Life is good for the Detroit Tigers right now. A second straight dramatic walk-off win over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night has A.J. Hinch's team at an MLB-best 29-15, a record backed up by the best run differential in baseball. Tarik Skubal is as unhittable as ever, Spencer Torkelson and Javier Baez have resuscitated their careers and there seems to be a new hero every night.
Of course, even for the best, there's always room for improvement. Detroit's offense has been excellent so far this season, but it's not without holes ā most glaringly at third base, where Tigers hitters have put up a .566 OPS that's fourth-worst in the league. Top prospect Jace Jung wasn't the answer, and while Matt Vierling is nearing a return from the IL, there's no guarantee that he will be either.
All of which has certain baseball insiders linking Detroit with an old friend from the rumor mill: St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.
It's unclear whether the resurgent Cardinals, now breathing down the Chicago Cubs' neck in the NL Central, will want to move Arenado this summer if they're in the midst of a pennant chase. But even if they do, there's absolutely zero reason for the Tigers to be interested ā no matter how bad their predicament at the hot corner gets.
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Tigers shouldn't have any interest in Nolan Arenado
For starters, it's unclear whether Arenado would even be an upgrade over what the Tigers have internally, much less whoever else they might be able to acquire via trade. His glove is still as sturdy as ever, even at age 34, but the bat increasingly seems cooked: After a hot start to the 2025 season, Arenado has slashed .218/.295/.353 over his last 31 games, and his batted-ball metrics are about as ugly as it gets right now.
Arenado isn't exactly moving the needle on the field, and everything else that comes with him would leave a smoking crater in the middle of Detroit's team-building plan. He still has two-plus years remaining on his nine-year, $275 million contract, and unless the Tigers plan to start firing the money cannon like it's the Mike Ilitch era all over again, that's going to take a big chunk out of the team's payroll that could be spent better elsewhere.
Of course, Detroit could always try and get the Cardinals to pay off some of that remaining money, but St. Louis has proven to be unwilling to meet teams halfway in that regard. So the Tigers would be left with an aging, overpriced player whose track record demands regular playing time that his current performance can't justify. Third base is a need that president Scott Harris must address at some point before the trade deadline, but he's gotten Detroit here by avoiding exactly this sort of misguided splash.