The holidays are over and winter has the glorious Great Lakes region in its grip once again. Baby it’s cold and dark outside in the north country. However, spring training and what looks like a potentially exciting sequel to the Tigers miraculous 2024 postseason run begins in only seven weeks. By mid February we’ll have action in Lakeland and plenty of enthusiasm for the season ahead The Tigers are in decent position to make another run, but as just about everyone agrees, they need a serious boost of offense to give themselves another crack of postseason baseball in 2025.
Beyond hopes for 2025, the long-term outlook for the organization is better than it has in more than a decade. They have a young, fairly talented major league roster, a low payroll currently, and one of the top farm systems in the game. Just as crucially, the Tigers continue to improve their drafting and their player development system, setting them up for ongoing success in producing homegrown talent.
It really was a banner year in the Tigers’ farm system. Their top prospects did really well overall, and through trade and development had numerous big breakouts to really boost their collection of high end talent. This season we’ll go 40 players deep on our BYB Detroit Tigers preseason prospect list, and there are plenty of players at least some major league potential who just missed the list.
As for which major league farm system is best, we’re not going to argue with any real conviction. The Seattle Mariners have a stacked group with a ton of upside, but maybe more risk than the Tigers top tier prospects. The Tampa Bay Rays look in good shape. The Red Sox have built up a strong farm as well. There are several really good systems otherwise, including a few that just got a little better by making trades this offseason.
Suffice it to say the Tigers are near the top. Their top ten stacks up against anyone. The middle tier depth beyond that doesn’t look as good on paper as some of the other top systems, but the heavy prep emphasis in Scott Harris’ first two drafts also makes the system a little harder to evaluate at the lower levels just yet.
We’re a big fan of that prep-heavy approach in general. Particularly in terms of pitchers, college coaching is taking them a lot closer to pro player development levels than used to be the case. Finding overlooked gems is getting harder at that level. Still, the result is that the Tigers have a lot of recent draft capital invested in 19 and 20-year-old pitchers who were selected in Harris’ first two drafts. They take it slow with their young arms, and most are still prepping to advance through Low-A ball.
Some, like 2024 draft picks SS Bryce Rainer, RHP Owen Hall, and LHP Ethan Schiefelbein, are already well regarded. Expect to see a few other talented young players emerge from the bottom of the list or just beyond to leap up the Tigers’ prospect rankings this season.
Graduation day is coming
On the other hand, the Tigers are quickly going to graduate top prospect RHP Jackson Jobe, INF Jace Jung, SS Trey Sweeney, LHP Brant Hurter, and catcher Dillon Dingler. The long-time Baseball America standard for prospect status is 130 major league at-bats, or as a pitcher, 50 innings pitched or 30 total appearances made to graduate from prospect status. MLB Pipeline does things a little differently, but either way all five will clear that bar easily this season.
As we’ve discussed quite a bit in our offseason coverage, the Tigers have a gap year developing where the aforementioned players, Jobe, Dingler, Sweeney, Hurter, and Jung will graduate, but the younger top prospects like Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, Thayron Liranzo, Josue Briceño, Bryce Rainer, and Jaden Hamm likely won’t be ready for major league action until 2026 and beyond.
The Tigers have infielder Hao-Yu Lee ready for Triple-A, and we think he’s underrated nationally. Lee was one of the best hitters in the Eastern League in 2024 and at age 21 he was also one of the youngest. He’s finding his way to tapping into his power potential and he’s already an advanced hitter with a good chance to hit for average and walk an average amount at the major league level eventually.
Lee has some work to do to stick at third base. His first season moving over from second base was okay but not terribly convincing either. If he taps into the power a little more he’s going to be valuable wherever he ends up on the infield. He made real strides in that regard this season and the potential for plenty more. There’s a good chance he builds on his strong 2024 work and is in position to help the Tigers in the second half of the 2025 season.
They also have a quality starting pitching prospect in Troy Melton who followed up his 2023 breakout season with a solid year at the Double-A. Melton throws hard, throws strikes, and has developed at a rapid pace over the past two seasons. He still has work left to dial in a little better breaking ball, but he throws a lot of strikes and has a solid chance to stay in a starting role.
Those are the only two prospects potentially bound for starting roles at the major league level who have already handled the Double-A level and had success. So, while they might get Lee and/or Melton to the majors this year, 2025 isn’t going to be the season where the next wave of big-time prospects breaks out into major league regulars. Look for 2026 ETAs on the next big wave of talent.
