyone, but he reminds us all that he is also

an aggressive hitter because he gets a first pitch, first one he sees, and his entire MLB

career up and in cutter, and he pulls it down the right field line for a two-run double.

It puts the Tigers ahead three-nothing in the first inning.

For those who don't know, and maybe Nick Pavetta didn't know, Kevin McGonagall loves fastballs

on the inner half of the plate, especially up and in.

This league is going to learn very quickly that you cannot throw him pitches there,

or he is going to pull them into what I think we should just start calling McGonagall corner.

The right field corner.

We are going to see a lot of balls hit into McGonagall corner throughout this guy's career.

He did it on the first pitch of the first game of his MLB career.

Remember what he said about being nervous for the first pitch?

Well, here's what he said after the game.

Yeah, I was nervous.

It's weird.

I feel like Raymond, I started my load to hit and just went away.

But yeah, I felt great out there, very, very confident and looking to keep that same mindset.

How cool is that?

Chris, when did you think when you were watching as Kevin McGonagall stepped to the plate

with the bases loaded?

Then he swings at the first pitch and then he pulls it into right field and all of a sudden

it's a two-run double.

It was definitely a moment that I'll never forget, not only as the Tigers beatwriter,

but as a person who just loves the game of baseball and is understanding that,

maybe we are watching one of the game's next superstars.

Yeah, one of the things where I had multiple thoughts go through my head at first,

but then it all happened too quickly to have two deep of an internal monologue with it.

But I was like, wow, wouldn't it be cool if he had a grand slam?

I was like, you know, it's his first at bat, just get a productive out.

Bring the whole run home and then double down the line like, oh, wow, all right.

Well, there you go.

That's like, well, that's a great start.

No matter what else he does this game, that's a great way to start your career.

And then you know, he just kept performing.

Yeah, did you see three more hits coming?

He had another double in the third inning.

Once again, up and in fastball from Pavetta.

What does he do?

He turns on it and smokes it off the wall in the right field corner,

AKA Magonical Corner, 106 Mellon Hour Exit Velocity on that one.

He loves that fastball on the inner half of the play.

I don't think there's any way the Padres throw him one of those in Friday's game.

I think he's going to see a bunch of junk and he's probably going to draw his first walk in the big leagues.

But then he had that infield single in the fifth inning

and the sprint speed on that was 30.2 feet per second.

Anything over 30 feet per second is considered elite.

So we can officially say Kevin Magonical has elite speed as well as the elite hit tool.

And then in the ninth inning, he got a sinker, another type of fastball on the inside part of the play.

Once again, he turned on it and he sent it into right field this time for a single.

So three fastballs on the inner half of the play,

resulting in three of his four hits.

I think that tells you everything you need to know about what he likes.

As a hitter, what his strengths are.

And then I'm going to leave you with one final stat on Thursday,

both Kevin Magonical and Boston Red Sox out to the Roman Anthony.

They joined a list of 13 other players age 21 or younger to reach base four times on opening day of the 13 other players.

Nine of them are Hall of Famers, including Nikki Mantle, Brooks Robinson, Robert Alamar,

Ken Griffey, Jr., and Joe Maurer.

So that is pretty good company for Kevin Magonical and Roman Anthony.

And they joined on Thursday, probably gives you an idea of what the long term highest upside is for both of those young players.

So we saw all this in game one, you got any expectations for Kevin Magonical in game two, maybe five hits.

You have five homers?

No, you know, like you said, Michael King has a really good change up.

We see that there are ways to attack Magonical and get him out.

He's, if you make a mistake and big league pitchers do make mistakes, he's going to punish it.

You know, it wouldn't shock me if he gets another knock and maybe a walk, but maybe a strikeout or two, too.

So I human, he's a human, so you just like to, and I'd like to see him steal a base to that might be fun.

All right.

I want to shift gears and get into some other opening day roster decisions on the position player side,

Parker Meadows over Wensel Perez.

We have been talking about that battle all spring.

Both of them were not going to make the team if Kevin Magonical made the team.

And so once Kevin Magonical made the team, it became Parker Meadows, Wensel Perez.

Do you agree with the decision to put Parker Meadows on the opening day roster and send Wensel Perez

to Triple A Toledo?

I do.

I think Meadows just has a higher ceiling.

If he's the, you know, the best version of himself, he's another guy who makes the team

significantly better on both sides of the ball.

No, Wensel Perez has been a quality player and he is a quality player and I wouldn't

be shocked at all if he comes up this year and gets a 200-300 of bats based on, you know,

injuries and things like that.

But yeah, I think that the perfect version of this roster has Parker Meadows patrolling center

and Magonical playing somewhere on the left side of the infield.

