We lamented the Detroit Tigers lack of success in the international free agent market in our Roberto Campos report, but there is another wave coming. Josue Briceño, consensus top 100 prospect, leads the way, along with young pitching prospect Kelvis Salcedo, but the Tigers do have some interesting young IFA signings that will be playing in Florida for the first time this year. Infielder Nestor Miranda is another in the high risk, high reward bucket, and he should debut in the Complex League sometime
this summer.
Miranda was signed in January of 2024 for $1.5 million, the largest bonus paid in that signing class. He’d passed on offers in years prior, betting that he’d eventually show enough to secure a big bonus, and he and his representatives made the right decision. At the time, he was ranked 25th for Baseball America, and 45th on MLB Pipeline’s ranking of the class.
Trained by Enrique Soto in the Dominican Republic, the 6’3” 225 pound Miranda’s selling point was his enormous power potential. That’s proven an accurate projection, but he has a lot of work ahead of him to refine his approach and start handling pitching in full season ball.
So far we only have two short stints in the Dominican Summer League to go on. Miranda walked and struck out a ton in his age 18 season. He cut down the strikeouts somewhat last summer in his second look at the league and showed pretty good zone judgement, but he still steps hard toward third base, flies open, and takes some huge hacks. Too often he comes up empty, so we can’t get real excited about him yet.
Not only does his approach need a lot of work, but he’s really filled out and profiles like a first baseman defensively at this point. He has the hands and the arm strength to play third, but to stick there he’ll need to take advantage of Lakeland’s strength and conditioning facilities and staff to recapture some athleticism lost as he added muscle to his large frame. He hasn’t gone all to flesh or anything, but the muscle has come with some diminished explosiveness and agility that has him tracking like a first base/designated hitter type.
While hit tool projections say he’s a longshot to hit enough, and the Tigers have already had to do some significant work to improve his setup and swing path, Miranda has also drawn 80 FV grades for his raw power. He’s posted plus exit velocities as a teenager to back up those forecasts as well. The trick is to develop him as a hitter enough to tap into it consistently. He has some plate discipline and very good batspeed for his age. He’s also shown the ability to handle velocity and recognize breaking stuff. However, anything resembling an offspeed pitch has given him fits, even in the middle of the zone. His aggressive pull side approach gets him overcommitted and way out in front when fooled, producing a lot of whiffs and pop-ups.
So there’s a lot of risk in the profile, and he’s a limited, bat first player who isn’t going to provide much defensive value unless he can improve his athleticism to match his raw strength gains. The top shelf power potential is intact, and he has an idea at the plate. It’s hard to say much more about his chances until we see him in the Complex League and Florida State League over the next year.
He may stay on the Cristian Santana track and never get off it, but hitters tend to change a lot after a year of pro ball stateside. He’s already improved his swing mechanics from the pretty raw product we saw on signing day. So, we’re pretty interested to see if there is some evolution this summer. Getting him sorted out will be a priority for the organization on Lakeland’s back fields, and the power and bat speed are worth some patience.
