Overall it’s been a quiet first half from the Detroit Tigers’ farm system. Largely that’s because Kevin McGonigle has graduated to the major leagues, and many of the club’s top prospects are either doing fine but not really in breakout mode yet, or because they’ve spent much of the first half injured. At the same time, there is suddenly quite a bit of young talent making some waves in the A-ball and Complex levels. Things are starting to turn around in June, and with a few key names getting back
on the field recently, it’s likely the rest of the season sees a lot more progress and promotions for the young Tigers on the farm.
The big picture hasn’t really changed much at this point, and a somewhat stagnant couple of months in a farm system can understandably be perceived as weakness. But as the saying goes, prospect development isn’t linear. It proceeds in fits and starts, with players often looking like they’re struggling at a new level, only to put it together all in a few week’s time and break out to a new level. The situation could look very different by the time the minor league season wraps up in September, for better or for worse.
The Tigers are still lacking some high end pitching talent in the upper minors, while the crop of younger pitchers in A-ball and the Complex League looks much improved this year. In terms of position players, the Tigers still look like one of the better teams in the league, with a long list of athletic defenders with contact ability and power beyond their top ten list. Most likely a few of those players are going to break out over the next or two, and key examples of this type of prospect like Double-A outfielder Brett Callahan and infielder John Peck, are now thriving at that level and set to move up to Toledo.
Key names who have returned from injury or are due shortly include, C/1B Josue Briceño, LHP Andrew Sears, LHP Jake Miller, 2B/3B Max Anderson, LHP Paul Wilson, RHP Owen Hall, RHP Cale Wetwiska, and catcher Michael Oliveto. Briceño has been hitting again for a few weeks as he progresses back from surgery on his wrist in March. He seems to be on track for a return to action around the end of the month or in early July. Sears is back in Erie, with Miller rehabbing in West Michigan and about ready to join Sears back in Double-A. Oliveto is now recovered from a fractured big toe in spring camp, and just returned to Complex League action for his pro debut, notching his first professional hit on Saturday. Wilson and Hall are two of the Tigers biggest bonus babies in recent years and the two former prep picks in 2023 and 2024 respectively, have struggled to stay on the mound. Recently, both are building up reps in the Complex League, while Wetwiska just returned from an injury in April with two appearances for the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers.
Of course, we’ve also gotten a terrible recent example to remind us not to count our chickens before they hatch. SS/2B Franyerber Montilla, our 14th ranked prospect in the preseason, returned from an ACL tear suffered last suffer only to blow out his right knee in his first game back at Single-A Lakeland. Nothing is assured. Unfortunately, as speed and mobility was such a part of Montilla’s offense and defensive game, his future is in serious jeopardy, and he’s now out for the rest of the season.
The Tigers tend to be rather boring in terms of promotions, waiting until the All-Star break as a general rule. Only LHP Ben Jacobs and SS Bryce Rainer have moved up a level among the most notable prospects. We’ll probably have to wait another few weeks for any significant movement. Typically, we wait until around then for any major updates in the farm system after the draft and the promotions phase that typically follows it.
For the moment, let’s just start with an updated top 15 list. This is a bit unofficial, meaning I haven’t gone through the typical offseason process of rewatching a lot of games and tracking progressions in contact and swing decision metrics, to dig in deeper on prospects outside the top group, but we’ll go with it as a starting point.
1- CF Max Clark
The 21-year-old top prospect in the system is doing just fine in Triple-A Toledo, and should get a look at the show sometime later this summer once the draft and the trade deadline reshuffle the prospect and 40-man decks. Clark is making tons of contact, taking his walks, and rarely swinging and missing. While he’ll still make a mistake of aggression here or there defensively, his reads and routes continue to improve, particularly when having to go back on balls over his head. He’s a plus defender on a consistent basis now. The left-handed hitter has also done a decent job holding his own against the most advanced left-handed pitching he’s seen in his pro career, but he still isn’t driving the ball much overall. Clark’s established pattern of settling into a level quickly, but taking time to start dominating, is on track but we need to see more consistent gap power rather than just the occasional home run, to think he’s fully ready to thrive in the major leagues.
