We’ve had a little bit of a soft spot for right-hander Carlos Marcano over the past few seasons. The 22-year-old has barely gotten a mention nationally, and that was pretty understandable until late in the 2025 season. His breaking stuff was pretty fringy, and he basically profiled as a 92-93 mph sinkerballer with advanced control but without the potential swing and miss secondary pitches to reach the major leagues. Marcano joined the litany of injured Tigers’ pitching prospects in 2025, but returned
late in the year with much improved velocity. Patience paid off, and we’re very interested now to see how he builds on his 2025 developments.
The Venezuelan born Marcano signed with the Tigers as a 17-year-old international free agent in the 2021 class. Standing 6’2”, the right-hander had enough of a frame to suspect that he could add plenty of strength to his 150 pound frame and translate that into good velocity.
After coming stateside in 2022, Marcano was a pretty durable and effective starting pitcher in 2023. He threw 100 innings in his age 19 season and while the whiffs weren’t there, he showed advanced control and prevented home runs well. In 2024 he moved up to High-A West Michigan and tossed 112 innings over 23 starts, posting a strong 3.86/3.36 ERA and FIP combination, smothering any power from opposing hitters and throwing a really good ratio of strikes. Still, he only punched out 19.9 percent of hitters, and his fringy curveball and changeup combination were not standout offerings.
He started out the 2025 season repeating High-A and didn’t look right in the early going. Occasionally he would rack up a good amount of punch outs against lesser opposition, but his control was suddenly a lot spottier, and that was the precursor to what we assume was shoulder trouble that put him on the shelf in late May. The Tigers don’t report much in the way of injury details anymore unless surgery was involved. Marcano spent June, July, and part of August on the injured list, but in the process he appears to have taken the opportunity to build strength and improve his lead leg blocking. Those physical improvements were in evidence when he returned in August.
In his rehab work at Single-A Lakeland, Marcano was suddenly sitting a comfortable 95 mph and topping out at 97 with his sinker. His 84 mph slider looked sharper as well and became a bigger part of his arsenal. His 80-81 mph curveball is still more of a strike stealer than a swing and miss offering, but that little bit of extra velocity had it playing up as well, and his changeup flashed above average to give him a solid offspeed offering.
What didn’t come back so easily was his control, and his numbers were a bit of a mess as he walked a lot more batters than is usual for him. Still, control has never been a big concern and that should return with a healthy offseason. The sizable velocity jump is a major development for Marcano and his numbers in four rehab starts to finish the year in Lakeland don’t concern me. Much more telling was his return to the Whitecaps in the postseason, where he posted a 4 2/3 inning scoreless relief appearance with seven strikeouts in the Midwest League championship series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. You can see that below courtesy of Tigers Minor League Report.
The trick now is to develop his slider into more of a whiff generator and keep developing command of his changeup. He spins both breaking balls in with about 2500 rpms, and the improved velo on those pitches is a very positive development in terms of getting more whiffs from them, especially the slider. With an upgraded set of weapons, the trick in 2026 will be commanding it all and pushing his way to the Double-A level in what will be his age 22 season. If he can take that step, backend starter projections start to look a lot more realistic.
Marcano is probably never going to be a frontline guy in a rotation or a bullpen. But he racks up plenty of ground balls, throws a lot of strikes, and until 2025 had been on a really good track in terms of durability, topping 100 innings in a season twice. As long as he sustains the velocity bump, he’s equipped now with the tools to keep developing into a pretty useful pitching prospect who might fight his way into a backend starter or middle reliever job in time. He needs to get more whiffs, but his 2026 season will be worth keeping an eye on.
