The Tigers came into the trade deadline needing arms of all sorts. Starters, long relief, and high leverage backend pitchers. Reports were that the Tigers were interested in players such as David Bednar, Ryan Helsley, Dennis Santana but in the end they came up empty-handed as far as name of that stature.

In the end, Scott Harris was able to cook up deals for names of less status but but and still players you should be raise the floor of the current state of the Tiger’s pitching staff as a whole. Detroit was able to add Charlie Morton a Veteran right-handed innings eater who previously played with the Baltimore Orioles. Detroit also acquired 3 backend bullpen arms including: Rafael Montero, Paul Sewald, and Kyle Finnegan. Montero and Finnegan will fall right into roles in the bullpen, and Sewald, who has been dealing with shoulder inflammation all year, was placed on the 60 day IL. The Tigers hope to get him back some time in September if at all. The addition of Morton as a starter pushes their top pitching prospect Troy Melton to the bullpen, which should further sure up the long relief portion.

Kyle Finnegan is on the move, after 3 straight years of deadline discussions around the Nationals closer, he is moved to the Tigers!

Finnegan sports a upper-90s fastball and a gross splitter to play off it!

2025 stats:
39 IP
20/26 SV opportunities
4.38 ERA
1.28 WHIP
32 K pic.twitter.com/OMW51Rcvo7

— Baseball Unstitched Podcast (@BaseUnstitched) July 31, 2025

All in all, Scott Harris decided not to take the big swing at the deadline. Per Harris “We felt that at this point in the our organization timeline, giving up young platers to chase short term fixes was not in the best interest of the Tigers, short term or long.” It has been reported that Pittsburgh was interested in Josue Briceno.  A 20 year old Catcher/1st base prospect that is fresh off representing Detroit in the Rising Stars game. Moving Briceno would have likely yielded a return of David Bednar or one of their sought after arms they had available.

Another notable observation is that Harris elected to not address the offense in any way shape or form. Prior to sweeping Arizona this week, the team had gone on a bit of rough patch over the last few weeks. The team saw an immediate resurgence once Kerry Carpenter returned and likely Harris feels content with what the lineup can do now that he is back and healthy.

The Tigers will likely cruise the rest of the way through the division, especially with teams like Cleveland and Minnesota in full sell mode. Detroit’s trajectory still has them in the position to be atop the American League going into the Postseason only time will tell whether or not Harris’ conservativeness will come back to bite them when they start facing teams head up that took bigger swings at the deadline.