2- SS Bryce Rainer
After going the better part of a year without swinging a bat after right shoulder surgery last May, we predicted that it would take some time for the 20-year-old Rainer to get his sea legs back underneath him. Extreme strikeout rates early on scared the heck out of some prospect watchers, but Rainer was really just trying to get his approach back, see a lot of pitches, and get comfortable in his swing mechanics again. That passivity at the plate was somewhat unnerving, but the Tigers quickly pushed him up to High-A West Michigan anyway despite having only 50 games of pro ball since high school. That initially looked too aggressive, but Rainer has now settled in and caught fire. With 70 grade raw power and arm strength, solid defensive work, speed on the bases, and a good eye for the strike zone, Rainer possesses gargantuan upside, but the risk remains pretty elevated as well.
3- C/1B Josue Briceño
Briceño suffered a wrist tendon injury in spring camp that required surgery. He’s on the mend and tracking toward a return to Erie in July. We expect a rehab assignment to begin shortly. The slugging left-handed hitter is still highly likely to end up at first base rather than as a regular catcher, but his plate discipline, all fields power, and solid contact skills suggest that he’s going to be a steady power threat for years to come, even if he ultimately doesn’t have too much defensive utility. Until we see him back in the batter’s box for a month or two, there isn’t much else to say.
4- C Thayron Liranzo
So far, the 2026 season has been a really nice jump for 22-year-old Thayron Liranzo. The switch-hitting catcher had a brutal 2025 season in his first look at the Double-A level, but it was a fairly aggressive promotion for a young catcher with a lot more on his plate than players at other positions. Liranzo battled injuries, gained weight, dealt with loss in his personal life, and generally struggled in every aspect of his game.
After cutting a ton of weight and getting into outstanding shape over the offseason, there have already been big dividends in his mobility behind the plate and his blocking, receiving, and throwing have all taken a really nice step up. At this point it’s much easier to envision Liranzo as something like an average defensive catcher at the major league level. That’s all for the best, as despite his outstanding walks rates and power potential, Liranzo still has a lot of swing and miss in his game. Of course, catchers take more time to develop. Dillon Dingler’s numbers looked worse at the same age and level.
The defensive advancements have really shored up Liranzo’s floor as a prospect.The pop times and arm strength have been above average for a while now. His improved mobility has always helped him block and receive more consistently. The defensive improvements are crucial to mitigating the risk in his profile. The upside remains enormous, but Liranzo will always strike out a lot. If he learns to tap into his raw power from both sides of the plate consistently, he’s going to be a star. More likely he’ll end up a solid backup who can provide some power and plate discipline as an occasional first baseman or pinch hitter as well.
5- LHP Ben Jacobs
The fastest riser in the system this spring is left-hander Ben Jacobs. The Tigers’ 3rd round pick out of Arizona State last summer, Jacobs only just turned 22 years old recently and he’s already on his way to conquering the High-A level after a quick promotion out of Single-A Lakeland in late April. He’s striking out around 38 percent of hitters faced, and while that is partly due to being an advanced, nasty left-hander facing hitters who haven’t seen too many good lefties, the stuff metrics back up the results.
The southpaw has a lively fastball that sits 94 mph with a little more in the tank as required and a bit above average vertical movement. He’s tricky for hitters to pick up, but lefties with stuff who throw strikes aren’t super common in High-A, while Double-A hitters are more equipped to handle them. It will be very interesting to see how he looks against upper level competition next year. Jacobs has a slider-changeup combination with both pitches regularly plus, and he packs a pretty good curveball to boot. More consistency in shape, and ability to locate them to more parts of the zone will be required, but he looks capable of mastering them both in time. When he’s on his game he already looks major league ready, though still a bit unrefined.
Jacobs has a pretty simple, clean delivery, and reminds me of Jake Miller with a bit nastier breaking stuff. He’s struggled with control at times, but it’s his pro debut and he just turned 22 years old. Expect him to refine a really good pitch mix and command the whole package much better over the next year. He should move pretty quickly. I’m a bit leery of ranking him this high so quickly, mainly because we need to see him hold up to the workload and command the fastball on a consistent basis for starters, but the stuff is nasty and Jacobs still has some projection left. It wouldn’t be a shock if he added a tick to his heater and gets to the point where he can max out around 97-98 mph. If not he’s still got a good shot at being a quality mid-rotation starter.
