The Detroit Tigers high water mark in top 100 prospects came prior to the 2021 season, when Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Spencer Torkelson, and Riley Greene were all represented on most top national lists. With all those players now long graduated, and joined by other top 100 guys like Colt Keith and Parker Meadows, at least according to some lists, one might begin to worry that the farm system is starting to run on empty. That is, unless you’ve been paying attention the past two years.
Al Avila left Scott Harris with plenty of under-developed talent, and his final two first rounders, RHP Jackson Jobe and 3B Jace Jung, are both present on top 100 lists, as they were to start the year. So the cupboard was reasonably full when Harris took over. The rest is all the work of Scott Harris and his scouting department chiefs, Rob Metzler and Mark Conner.
The fact that the Tigers have seven prospects ranked in Baseball America’s new 100 is largely a testament to Harris and company’s work over the past two seasons.
Jackson Jobe is now the third ranked prospect in baseball, and Avila’s decision to select the wunderkind teenager is now well validated, despite solid progress from Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer. Jobe has had his command issues in recent weeks and his strikeout rates have fallen off as a result. But he’s still not getting hit hard at all, even as he and the Tigers continue to make adjustments to his delivery.
Jace Jung is ranked 72nd best prospect in baseball, and while he hasn’t made an impact at the major league level, he had a good year in Toledo and has shown a disciplined game in his limited time with the Tigers.
The rest is all Harris.
Max Clark checks in at 21st overall, while Kevin McGonigle ranks 23rd among all prospects. The 2023 draft is grading out quite well in retrospect.
The Tigers used their first round pick in 2024 on prep left-handed hitting shortstop Bryce Rainer, and he ranks 84th. Rainer is still in instructs and hasn’t gotten any real game action as of yet, but many thought he was the steal of the first round at 11th overall after being widely expected to go in the top ten.
Rounding out the Tiger representatives on the list are C/1B Thayron Liranzo, who has already displayed his switch-hitting power and plate discipline since arriving in High-A West Michigan. He was the prize acquisition from the Jack Flaherty trade with the Dodgers back in July.
Finally, we have RHP Jaden Hamm, the Tigers 2023 5th rounder out of Middle Tennessee State. The 21-year-old’s fastball continues to draw a ton of whiffs due to his arm angle, riding action, and deception, and he packs a nasty breaking ball and a developing changeup to go with it.
One could also go to bat for C/1B Josue Briceno, who was extremely impressive at the plate this season before a knee injury cost him several months of playing time. If he snuck on a top 100 list we wouldn’t be shocked. Likewise one could argue for infielder Hao-Yu Lee, who had a huge breakout campaign going as a 21-year-old in Double-A before injuries spoiled the second half of the season for him.
Beyond all this, the Tigers have a really outstanding collection of raw arms now stockpiled at the A-ball and rookie ball levels after leaning heavily into arms, particularly prep arms, beyond the early rounds in both of Harris/Metzler/Conner’s first two drafts. A collection of toolsy middle infielders who might provide some future utility value is also growing at those lower levels as well.
The Detroit Tigers are in a crucial position heading into this offseason. Guys like Jung, Trey Sweeney, Ty Madden, and Dillon Dingler, aren’t established yet and Dingler is the only one with a real lock on 2025 playing time due to his defensive ability. Likewise Keider Montero and Brant Hurter have an inside track to the 2025 pitching staff, but it isn’t entirely clear what role they’ll be filling.
Jackson Jobe is tracking to debut sometime early in 2025, and it’s not impossible that RHP Troy Melton or Hao-Yu Lee will be a factor next season as well. But the fact is we’re into the gap where the majority of their talent is either fairly recently graduated, or still likely on 2026-2027 ETA’s.
At the major league level, the Tigers have a young roster playing to a .500 level and they can hope for further development from players on the active roster next year. But there isn’t much help coming beyond Jobe next year. And so there’s a year or two coming up where it really seems like it’s time for the Tigers to invest in trades and signings, and try to win now while they still have Tarik Skubal for two more seasons.
The present looks much improved over the past few seasons, and the long-term future looks very bright as judged by the rebuilt stockpile of talent in the A-ball levels. It’s easy to feel confident that the Harris-led front office can continue to draft and develop players. The question left is whether Harris can put this new brain trust to work to actually build a major league roster capable of winning the division in 2025-2026 until the next wave starts to make their presence felt.
Let’s hope for a strong offseason.