100% speculation on my part, but I could see all this happening...
We sign VMart to a 3-4yr deal to end his career as a Tiger. 3 years will probably be our limit, I dunno if we'll give him 4 except maybe as an option year. I think we'll go all-out to sign him because we have no replacement for him, unless we signed Lind and Willingham to platoon at DH or something. I want no part of Cruz.
Max is willing to take a 3-4yr deal with us for big money (say $100mil), banking on the idea that he'll get one more major deal in his mid-30s when the market has further appreciated. He's given a lot of indications that he's willing to gamble on himself and the market, so I don't think this is a crazy idea. Zero chance this happens, not with Boras as his agent. Plus we really, REALLY don't need to be spending $25 mil/yr on another player, even Max
Torii will offer himself up for a reasonable 1yr deal, which we'll take. This may give Hill and others time to develop. I absolutely hope not. Hunter was abysmal this year, especially on defense. Its time to say goodbye to him.
We look at flipping Sanchez / Castellanos / Kinsler in a mega deal. Likely for a CF and/or 3B. I didn't think of flipping Casty, but given his struggles this year, especially on defense, if we got a replacement 3B I don't think I'd mind.
We sign Miller, Uehara, or some other proven BP guy, Soria gets healthy and dominates, Sloppy Joe contributes better than this year, and we get Rondon back and throwing 100mph gas out of the pen. This seems likely, though I doubt we'll sign Uehara. Probably Miller and a few smaller pieces, which should be fine as long as DD goes after the right pieces.
We sign Price to a long-term extension, or flip him for a big return when we realize that we can't/won't. I doubt we'll do either, tbh. We'll likely use him next year to stay competitive, then let him walk for a draft pick a la Max this year. Just like Max, we just can't afford to give another megacontract to a pitcher, and the only way I see us trading Price is if we're 100% out of it by the trade deadline.
We use McCann in a 50/50 platoon with Avila, and Avila retires in the next year or two after he gets more concussions. Sounds about right, though Avila would probably get more playing time since we face more RHP than LHP.
Iggy is back to man SS, and we flip two of Suarez / Perez /Dirks in a larger deal or to get a good BP piece. I envision a MIF going in a trade for a CF, but if we trade position players for relievers again (or trade for relievers as more than just add-ons to a deal), I'm going to flip a shit.
J.D. comes back to Earth a bit, but he's still a .280 hitter with 90RBI and 25HR power. He'll take one corner OF spot for the next few years. maybe a bit less on the BA, but that seems right. Hopefully he'll take a few more walks, but then again its the Tigers.
JV comes back healthier and with more velocity. Probably not going to be our #1 again, but he'll be more like a his career numbers with a 3.50ERA, 225IP, 1.2 WHIP, 200Ks, and 17 wins. Almost certain. He and the Tigers will never admit it, but he never hit 100% this year because of the offseason surgery and the issues from when he tried to adjust because of it.
Miggy and VMart basically swap stats from this year, but Miggy will hit 40HR. With Miggy hopefully being 100% healthy next year, hopefully this is all but certain.
Davis becomes an important bench player for us. He plays regularly as a late inning pinch runner and corner OF. We may look to find another speedy guy for the bench too after seeing how the Royals are doing it. Given this is how we should have been using him this year, hopefully this is right. He should never see RHP though, and I'd rather have a bench bat than more bench speed. We had Carrera for more bench speed, but since he's completely useless otherwise, its a wasted spot, whereas the Orioles had Delmon off the bench to steal game 2 from us (not that I want delmon again.)