The youth movement
It’s difficult to be anything but highly optimistic about that younger group bound for the Double-A level in 2025. Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark are clear top 50 prospects in the game, and Scott Harris made another excellent trade at the deadline, landing catcher Thayron Liranzo and shortstop Trey Sweeney from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Liranzo has since done nothing but walk and mash baseballs while proving that he has the defensive chops to become a very solid major league backstop. He’ll tackle Double-A this season and should move as quickly as his defensive progress allows.
The year concluded with 19-year-old catcher Josue Briceño returning from an early season knee injury to absolutely destroy the Arizona Fall League despite having pretty minimal Low-A experience to that point. The left-handed slugger showed outstanding bat to ball skills, good plate discipline, and serious power potential. We were already high on him back in the spring before the injury. Watching him launch 10 home runs in less than a month and post a ridiculous 1.376 OPS against significantly more experienced pitching than he’d seen before en route to Fall League MVP honors only solidified our opinion that Briceño is one of the better all around hitting prospects in baseball. He came out of the rehab process stronger and using his lower half more effectively to drive balls in the air. The power erupted in a hurry.
The only thing keeping him from joining Clark, McGonigle, and Liranzo as top shelf prospects in the game are the defensive questions. Briceño looks like he’ll continue to catch this season after moving to first base after the knee injury. However, while he could ultimately reach the majors as a backup catcher, the bat is moving too quickly to allow the time to develop behind the plate unless the Tigers really believe he’s a future full-time catching option.
The Tigers are good at coaching catching and Briceño has pretty good hands and enough arm strength to be a solid backup. However, his, large frame and average reflexes still say that he’s not going to be a starting catcher. We expect an eventual move to first base to allow the bat to reach the major leagues quickly, perhaps as soon as 2026. The bat is plenty though, even if he ends up a 1B/DH.
In other trades, Harris acquired an interesting High-A level right-handed starter in Joseph Montalvo, and three quality relief prospects in RHP Tyler Owens, RHP Chase Lee, and RHP Eric Silva. None of that group has future ace reliever written all over him, but each has the stuff to develop into quality setup men in the Tigers’ bullpen eventually. Silva and Montalvo are a bit younger and probably need more time to develop, but Lee and Owens could well make their way into the Tigers’ relief corps at some point this season. They also have a good, hard-throwing, right-handed relief prospect in Yosber Sanchez to keep an eye on this season.
The rankings and reports
This year, rather than compressing all the prospect reports into one massive article, we will be putting out individual write-ups on each player. We’ll start at the top with Jackson Jobe as discussion inevitably centers around the top players on the list once it’s released. Once each report is done, we’ll link them to each players’ name below and keep this article on our front page all season so reports can be referred back to along the way.
Once again, I’ve assigned general future value estimates, in part just to illustrate that prospects are best placed into tiers, and that the numerical ranking within those tiers is pretty insignificant. Debating all of this is a big part of the fun of an offseason list, and even major league teams get these things wrong all the time. Projecting young baseball players is really difficult. So enjoy the discussion and don’t get caught up in the numerical rankings too much.
Here is the 2025 BYB top 40 list for the Detroit Tigers’ farm system.
60 FV
1. RHP Jackson Jobe
55 FV
2. SS Kevin McGonigle
3. CF Max Clark
4. C Thayron Liranzo
50 FV
5. C/1B Josue Briceño
6. SS Bryce Rainer
7. INF Jace Jung
8. 2B/3B Hao-Yu Lee
45+ FV
9. Dillon Dingler
10. RHP Jaden Hamm
11. LHP Brant Hurter
45 FV
12. SS Trey Sweeney
13. RHP Troy Melton
14. RHP Ty Madden
15. RHP Owen Hall
16. 2B/SS Franyerber Montilla
40+ FV
17. RHP Rayner Castillo
18. LHP Ethan Schiefelbein
19. OF Roberto Campos
20. RHP Joseph Montalvo
21. C Enrique Jimenez
22. LHP Gabriel Reyes
23. RHP Zach Swanson
40 FV
24. RHP Yosber Sanchez
25. RHP Tyler Mattison
26. RHP Wilmer Flores
27. LHP Paul Wilson
28. INF Eddys Leonard
29. RHP Michael Massey
30. 3B Carson Rucker
31. RHP Tyler Owens
32. INF Cristian Santana
35+ FV
32. RHP RJ Petit
34. LHP Jake Miller
35. OF Brett Callahan
36. RHP Chase Lee
37. OF Jackson Strong
38. LHP Blake Dickerson
39. INF Izaac Pacheco
40. OF Patrick Lee
The youth movement
It’s difficult to be anything but highly optimistic about the group bound for the Double-A level in 2025. Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark are clear top 50 prospects in the game, and Scott Harris made another excellent trade at the deadline, landing catcher Thayron Liranzo and shortstop Trey Sweeney from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Liranzo has since done nothing but walk and mash baseballs while proving that he has the defensive chops to become a very solid major league backstop. He’ll tackle Double-A this season and should move as quickly as his defensive progress allows.