6- 2B/3B Hao-Yu Lee
Infielder Hao-Yu Lee has had a tough go this season, but at the same time he’s reached the major leagues more quickly than expected, though entirely through need. Only just turned 23 years old, he dealt with an oblique injury that kept him from playing in the World Baseball Classic. He didn’t get too many reps back at the Triple-A level before he was promoted to the major leagues due to Gleyber Torres’ injury in late April. That was a highly aggressive assignment, and it showed in his results. Lee is a high intensity player with a lot of hunger to succeed, and he fell into the usual traps of trying to do too much. After a rough go, he was returned to Toledo, where he quickly impressed by taking lessons learned and getting hot for two series with the Mud Hens. He rapidly found himself right back in Detroit, where he’s suddenly looking much more comfortable in the field and at the plate.
Lee’s solid defensive chops at second and third base, along with sneaky speed, have helped him contribute even as he needs to calm down at the plate and start letting the game come to him again. His chase rate in Toledo is a bit under 20 percent, which is excellent. So far in the major leagues it’s a bit over 30 percent. When he starts taking his walks again, which wasn’t an issue in the minor leagues, his production should settle in closer to average levels. That, combined with solid defensive work, should make him at least a role player for a Tigers’ club that could use some right-handed bats for balance. We’ll see if he can tap into more of his plus raw power and become a fixture.
7- SS Jordan Yost
So far, everything we heard about the Tigers 2025 first rounder has proved accurate. We’d all love a crazy breakout immediately, but that wasn’t really in the cards. Instead, Yost has just been a solid hitter for the Single-A Flying Tigers, hitting .250/.375/.356 through his first 36 games of pro ball. He’s already a pretty good shortstop with the chance to be a really high end defender. He doesn’t chase out of the zone, and only occasionally does he swing and miss. As predicted, the power is going to take some time, as despite above average production so far, he’s not doing a whole lot in the power department.
The way Yost has handled the leap to pro competition directly to the Single-A level at age 19 has been pretty impressive anyway, and after adding 13 pounds of muscle over the offseason, and with room on his frame for quite a bit more, he’ll occasionally punish a baseball now to a degree that wasn’t present in high school. With six balls in play over 100 mph, he’s going to need to keep adding batspeed, but that’s one of the things the Tigers do develop well in the minor leagues nowadays, and drafting Yost was a bet on that developmental ability, as well as his projectibility and drive to improve. Yost already has the look of a player with a solid floor in his defense and contact skills. If he grows into average power as the Tigers’ hope, they’re going to have a pretty good player here. If not, there’s still a pretty good likelihood he makes it to a bench role based on his other skills.
8- OF Brett Callahan
I wrote a whole article about Callahan recently, so let’s just link that here and keep it brief. The left-handed hitting outfielder probably isn’t going to be that effective against left-handed pitching at the major league level, but he is destroying right-handed pitching in Erie, drawing his walks, hitting for average and power, and thriving on improved swing decisions despite the much tougher level. Drafted in 2023 in 13th round, Callahan has turned out to be a steal. The natural loft and pull tendencies in his swing help him to get the most out of his contact, which should mitigate a little too much chase in his profile. He’s also a complete player otherwise with enough speed to handle center field to an acceptable level, a big, accurate arm that screams right-fielder, and some base stealing ability.
Callahan is ready for Triple-A Toledo and will hopefully be moving up there after the draft in early July, if not sooner. He dealt with some minor injuries that limited his playing time early in his pro career, but he’s really made up for lost time this year with 12 home runs in 60 games, better than a 30 home run pace with good strikeout and walk numbers as well as 20 stolen bases. Now 24 years old, he doesn’t have much left to prove at this level. If Callahan is even an average hitter against right-handed pitching at the major league level, he’ll have a lengthy career as his well-rounded overall game adds plenty of value to his profile. All signs are positive at the moment. He’s been red hot in recent weeks, and we’re very interested to see how he handles the International League later this summer.