I think that was the right choice.

Yeah, both those guys, Wensel Perez, Parker Meadows, they struggled in spring training,

but the biggest difference in the two of them was Parker Meadows was trending upward

as the Tigers were preparing to make that decision.

Like we saw some things start to come around for him.

And then ultimately, when you looked at both of them and you kind of took a peek under the hood

to learn more about what actually went into their spring struggles, they were complete opposites.

When it comes to Wensel Perez, like he was hitting the ball harder, but he had way more swing

and miss and way more chase.

Like just was not swinging at good pitches and was missing a lot and not putting the ball in play.

But when he did make contact, he was making impact.

Whereas Parker Meadows not much impact, but he was making a lot of contact and you had a lot

better swing decision.

So the Tigers, not only did they take the upside in Parker Meadows and the defense in Parker Meadows,

they took the guy who was trending in the right direction and they took the guy who was

putting the ball in play who was swinging at good pitches.

Like that is what this team needs if they want to take a step forward offensively.

I think the fact that Parker Meadows was able to do that in spring,

that gave him a leg up from the onset.

And then once he started to turn in the right direction, that pretty much sealed the deal for him

being on the opening day roster.

And as for Wensel Perez, he's going to have to go down triple A Toledo,

get himself back in the strike zone.

If he's able to do that, we are going to see him in the big leagues again at some point this season.

Maybe for a long stretch because he is a switch hitter.

AJ Hinge loves having that switch hitter on the bench.

I'll be curious if something happens who gets that call though,

is it Wensel Perez, is it Trey Cruz?

That'll be something to watch if the Tigers do end up wanting a switch hitter on their bench.

Just something to monitor as the season rolls on.

On the pitching side, Brent Herder was always on the team,

even though I guess that kind of got taken down to the wire.

And the Tigers had to let him know on the last day,

oh, by the way, you made it.

Brent Herder was always going to make the team.

And Manuel DeJesus, he solidified himself a couple of weeks ago.

And then it seemed like Brennan Hannity was set for that final spot

until the Tigers made it out of nowhere,

signing in Conor Seabulld, who had been released by the Toronto Blue Jays

after exercising an opt out clause in his contract.

Once that happened, the Tigers pounced and they signed Conor Seabulld,

and he immediately made the opening day roster because he signed a one-year 800K

majorly contract without any minor league options.

So he couldn't be sent down to the minors.

He couldn't be sent to AAA without being exposed to waivers.

So with that being said, Brennan Hannity just became the guy in the outside looking in.

So he was ultimately optioned to AAA Toledo.

So I know Brent Herder was in that mix and in Manuel DeJesus and Brennan Hannity.

But what it really came down to was Conor Seabulld over Brennan Hannity.

Do you agree with that decision?

It was really out of nowhere.

I thought there was going to be Burke Smith over Brennan Hannity.

And it was another terrific lesson in not paying attention to these

reliever battles at the other spring because somebody might come from nowhere.

And I've discussed before that they tried to put Hannity in the situations that they would use

him in the regular season, men on base.

And he didn't perform in those situations.

It doesn't mean, again, it's like Perez.

It doesn't mean we won't see him later in the year,

but they didn't see what they wanted to see from him in spring.

And Seabulld, he doesn't have a stellar track record of the big leagues by any means.

But apparently they really like what they saw from him in spring training,

which was a lot of swing and miss.

He does have a lower arm angle than anybody else on the staff right now in the bullpen.

And we know sometimes they like to give hitters different looks.

So maybe that was a small part of it.

But yeah, it was a shocker to me.

And it was an equally shocking when they deffade Dylan Smith to make room for Kevin McGonigal.

But again, the same idea with Hannity is sometimes, you know, life is a right-hated

middle reliever is not terribly stable because there are an awful lot of pictures like that out there.

The Connor Seabulld signing in general, it just surprised me.

And I guess when you look at what he was able to do with the fastball, specifically,

the fact that it was, you know, 94 miles an hour, that's where it was sitting,

in spring training with the blue jays.

It also had a 45% width rate.

So that was really impressive.

Like this was a guy who was throwing harder than he ever had.

And he was missing more bats than he ever had, specifically with the fastball bats,

going to be his go-to pitch.

But yeah, no track record in the big leagues whatsoever.

And I feel bad for Brendan Hannity.

I understand the fact that he is one dimensional.

And that makes it really difficult.

He gets absolutely shell by left-handed hitters.

But he's really good against right-handed hitters.

So even if you get into a situation where there are runners on base and you have a dangerous

right-handed hitter coming up to the plate and maybe there's nobody on the bench or it's a star.

