One thing about summers on the farm — whether you’re talking baseball, or agriculture.
They tend to be hot. And fatiguing.
Ask minor-leaguers nationwide as they begin to wear down in the heat and the grind of playing daily games.
The second half of a five-month schedule is in full sprint and Tigers farmhands are coping and, in some cases, flourishing. It’s what they’ve done to date that makes those final weeks ahead critical for players, and for a Tigers front office that needs all the roster replenishment it can get.
A look at how the first half has shaped up across Detroit’s minor-league tiers:
► Best performance by a hitter: Colt Keith, third base, West Michigan. A shame he separated his right shoulder on June 9, because Keith, who is only 20, was looking as if Double-A Erie might be on his summer itinerary. Keith is a left-handed stick, and a good one, who already is auditioning for Opening Day work in Detroit in 2024. He probably remains at third base but could, if helpful, shift to second. It’s the fury and consistency with which he attacks pitches that has made a fifth-round pick (2020) the hottest talent anywhere on Detroit’s farm. He was hitting .301 in 48 games with a .914 OPS and nine homers when he got hurt. Keith is expected back sometime in August.
► Most impressive work by a pitcher: Wilmer Flores, right-hander, Erie. Flores, 21, has a high-octane fastball (97, 98) and swerving slider that hint at the highest upside of any Tigers farm pitcher this side of a kid named Jackson Jobe. Flores will be playing in next weekend’s Futures Game, which showboats a MLB team’s best young talent. He’s earned it.
► Second-best effort by a pitcher: Reese Olson, right-hander, Erie. Olson is 22, came to the Tigers last July in a trade that sent Daniel Norris to the Brewers. He got nicked Thursday night (at Harrisburg: five innings, seven hits, five earned runs), but has otherwise been steady and sterling for the Double-A SeaWolves.
► Best overlooked performer (pitcher): Probably the guy who made deadlines last July when Detroit got him with the 32nd overall pick: Ty Madden, now slinging at West Michigan. He has been just fine with the Whitecaps, but after sitting out last summer (Madden’s workload had been heavy last spring at the University of Texas), he needed a full first season of pro baseball at Comstock Park. He has been developing location and a full quiver of pitches and should be chucking with authority next year at Erie. A potential Comerica Park call-up would not be over-imagining things.
► Most underrated Tigers farm pitcher: Elvin Rodriguez. He was good enough to make a handful of spot-starts for the Tigers, so it’s not as if he has gone unnoticed. But he might not get the applause merited, which was typified in his Friday start (4-1 Mud Hens triumph at Omaha: five innings, three hits, one run, no walks, five strikeouts. He’s walked a few too many (19 in 47 innings) but, at 24, this right-hander should be more than helpful this year and beyond.
Second prize: Chance Kirby, Erie, right-hander: He was a 25th-rounder in 2018 (Hyde Park Baptist High, Austin, Texas), which is in that vicinity where Beau Brieske and Garrett Hill also were drafted. His numbers for the year: 18 games (10 starts), 71.1 innings, 47 hits, 16 walks, 63 strikeouts, which is how you have an 0.88 WHIP and 2.02 ERA.
► Hot-ticket prospect with one big question: Dillon Dingler, catcher, Erie. There had been thoughts, exceeded by front-office hopes, that Dingler by now would be ripping Double-A pitching and closing in on a starting job in 2023. But for all his skills behind the plate, Dingler hasn’t been stinging the ball in any steady manner. He has time, even this season, to catch fire. But catching takes so much out of a man that second halves tend to be even more wearing. Dingler is 23 and the Tigers will wait. He’ll get adequate time in 2023 to show that he, in fact, is the man the Tigers were banking on with the 38th overall pick in 2020. Notice that he’s headed for the July 16 Futures Game as one of the Tigers’ two representatives. A significant salute there.
► Biggest jump by a hitter: Wenceel Perez, second base, Erie. Perez got a nice bonus ($550,000) when the Tigers signed him in 2016. Now, at 22, a switch-hitter is swinging as well at Erie as he was when his early 2022 work at West Michigan (.286, .894 OPS) pushed him to Double A. What’s changed is Perez’s power — 10 homers total, to go with 17 doubles and nine triples. He could be playing his way into some future plans as Detroit ponders down-the-road rosters.
More: Around the Tigers’ farm: Wenceel Perez restoring some early Detroit faith
► Biggest overall questions (still): Will those young outfielders, Parker Meadows and Daniel Cabrera, pan out? It’s time Meadows and Cabrera showed they can candle Double-A pitching, which is your basic pre-requisite for big-league life. Meadows was a first pick in Round 2 of the 2018 Draft. Cabrera was a second-rounder in 2020. Neither has shown, for any duration, they can hit sufficient to survive much past Double A. Same for another draft disappointment, Trei Cruz, a third-rounder in 2020 who is stuck at West Michigan and not producing there. One more for the mix: Gage Workman, the Tigers’ 2020 fourth-rounder, who this year has struck out more than 30% of the time.
► Guy not to worry about (although a lot of fans are sweating): Jackson Jobe, right-handed pitcher, Single-A Lakeland. He is 19 years old. He did not pitch last summer, all because he had just wrapped up a 51-inning prep stint in Oklahoma and the Tigers figured Tommy John surgery was no way to greet the 2021 Draft’s third overall pick and recipient of $6.9 million in Tigers payroll. This spring and summer has been weekly instruction in Pro Baseball 101. And Jobe is doing fine. People need to remember that hopping from high school to low-Single A is like moving from a tricycle to a Harley-Davidson. He is learning to spot his fastball, sharpen his high-RPM slider, throw change-ups, hold runners, pitch to data reports — a lot of stuff. A lot of it. People should relax and cease flipping every five minutes to Marcelo Mayer’s batting exploits at Single-A Salem. Jobe was a solid third overall draft pick. Give him a modicum of time to prove it.
► Most frustrating young hitter: Manuel Sequera, infielder, Single-A Lakeland: He is 19 years old and has 14 home runs in the old Florida State League’s expansive ballparks. The problem is Sequera swings at everything. He has 11 walks in 300 plate-appearances. There, your honor, is why the prosecution submits a .263 on-base percentage can, and probably will, sabotage a potential big-league career if Sequera doesn’t change some deeply ingrained habits.
Keep also in mind this truth: Kids often can change, in profound and even dramatic fashion, on the farm. While it’s a good bet Sequera won’t transform into Tony Gwynn, it’s always wise — and entertaining — to chart these rough-edged kids as they wend their way through the bushes.
Along the path there will be some surprises — and some big-leaguers evolving.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and former Detroit News sports reporter.