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Scott Harris shared this message with Detroit Tigers players ahead of big offseason
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- Scott Harris shared this message with Detroit Tigers players ahead of big offseason
SAN ANTONIO — The Detroit Tigers have completed their annual end-of-season exit interviews with most of their players. In every meeting, president of baseball operations Scott Harris has sent an important message about the past and the future.
It's a two-part message.
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Harris wants his players to be proud of their accomplishments, such as advancing to the postseason for the first time in 10 years and winning a playoff series for the first time in 11 years, but he doesn't want his players to become complacent.
"We have to stay hungry," Harris said Tuesday at MLB's GM meetings. "We have to find ways to raise the bar for all of us. We are a really young team. The beauty of building a young team is young teams get better. Each of these guys as individuals are going to get better, and our entire team is going to get better."
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Detroit Tigers left fielder Riley Greene (31) acknowledges fans as he exits the field after 4-1 win over Chicago White Sox to clinch a wild card spot in the MLB playoff at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
Harris named three players — Riley Greene , Kerry Carpenter , Matt Vierling — while explaining to reporters his message to all of the players. Those three improved their performance from 2023 to 2024. More importantly, the Tigers expect all three of them to take another step forward in the 2025 season.
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Greene, 24, improved from a 121 wRC+ in 2023 to a 135 wRC+ in 2024; Carpenter, 27, improved from a 123 wRC+ in 2023 to a 160 wRC+ in 2024; Vierling, 28, improved from a 100 wRC+ in 2023 to a 108 wRC+ in 2024.
"We have to find a way to raise the bar for each of them this offseason," Harris said, referencing all players. "All of a sudden, you're going to start stacking those gains, and the 2025 Tigers are going to be a lot better than the 2024 Tigers."
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Still, the Tigers will add players to improve the roster for the 2025 season. The offseason plan is to acquire at least one right-handed hitter and at least a couple of pitchers. Harris, unlike the last two years, seems motivated to spend money and trade prospects in his third offseason in charge.
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At the same time, the Tigers need their players to continue developing throughout the offseason, whether that's adding a pitch, changing a swing path or learning a new position.
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Expect a blend of internal and external upgrades.
"We need to do both," Harris said. "We need to add externally, but we also need to acknowledge the fact that the external gains can't compare with the scale of the gains internally. We have the youngest team in baseball that just made the playoffs and just won a playoff series. If each one of those guys gets a little bit better, we're going to be just fine in the future.
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"We got to do both, and we are actively doing both. This isn't a moment in time where we just focus on external additions and forget about development. We are just as focused on development through the offseason while we're trying to add from the outside. It means we got a lot on our plate, but that's what it should be."
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The pressure is on for the Tigers to improve — both as individuals and as a team — because there will be heightened expectations in 2025. Not only will the Tigers be expected to reach the postseason, but they will be challenged to win the American League Central, which they haven't done since 2014.
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The Tigers ultimately need to make progress in their pursuit of winning the World Series.
To do so, they'll have to advance beyond the ALDS.
"We can be really proud of what we just did," Harris said, reflecting on the success in 2024. "We should be really proud of what we just did. We changed the baseball conversation in Michigan. There's Tiger hats everywhere. People want to talk about the Tigers. We should be really proud of that. But we got to hold the second thought in our mind."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple , Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Scott Harris shared this message with Detroit Tigers players