It's a superstar caliber right-handed hitter.

And there's two outs in an inning.

And you want to bring Brendan Hannity in just for that one at bat,

because of how elite he is against right-handed hitters.

To me, that seemed like the perfect role for him,

especially if Conor Seabulld, Brendan Hannity,

like if there's just going to be your last guy in the bullpen anyway,

and you have enough length in guys like Emmanuel DeJesus,

in Brent Herder, in Drew Anderson,

I feel like you could afford to have a one-out type of guy in your bullpen,

where you hold on to him just for that perfect moment,

each series where you need him,

that seemed to make some sense to me with Brendan Hannity,

but the Tiger has decided otherwise.

And I do feel bad because leave it or not,

Brendan Hannity in the big leagues has been 94 in one-thirds innings.

It's a 2.77 ERA.

So he has a sub-3 ERA in nearly 100 innings in the big leagues.

He has the track record, Conor Seabulld does not,

but the Tigers ended up going that direction.

They were really impressed with Seabulld's fastball

and the whiff red on that fastball in particular.

We will see if it holds up at the big league level.

Some general Tigers topics we got to discuss,

and then we'll fly through some general MLB topics

before we get out of here.

One question for every Tigers player on the opening day roster.

Thank you so much Chris Brown for helping me

with this project for Freep.com.

It's something that I try to do every year.

And some years you come down to the wire and you're like,

oh my gosh, it's 9 p.m.

and opening day is the next day.

I got to scrambling to get something put together.

You were very helpful in helping me come up

with each of the individual questions for the players

on the 26th man opening day roster.

So one question for every player,

we're not going to go through all of them.

I just want to ask what is the one question

that you are most interested in following throughout this season?

Because there are a lot of really good storylines

with each of these players.

Yeah, you know, I'm, I've tried to remember

some of the things that I said,

but I guess the one that sticks out to me

is what kind of consistency we can,

we can see from Spitzer Tockelson this year.

Can he put together two consecutive solid seasons?

Can he get better?

Is it, you know, because he had the 30 home runs

and it was really down again

and the 30 home runs last year?

And it would just be nice

to really have that consistent right in at bat

in your lineup.

I think it would be a huge factor for them.

So I'm going to be looking to see

if he can be consistent at all in that regard.

And then on the pitching side,

I just, I think it's fun to have

Justin Verletter back, obviously.

And just want to see if he could stay healthy, you know,

if he's, if he has that kind of magical last run in him

that, you know, for the love of the game, Billy Chappell,

you know, has another one of those games

where it's no hits through seven and things,

just following him through the season.

I think it's going to be really fun

for a lot of Tigers fans.

For me on the position player side,

it revolves around Matt Verletting.

I think he's such an interesting piece of this team.

It's so easy to forget that you go back to Matt Verletting

in 2024.

He was pretty much a three-war player.

Like that's a real dude on this team.

And you also can't forget either that.

Matt Verletting early in his career,

he was playing center field for the Phillies

in the World Series.

So this is the guy who has been there, done that.

And he also has a season like he had in 2024 to back it up.

I'm very curious to see Matt Verletting limited

just 31 games due to injuries last season.

It was a really underrated absence for the Tigers.

Coming off that career best season,

he's been the leader behind the scenes.

I think he has a real chance to reestablish his value

on the field and maybe work his way into being an everyday player.

I'm pretty high on Matt Verletting going into the year.

I think that he has a real chance to emerge

and become a difference maker.

That's a storyline that I'm definitely watching.

And then Casey Meiz is another name on the pitching side.

He's someone that I'm fascinated to see how this all unfolds.

I think the big question that you had sent over to me

was will the splitter be useful?

And I think that's ultimately going to define

maybe an even bigger question beyond that,

which is does he stay in the rotation

or does he move to the bullpen?

He needs his splitter to be effective in the rotation.

I think if you were to put him in the bullpen

and give Casey Meiz an opportunity to pitch in one ining

or two ining bursts,

maybe he doesn't need that consistency with the splitter

and the same way that he does as a starter.

So I think that splitter is really going to be what defines Casey Meiz.

Yes, he's coming off at all star season.

Yeah, he improved his walk rate.

Yeah, he took his strikeout rate to the next level

but he also had a 5.54 ERA in his final 13 starts.

Last season and then it's been absolutely rocky

in spring training.

Now he goes into the season.

How is that all going to hold up?

I really do think the splitter is going to define

a lot of things for him.

One, can he stay in the rotation?

And two, what does his free agency look like?

Because that's looming as well

and it's a real chance to get paid.