The year concluded with 19-year-old catcher Josue Briceño returning from an early season knee injury to absolutely destroy the Arizona Fall League despite having pretty minimal Low-A experience to that point. The left-handed slugger showed outstanding bat to ball skills, good plate discipline, and serious power potential. We were already high on him back in the spring before the injury. Watching him launch 10 home runs in less than a month and post a ridiculous 1.376 OPS against significantly more experienced pitching than he’d seen before en route to Fall League MVP honors only solidified our opinion that Briceño is one of the better all around hitting prospects in baseball. He came out of the rehab process stronger and using his lower half more effectively to drive balls in the air. The power erupted in a hurry.
The only thing keeping him from joining Clark, McGonigle, and Liranzo as top shelf prospects in the game are the defensive questions. Briceño looks like he’ll continue to catch this season after moving to first base after the knee injury. However, while he could ultimately reach the majors as a backup catcher, the bat is moving too quickly to allow the time to develop behind the plate unless the Tigers really believe he’s a future full-time catching option.
The Tigers are good at coaching catching and Briceño has pretty good hands and enough arm strength to be a solid backup. However, his, large frame and average reflexes still say that he’s not going to be a starting catcher. We expect an eventual move to first base to allow the bat to reach the major leagues quickly, perhaps as soon as 2026. The bat is plenty though, even if he ends up a 1B/DH.
In other trades, Harris acquired an interesting High-A level right-handed starter in Joseph Montalvo, and three quality relief prospects in RHP Tyler Owens, RHP Chase Lee, and RHP Eric Silva. None of that group has future ace reliever written all over him, but each has the stuff to develop into quality setup men in the Tigers’ bullpen eventually. Silva and Montalvo are a bit younger and probably need more time to develop, but Lee and Owens could well make their way into the Tigers’ relief corps at some point this season. They also have a good, hard-throwing, right-handed relief prospect in Yosber Sanchez to keep an eye on this season.
The next wave of Tigers prospects
So the Tigers have this really strong group bound for Double-A this season. McGonigle, Clark, Liranzo, Hamm, and eventually Briceño will all play for the SeaWolves this season. The wild card in the system remains the huge amount of prep players that Scott Harris’ draft chiefs, VP of scouting Rob Metzler, and amateur scouting director Mark Conner, have built up over their first two drafts.
Other than Clark, McGonigle, and 2024 first round shortstop Bryce Rainer, many of their most interesting prep picks were pitchers. The 2023 picks largely worked in the Complex League and on the backfields this season. Presumably the 2024 selections will have a similarly quiet first pro season as well with restrictive innings limits enforced. Still, as Rainer and many of those 2023 selections play at the Low-A level in 2025 we’ll have a better look at the future.
The 2024 class after Rainer featured several prep pitchers we really like. The Tigers are likely to limit their innings and fine-tune their stuff and mechanics before sending them out to the Complex Leagues and then Single-A level should things go well. RHP Owen Hall (2nd Rd), LHP Ethan Schiefelbein (Comp B Rd), RHP Zach Swanson (9th Rd) were the three big prep pitchers selected in 2024. We’re also interested to see fourth round RHP Michael Massey out of Wake Forest, and lefty Micah Ashman, the Tigers’ 11th rounder out of Utah. They should be in High-A relatively quickly as advanced college arms.
Outfielder Jackson Strong, the Tigers’ seventh rounder out of Canisius University, was a sleeper pick that we liked and one of the few college hitters they selected in 2024 that we think has real potential. There’s a lot of work ahead to handle pro pitching, but he has decent plate discipline and a strong blend of speed and power to offer.
Tigers international
On the international player front, the Tigers now have Liranzo, Briceño, and some talented young pitching prospects like Rayner Castillo and Gabriel Reyes. Middle infielder Franyerber Montilla and catcher Enrique Jimenez are still just 19 years old, but both show the potential to hit and become good defenders at their respective positions. 2025 will be an interesting year for both as Jimenez reaches Single-A and Montilla looks to break out to High-A and beyond.