9- LHP Jake Miller
This left-hander remains one of my favorite pitching prospects in the system. I am taking a leap of faith here, however. Back trouble that was later linked to labrum tears on both sides of his hips really derailed his 2025 season just as he’d gotten himself in position to push towards the major leagues. He had surgery on both hips, and it was a lengthy recovery that took some time to rehab those injuries beyond spring camp. He’s only four outings into his rehab work. Still, he should be back in Erie in another week or so, and he’s looked better and better with each outing.
Miller’s 93-94 mph average velocity hasn’t fully returned just yet, but it’s trending in the right direction. He has some deception in his delivery with a bit of a crossfire and a quick arm, though his extension is below average. His two best pitches are his slider-changeup combination, the latter of which is consistently a plus pitch for him. He’ll mix in a slower sweeper that may just be a bigger breaking variation on the slider. The stuff isn’t overpowering, and Miller seems like a good candidate to mix in his sinker more to keep hitters off what is a pretty average fourseam fastball, but the main reason to be optimistic that he can put this all together is his advanced command. Miller throws everything for strikes and rarely makes a mistake over the middle. His walk and home runs allowed rates are miniscule and he has plenty of feel for working his fastball around the edges and inducing a lot of weak swings. The level of pitchability here is pretty high, and if he can get beyond the injuries, Miller is the type to keep developing his stuff and deploying it effectively at the major league level.
If he gets his velocity back, Miller could turn into a backend starter pretty quickly, but even at 92 mph he’s got a very strong floor as a good swingman who can handle a variety of roles and control right-handed hitters with his plus changeup.
10- 2B/3B Max Anderson
There isn’t a whole lot new to report as far as infielder Max Anderson goes. After an unknown injury put him on the shelf in April, he’s now played 38 games with the Triple-A Mud Hens and has been fine, but without anything to get too excited about until the past week or so. Anderson swings way too much to get to enough pitches he can drive, and that hasn’t changed yet in his second look at the level. He has talked about working on his swing decisions, so hopefully he’ll get there. On the plus side, he has very good hands and rarely strikes out even when fooled. Adjustments in his stance to a more upright posture has helped him pull the ball a little more as well. He just makes a ton of routine outs on the ground because he’s so often swinging at pitcher’s pitches that he can’t get in the air at all.
Even so, Anderson does have seven homers in those 38 games with the Hens, and has been heating up recently. If he ever refines his approach and starts getting himself more pitches to drive, he could break out as a serious right-handed power threat. He’s also shorn up his defense at second and third base, working on his range and first step. He rarely makes a mistake defensively. His only real issue is that he doesn’t have the speed and reaction time to cover quite as much ground as your average major league second or third baseman, but if he ultimately gets to his plus power, no one is going to care if he’s a bit below average defensively. It’s just a bit of an all or nothing profile with a good amount of risk.
11- OF Cris Rodriguez
The 18-year-old Rodriguez is just getting started in his pro career, but he’s already doing damage in the Complex League and showing plenty of potential defensively as well. A 36 percent strikeout rate with a really high swinging strike rate would be a harbinger of doom for a 21-year-old or older, but Rodriguez just moved to the States and he’s playing against a lot of college pitchers and older international free agents. On the plus side, he’s hitting the ball really hard, and rarely on the ground. He also isn’t popping up much. He’s got four homers, two triples, and seven doubles already in 119 plate appearances. The raw power is legit, and he’s got plenty of room to grow into more.
Defensively, he’s still pretty raw but has the speed and arm to stick in center field. Most likely, he’ll lose a step as he fills out his large, somewhat raw-boned frame, and we expect him to end up in right field. The tools are pretty big, but we’ll have to see how he adapts over the next season and a half. He’s got a lot of work ahead to handle breaking and offspeed stuff and develop the selectivity at the plate and bat control required to live up to his potential.
12- RHP Malachi Witherspoon
So far, the Tigers 2025 second rounder out of Oklahoma has looked very much as he did in college, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Witherspoon is up to 98-99 mph and sits comfortably with a 95.4 mph average on his sinker. His cutter, slider, and changeup will all flash plus but are still very inconsistent. That inconsistency was a problem in college and is largely unchanged in pro ball despite good results with the Lakeland Flying Tigers. He’ll dominate one Single-A outing, and then get tagged for strings of singles and walks in the next.