He's going to need his splitter in order to do that.

Last thing on the Tiger is before we get into some general

major league baseball stuff.

The World Series.

Is it World Series or Bus for the Tigers in 2026?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think so.

I don't know if you can ever go into the season

saying we're definitely going to win the World Series, right?

But this is a good team.

They spend a lot of money for them, obviously,

to go out there and they brought up their best young prospect.

I think this is a team built to go on a long playoff run

and I think it's the goal, right?

They've gotten a taste of the playoffs the last two years

and come up bitterly short both times.

And I think there's only so many chances you get.

This is a relatively young team

and you feel like the window is there

but school may be gone next year.

And who knows what's going on in the future.

So I really do think that they need to go all in this year.

And I do think that includes making some real tough trades

at the deadline if they have an obvious need.

Now we'll see what happens.

They might not have any obvious needs at that point.

But yeah, so I think it's it's a world series of bust.

Go for it.

I think once we get to the trade deadline,

the Tigers could use some sling and miss in their bullpen.

I think that's going to be an area of need once again

and we'll see if they attack it.

But on the first day of spring training,

AJ Hinge said, quote,

we're back at the bottom of the mountain again

with clear goals.

End quote.

And then on the last day of spring training,

he's talking about Kevin McGonagall.

But what is he working there?

We're trying to win the world series

and then he said some things about Kevin McGonagall.

And then end quote.

I think that tells you exactly where the Tigers are at.

I mean, they have a rotation that is built to win the world series.

Framber Valdez, Tarrick Scoobble, Jack Flaherty, Casey Meyers,

Justin Verlander.

They've got the bullpen.

And yeah, there are some swinging misconcerns

but it's Ken Lee Jansson, Kyle Finnegan, Will Vest.

Those are some real names.

And then you look at the offense.

I think the offense will determine

how far the Tigers ultimately go.

If they struggled with the strikeouts,

but they were in above average offense

for most of last season and they had that late season collapse.

I think when you talk about Kevin McGonagall coming aboard,

that's one thing, but it's not just Kevin McGonagall.

He doesn't have to be the answer.

It's really the core.

It's Riley Greene.

Can he cut down the strikeout?

Spencer Torkelson, can he avoid the regression?

Kerry Carpenter, let's stay healthy.

Let's unlock some more power.

I think as those four position players

enter the primes of their careers,

we're going to find out what this team is really made of.

And then you have Glebert Torres,

you know, near the top of the lineup.

He's going to be that veteran presence

that on base machine.

We've seen the flashes from the offense.

I think if we see that consistency,

this has all the makings of a team.

If they can add a little bit of swing

and miss their bullpen at the trade deadline,

that could make it all the way to the World Series.

So they've set those expectations

and then when you look at what their roster is,

yeah, to me, it is World Series or bust.

No more Terrick's Google after 2026.

That's how it seems.

So what better time than now to win it all?

All right, some non-tigers related topics really quick.

Then we're going to get out of here.

Predictions, I want your six playoff teams

from the American League and from the National League.

All right, well, I've got in the American League,

I get the Red Sox Tigers and Mariners winning their division

and the Yankees Blue Jays and the Athletics,

the Athletics making the playoffs as Wildcards.

And then actually I have the Phillies Brewers

and Dodgers winning the division

and then the Cubs, Mets and Braves as a Wildcard.

For me in the American League,

AL East, Boston Red Sox, AL Central Detroit Tigers,

AL West, Seattle Mariners were the same way there.

And that's my one through three as well in terms of the seating.

I think the Boston Red Sox are really dangerous.

I think that rotation, I know we love the Tigers rotation,

but that Red Sox rotation is filthy.

And then for the Wildcard in the four spot,

Toronto Blue Jays, the five,

Kansas City Royals and six Baltimore Orioles

with the Yankees not making the playoffs.

That's my hot take, yours is the Athletics of course.

And the National League, NL West, Los Angeles Dodgers,

NL East, Philadelphia Phillies, NL Central, Chicago Cubs,

that is my one through three in the seating.

And then the Wildcard, the four spot, San Diego Padres,

the five spot, Milwaukee Brewers and the six spot,

New York Mets and then Chris,

what is your World Series matchup with your winner?

So I have the Red Sox over the Tigers and the ALCS.

Sorry to say that to those who won a relive 2013.

And then I have the Braves over the Phillies and the NLCS.

The Dodgers don't make it.

I'm just envisioning this magical Braves season.

I don't know, I don't know.

You know, when you make these predictions,

it's fun to just come up with that set.

And then who do you have winning the World Series?

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I have the Red Sox over the Braves.

Yeah, I just think that you touched on it.

