Detroit Tigers News: There is still nothing going on

If you spent most of last week visiting with family and friends, tidying up loose ends at work or home, or generally ignoring anything to do with baseball, you weren’t alone; the actual teams of Major League Baseball themselves were also absent.

Don’t believe me? Here are some of the top stories on MLB.com at the moment.

• Justin Verlander tweeted at Charles Barkley about a weird golf pay-per-view event.
• Bryce Harper made predictions at a college football game that definitely didn’t happen.
• They named some bugs after Jose Bautista.

Sooo... yeah. Only 86 days until spring training.

The Detroit Tigers aren’t doing much either

Luckily, according to Lynn Henning, they at least have a few guys in their sights. We already know about the trio of mediocre shortstops on their radar, but Henning (by way of Al Avila himself, we presume) added a few starting pitchers to the list.

Among starters, the cast includes: Edwin Jackson, Jeremy Hellickson, Tyson Ross, Trevor Cahill, Marco Estrada, and maybe Brett Anderson.

Avila said trade talks that had begun loosely at the GM Meetings earlier this month at Carlsbad, California, have also dragged as teams wait and see how the free-agent dominoes spill. And that process could well mean nothing significant will happen until more exalted stars like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Dallas Keuchel and Patrick Corbin begin signing new deals.

Avila mentioned that the market could continue to be slow over the next few weeks as some of the bigger names on the market choose their destinations, but also hinted that he likes to get a lot of his shopping done early.

Tigers sign Jacob Turner

Err, the KIA Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization, that is. Turner will join former Tigers Warwick Saupold and Chad Bell, who both signed with the Hanwha Eagles last week. Both players will make more money than they likely would have in America. Best of luck to them overseas.

So long, Donnie

The Don Kelly era might officially be at an end in Detroit. Kelly was hired by the Houston Astros as their new first base coach after serving as a scout in the Tigers organization for the past two years. There’s not much I can add to this, other than noting that our friends at The Crawfish Boxes are quite excited about the hire after seeing Tigers Twitter’s reaction to the news.

Around the horn

Here are non-tender candidates for all 30 MLB teams. Detroit’s is fairly obvious. C.J. Cron was non-tendered, will go unnoticed by the Tigers in free agency. Grant Brisbee writes about baseball: specifically, Adrian Beltre. Our friends at Lone Star Ball are also sad, understandably. Players to keep an eye on for the Rule 5 draft. Joe Mauer had some Black Friday tips.