The sinker doesn’t get many whiffs unless he’s up near the top of his velocity band or up out of the zone, but that’s not really a major issue as it’s still a tough pitch to drive in the air. He has pretty outstanding stuff across the board, but his control is really sub-par for a pitcher with his experience. Witherspoon should be borderline unhittable at his current level. Pitching mechanics remain the big question mark, as he takes the ball straight back out of his glove and then drops his arm a little to sling it in with almost a sidearm motion. There’s just a lot of early separation between his arm and his torso, and it requires really good timing to sync the whole package up consistently.
Maybe he’ll figure it out with the right cues and more emphasis on his lower half drive to the plate. Maybe he’ll really need to consider making significant changes to his reliever-ish delivery. For now, he’s healthy and throwing hard, and the Tigers will just let him cook with what he’s got and see how far he can take it. With better command, Witherspoon could move straight to Double-A based on his stuff, but if wild swings in his performance continue, more drastic intervention will be required next offseason. He’s been quite durable in his career so far, but the range of potential outcomes is extremely wide. The Tigers might have a frontline starter here, or they may have a late innings reliever who frustrates like a right-handed Gregory Soto. His progress will be very interesting to follow.
13- RHP Kelvis Salcedo
The only reason 20-year-old Kelvis Salcedo isn’t much higher on this list is youth and inexperience. Like all young starting pitching prospects, there’s a bar of roughly 100 innings in a season to clear before we can have some confidence that they can hold up to the workload. In terms of stuff, Salcedo is arguably the Tigers’ best pitching prospect already. His control is pretty good for his experience level as well. Unfortunately, he’s battled some minor injuries so far this year and is currently back on the 7-day minor league injured list with an undisclosed injury. The Tigers lack of transparency regarding injuries makes it difficult to take them into proper account. We’ll just hope it’s as minor as it seems.
Salcedo burst on the scene last summer. He mauled Complex League hitters for a month before getting a 23.1 inning look at Single-A Lakeland. He was just as tough on hitters there, and it’s not hard to see why looking through his stuff numbers.
The right-hander has hit 99 mph and is typically mid-90’s with a tough fourseam fastball that has some natural cut to it. He backs it up with a fearsome high 80’s cutter with a whiff rate over 50 percent, a slower slider with more depth, and a pretty nasty splitter that he’s still working to refine. Salcedo stands 6’0” without the prototypical starting pitcher’s frame, but the same is true for Keider Montero and many other good pitchers in the major leagues. His delivery does look reliever-ish, but the pitch mix is plenty good enough to dominate as a starter. Only time will tell how his body holds up, and how far he can refine his command of the full pitch mix, but he’s a very exciting pitching prospect and just getting started.
14- C Michael Oliveto
The Tigers competitive balance round A selection in the 2025 draft, Oliveto has a sweet, left-handed swing and shows advanced control of the strike zone, good contact ability, and should blosson into above average power if things go well. He needs a lot of work behind the dish like any prep catcher, but the only tool that looks like it may not be enough to catch eventually is his arm, which is just average strength. I really like Oliveto to hit, though the Long Islander didn’t face top prep competition much and may need some seasoning initially in pro ball. Otherwise we’ll just see how things go in his development behind the plate. He was a strong student who drew strong marks for his character and leadership ability, so the Tigers believe he’ll get everything possible out of his natural ability.
There isn’t much new to report as he fractured a big toe in the spring, and just made his pro debut in the Complex League over the weekend. Expect him to stay there a while as the Tigers get him up to speed behind the plate enough to handle their Single-A pitchers across the Lakeland complex. He should get a look there before the season ends.
15- 2B/SS John Peck
Like Callahan, the 23-year-old Peck was signed for not much more than a minimum bonus. The Tigers liked the Pepperdine shortstop’s overall athleticism, and they’ve been rewarded as he’s blossoming into a decent shortstop who is quite good at either second or third base. Over the past year, Peck has added some good muscle and with it, better batspeed. That’s helped alleviate some weakness in his swing decisions. Peck is still too much of a free swinger, and much like Max Anderson needs to do a better job hunting pitches he can drive. Still, he’s doing damage, with 10 homers and plenty of extra base hits, and has 19 stolen bases. That’s pretty good for a guy who can handle the shortstop position.