You know, their rotation is really good,

but they've got a lot of really good young players.

You're Roman Anthony, you touched on earlier.

You've got today in Raffi L.A.

You've got Blue Europe brand you.

You have some other talent, you know, Marcelo Meyer.

We still don't know what's what he's going to be.

Christian Campbell, at this time last year,

looked like he was going to be rookie of the year.

Who knows what he could become?

And so in that, and then they have debts for their pitchers.

You know, it's, it's, you've got Crochet and Rangers Juarez.

It's not a gray, but then you also have Peyton Toley

and Connerley Yearly coming up early.

They just have a lot of pieces there.

And I don't think they'd be afraid to trade some

of their minor leagueers to get another big piece.

So they seem good enough, right?

It's a really good team.

That Boston Red Sox team is dangerous.

And I'm in the same boat as you, AOCS.

I have Red Sox over Tigers.

Again, started to break the hearts of all the Tigers fans.

I don't know, great minds, maybe think alike here,

but we're both envisioning a Red Sox over Tigers.

And then of course, in a national league, Dodgers over Phillies.

And then in the World Series, I have the Dodgers over the Red Sox.

Yes, I am predicting the Dodgers to win three in a row,

which hasn't happened since the Yankees won four times in a row

from 1998 to 2000.

I just think the Dodgers are that good.

And then 2027 is going to come around.

They're going to grab Terrick's Google as well.

And then they're going to win it again.

And they're going to four Pete.

I mean, I just think the Dodgers are that good

and that dangerous.

That's why I've got the Dodgers winning.

I'm just not going to bet against Shohei Otani

and the rest of those guys over there in LA.

It's a really good team.

All right.

And then AL, NL MVP, AL, NL saw Young, AL, NL,

rookie of the year, and an AL, NL manager of the year.

All the awards races.

I'll start with this one, AL, NVP, Bobby Whitt Jr.,

AL, Sai Young, Cole Regans.

So I have two royals there, Bobby Whitt Jr.

for the AL, NVP, Cole Regans for the AL, Sai Young.

And then for AL, rookie of the year, Tatsuya Imi

from the Houston Astros, I think he is going to win

AL, rookie of the year.

And then AL, manager of the year, Craig Albernaz

from the Baltimore Orioles.

I think if the Orioles are able to get into the playoffs,

and when you look at their team,

you can really talk mean it at offense being good.

And you can start to talk mean to them,

actually having some real pitching this time.

Even though I think they are like one

frombervaldez, calendar pitcher away from being a legit,

like a legit legit threat.

Like I do think that what they have right now

was enough to get him in the playoffs.

If that happens, I do think Craig Albernaz wins AL,

manager of the year.

Then in the National League, the NVP,

who's going to bet against Shohei O'Tani, certainly not me.

And it'll say, Young, I'm going Christopher Sanchez

from the Philadelphia Phillies.

A lot of people are going to pick Paul Schienz.

I understand why.

That's a very popular pick,

because he's not Derek Schienz.

It's not Derek Schuble,

then Paul Schienz is the best pitcher on the planet.

But I'm going to go Christopher Sanchez in this one.

NL rookie of the year, Nolan McLean from the Metz

and then NL manager of the year is Craig Council

from the Chicago Cubs.

Those are my awards predictions

from the American League and the National League.

Yeah, we got some same picks here,

but it's so easy to go judge in O'Tani,

and I just like to have a little bit more fun.

And so some of this is kind of tied

into the teams I pick going to the playoffs.

So I've got out of nowhere MVP, Nick Kurtz of the A's.

Wow, okay.

It's off as a first baseman, obviously,

but he did have a 170WRC plus as a rookie.

If he does better than that, look out.

And then I have Ronald Acunia Jr.

making a great comeback, leading the Braves

to the World Series.

And in the Saiyung race, I have Garrett Crochet for Boston.

And I also pick Christopher Sanchez for the Phillies.

He looked awfully good today.

And the rookies of the year, I've got Kevin McGonigal.

I'm just sticking with him and JJ Weatherall,

the Cardinals, I think when you get guys

who could play middle infield and hit,

I think they got a good chance to wreck up a lot of war

and would repair the year.

And then my managers go to the surprise playoff teams,

Mark Cutsay of the A's in what ways are the Braves?

Perfect, all right, everybody.

It is time to get out of here.

That is all we have for this bonus episode

on the days of our podcast.

Special thank you to our producer, the Magic Man,

Robin Chan, he is the best in a business

for putting in the extra work to edit

and publish this episode.

Check back for our regular hour long episode,

which drops Monday.

Until then, go in peace.

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