Outfielder Roberto Campos, one of the Tigers most expensive IFA signings ever, hasn’t broke out of A-ball yet, but he did have a good season with the West Michigan Whitecaps in a tough power-hitting environment. Still only 21 years old, Campos needs to tap into more of his raw power, but made some gains in that regard in 2024. He’ll tackle Double-A this season and has the potential to become a good, right-handed power-hitting corner outfielder for the Tigers.
The Tigers have struggled to produce talent from Latin America for a long time, but things are changing. The new facility the club is planning in the Dominican Republic is still apparently a few years from completion, but Harris and company are definitely making an effort to grow the Tigers’ presence internationally. Their long-term investments to improve the club’s international pipeline is long overdue.
Breaking down the list
When we get to the 35 future value tier, the Tigers actually have quite a stockpile of other players that could make the list. We cut it off at 40 players for the sake of manageability, but this is a far cry from a decade ago, when there may have only been 10-15 players some years with any realistic chance at a future major league role.
Some of those will be covered in articles on which prospects just missed the list. The Tigers are doing a much better job finding talent these days, and just as importantly, are taking far fewer players who from the jump have no real path to a major league career. There are plenty of talented arms in A-ball and the rookie level who could break out in a big way under the Tigers player development program.
Some who fell down the list or were left off entirely this year are hitters Izaac Pacheco, Cristian Santana, Justice Bigbie, and Peyton Graham. All four were hanging on last year but had tough years with minimal development. Santana and Pacheco are still just young enough to possibly figure it out and break through, but Bigbie will be 26 years old in a few weeks, and his already fringy profile hit a wall at the Triple-A level.
Graham’s speed and power combo has languished at the A-ball levels with plenty of minor injuries and little to no tangible development as a hitter. It’s hard to ignore a player talented enough to play shortstop who walks a ton and has good raw power and speed, but he is still whiffing a ton and hasn’t been able to tighten up his swing enough to drive the ball much against pro pitching.
The Tigers left infielder Gage Workman unprotected in the Rule 5 draft, and Jed Hoyer snatched him up for the Cubs. That’s a bit of a loss for the Tigers, and I didn’t love leaving him unprotected. There’s still plenty of swing and miss in Workman’s game, but he ditched switch-hitting to hit lefty full-time for the 2024 season and had a pretty solid breakout season at the Double-A level. Losing a hitter with above average speed and power, who can play a really good third base and a decent shortstop is tough for a system that lacks infielders on the left side of the diamond, particularly in the upper levels.
Still, it’s highly unlikely Workman breaks through as a regular utilityman for the Cubs. There is just too much swing and miss in his game to really tap into his offensive potential. The Tigers may get him back for depth over the course of the season if the Cubs can’t unlock something more this spring.
Likewise, catcher Liam Hicks was left unprotected as well, and the Texas Rangers claimed him in the Rule 5 draft. Hicks was acquired from the Rangers in the deal that sent Carson Kelly to Arlington at the trade deadline, and they apparently wanted him back. Hicks is a bit of a fringy defender, particularly in terms of his throwing, and he doesn’t have much power potential. We don’t expect this to cost the Tigers at all, but the fact remains that the Tigers could use better catching depth at the Triple-A level until Liranzo is closer to major league readiness behind the dish. They’ve already added one defensive specialist on a minor league deal to provide support.
Wilmer Flores and Eddys Leonard were both designated to make room on the 40-man roster back in November but weren’t claimed. They each signed minor league deals with the Tigers in December. That more or less tells you how they’re viewed nationally but they do have some potential to contribute in 2025. Flores in particular just needs to stay healthy. Leonard might do a decent Andy Ibáñez impression for a few weeks if he’s hot when the Tigers need a temporary infielder to cover for an injury.
Best of the rest
There are a few other players of note that are just a bit too old for the list.
RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long, who was rounding into a decent starting pitcher in 2023 before UCL reconstruction cost him all of 2024, will be interesting to follow in his age 27 season as he tries to work his way back.
LHP Lael Lockhart just turned 27 as well, and has a fastball that scrapes 90-91 mph but he owns perhaps the most lethal offspeed pitch in the system in his splitter. That pitch continued to rack up huge whiff rates in 2024. It’s easy to overlook him because of the low velocity, but Sean Guenther showed it can work last year and Lockhart’s splitter is even better.
Individual prospect reports will follow starting with Jackson Jobe. The Tigers have a deep, talented group of prospects built up, and are showing all the signs of strong scouting and player development departments to keep it going. They will be an exciting farm system to follow this season.