Peck has a ways to go to threaten to become an everyday player, and needs to be more selective and make more hard contact at the plate. Still, he might make a fairly useful utility infielder for the Tigers as soon as 2027. Callahan is the more advanced hitter, but Peck seems about ready to tackle the Triple-A level and should move up with the natural roster progression after the draft. If he takes the next step the Tigers will have an average hitter who can play all over the diamond.
Other notable names
That’s just a brief rundown, largely covering the most relevant players, but there are plenty more interesting names to watch. As you’ll have already noted though, most of that interesting talent is still in A-ball or the Complex League. The Tigers also have numerous young pitchers who have been injured and haven’t pitched much, or at all like LHP Ethan Schiefelbein, RHP Zach Swanson, RHP River Hamilton, and RHP Michael Massey.
Key names to watch in the Complex League are LHP Paul Wilson, RHP Owen Hall, RHP Ryan Hall, and RHP Jhonan Coba. Coba is still just 19, but he’s ready to be tested in Lakeland. He’s got a plus fastball-slider combination already and throws strikes. He’s a bit undersized now, but there’s a lot of potential there. Wilson and Hall were the Tigers biggest pitching expenditures in the 2023 and 2024 drafts, respectively. They’ve each spent most of their pro careers on the shelf with injuries, but they’re getting reps in Complex League ball now, and once they’re built up, should be ready to tackle Lakeland again this summer.
As we’ve noted repeatedly, most of the Tigers prospect pitching talent is still below the A-ball level, but at West Michigan, Lucas Elissalt, Rayner Castillo, and Hayden Minton are all interesting under the radar starting pitcher prospects.
In Lakeland, the Tigers have RHP Charlie Christensen, a low three-quarters type with big extension and a good slider-changeup combination. His sinker is a little underpowered at 92-93 mph and largely succeeds through deception and a funky delivery. As a result he looks more like a future reliever right now, but if he finds some velo he could continue to track as a future starter. LHP Grayson Grinsell and LHP Caleb Leys are interesting future swingman types, while 19-year-old Australian Alistair Tanner has a really high IVB fourseam fastball and a wipeout breaking ball. He’s a long way away but the metrics on his stuff are quite impressive. We also like RHP Cale Wetwiska, whose cutting mid-90’s fourseamer and cutter are both quality offerings.
Lakeland also has a whole set of toolsy but flawed young outfield prospects. Zach MacDonald needs to really develop a better, more disciplined approach, but there aren’t so many players who can play center field and have the batspeed to hit the ball 115 mph off the bat. Anibal Salas, Jesus Pinto, my favorite of the group and still just 19, and Nick Dumesnil are all athletic outfielders who might clean up the holes in their games and become notable prospects. Behind the dish, Edian Espinal, who played second base in college and converted to catcher, shows a great eye and good contact ability. He has a lot to learn behind the plate, but he does have the raw tools to make it as a backstop.
We’ll also note a few toolsy position players at Erie like speed merchants CF Seth Stephenson, INF Peyton Graham, along with power-hitting 3B Izaac Pacheco, who are all handling the Double-A level well. Graham and Stephenson are a little too old to expect much, but either could get some bench work in the major leagues eventually. Pacheco is still only 23, and while he strikes out a ton, he is doing major damage and showing improved selectivity at the plate.
We could name a lot more players with at least some potential, and there are still plenty of pitchers on the shelf who can’t be evaluated until they return.
Overall, the Tigers have very good depth throughout the farm system, but with McGonigle graduated they’re just good rather than great at the top of the system. The pitching has been slow to develop but we’re seeing a lot more signs of life lately. Still, the upper minors could really use an infusion of high end pitching talent, and as we’ve seen, injuries could continue to strike and foil a lot of the hopefuls they have on hand. Positionally, they’re stacked with athletic, up the middle players with some power and solid contact ability. Hopefully they get a real breakout or two from that cohort in the years ahead. They’ve really emphasized athleticism and contact ability in the last few drafts, hoping the power comes later, and that may well prove a very good strategy. They’ve also shown some pivot from their prep heavy pitching drafts to more of a mix of underrated college and JUCO arms, and while they don’t have any major breakouts to brag on, there are a lot of potentially good pitchers below the Double-A level now.
