Major League Baseball is introducing the Spring Breakout series this week, which will give fans a look at each team’s farm system in competition with another.
Sixteen games will be held between March 14-17, including the Detroit Tigers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, March 16 at 1:05 p.m. ET. The game will take place at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. Fans can follow the game with an MLB digital subscription (MLB.tv, MLB.com, MLB App), Tigers.com, Phillies Radio or ESPN+ Gameday.
The Tigers haven’t been very good over the past few years, so there are plenty of highly-touted draft selections that hardcore fans are dying to see. Most of these guys have spent the spring with the minor league camp.
Let’s break down the Breakout roster by position. If a player is ranked among the team’s top 34 prospects, per Bless Yo Boys, their ranking will be listed in parentheses.
Pitchers:
Right-handers: Troy Melton (No. 6), Ty Madden (No. 7 ), Wilmer Flores (No. 11), Max Alba and RJ Petit.
Melton, a fourth-round pick in 2022, broke out last season as one of the farm’s best arms, but he left his final start of the season with an injury. In this case, no news is good news, and he appears healthy and good to go this spring. Melton has developed into a power pitcher as his fastball has continued to add velocity. He can touch triple digits and backs it with a good changeup and a cutter he developed in 2023 that made really good strides as the year progressed.
Madden got a non-roster invite to big-league camp and showed off a fastball that touched 97-98 mph at times and a breaker with a ton of vertical movement. Flores has even more gas, showing off 99 mph out of the bullpen this spring, but he’s been hittable and still struggles to control his breaking ball at times.
Alba held a 4.07 ERA and 4.22 FIP over 55 innings out of the bullpen in Lakeland last year. Petit faced two batters in big-league camp as part of a split-squad call-up. He features an above-average slider in his arsenal and is still developing his changeup. Petit has been with the system since 2021 and spent most of last season in Double-A Erie.
Left-handers: Brant Hurter (No. 16), Jake Higginbotham, Andrew Magno and Adam Wolf.
Hurter signed with the Tigers as a seventh-round pick in 2021 and quickly moved up the farm in 2022 thanks to his plus slider. He spent all of 2023 in Double-A and got a spring training invite this year. He managed a 1.13 ERA over eight innings, but his strikeout rate was down significantly.
Higginbottom started with the Atlanta Braves and came over to Detroit as part of the Joe Jiménez deal that brought over Justyn-Henry Malloy. His stuff has been average at the Double-A level, so expect him to be a Triple-A guy this season.
Magno is a staff favorite. His funky delivery and high-spin slider are what make him a prospect-watcher darling. There’s strikeout stuff here but he walks a lot of guys too. Wolf is a fifth-round pick from 2018 who’s spent time as a one-batter matchup guy during spring training.
Catchers:
Dillon Dingler (No. 12), Josue Briceno (No. 18) and Eliézer Alfonzo
Dingler might be the catcher of the future in Detroit, at least for a year or two. He’s got a plus arm and is strong defensively, but he hasn’t hit consistently enough to get the call. Dingler’s hit well so far in spring training, though, slashing .286/.421/.500 over 19 plate appearances.
Briceno is a 19-year-old, big-bodied catcher who mashed in the Complex League last season and moved up to Single-A Lakeland for 11 games. He went 4-for-15 with two doubles when Bless You Boys saw him with the Flying Tigers, but hit better in the two other series he played in. He could end up a designated hitter or first baseman, but he’s been fine at catcher so far.
Like Briceno, Alfonzo is an international signee who is working his way up the organization. He finally saw time in Double-A after bouncing around Single-A and High-A for the past three years. His bat has always been good for the level he’s at, but Double-A is a big jump.
Infielders:
2B/3B Jace Jung(No. 5), SS/2B Kevin McGonigle (No. 8), INF Cristian Santana (No. 14), 2B Hao-Yu Lee (No. 19), 2B Max Anderson (No. 20), 2B Wenceel Pérez (No. 25), 3B/2B Luke Gold (No. 29), SS Trei Cruz (No. 31) and 1B Jake Holton
Jung, the 12th overall pick in the 2022 draft, split his first full season as a pro with High-A West Michigan and Double-A Erie. He hit better in Erie, slashing .284/.373/.563 compared to .254/.377/.465 against High-A arms. There’s optimism that Jung will transition to third base well enough to play it in the MLB, and he’s hit well over 21 plate appearances during spring training.
McGonigle, a 1A-round compensatory pick last year, is the top shortstop in the system, but it’s going to take a few more seasons for the 19-year-old to reach Detroit. The quick left-handed bat is going to play at every level and he has sneaky power. Defensively, he’s likely to stay at shortstop. The Tigers don’t have a ton of options there and Magoo is solid for his age.
Santana, another IFA that’s been around for awhile, can play everywhere on the infield, but he might be an option at designated hitter in this lineup. He has a very good eye (21.7% walk rate) and good power in his bat, but the consistency isn’t there yet. He struggled in Single-A last year, slashing .156/.365/.312.
Detroit has several second-base prospects, at different levels of the farm. Lee came over from Philly in the deadline deal for Michael Lorenzen. He only played eight games in Detroit’s system before dealing with an injury, but he doesn’t strike out very often and could get the call to Double-A this year.
Anderson, Detroit’s second-round pick in the 2023 draft, hit well in his first 145 pro plate appearances. There’s some obvious power already and he only made one error at second over 209 innings.
Gold, a fifth-round pick in 2022, should come in at third whenever Detroit turns to the backups, but he’s spent time at second too. Pérez (IFA) and Cruz (3rd round, 2020) are utility guys who are starting to see more time in the outfield.
Holton, a 10th-round pick in 2019, is the only player on this roster with experience at first base behind catcher Josue Briceno, so he could be manning that corner all day for the Breakout squad. There’s some power in his bat, too.
Outfielder
Max Clark (No. 3), Justice Bigbie (No. 15), Roberto Campos (No. 27), Brady Allen, Brett Callahan and Seth Stephenson.
Ah, yes, the reason you clicked this article.
The Prodigal Son of Franklin, Indiana, the answer to Detroit’s baseball woes, the drip king, Mr. Instagram, the real-life 2Chainz, Twitch streamer extraordinaire, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 draft… Max Clark.
Perhaps my intro is too heavily laced with sarcasm, but it can’t be overstated how much Tigers fans are putting on this kid’s shoulders. Scott Harris shocked many by taking Clark, a high-school bat that still needs to develop, over a college player who looks like he’ll debut sometime this season, if not on Opening Day, but the important thing to remember is that Clark is going to be really, really good, and it’s not hard to see when you watch him play.
Sure, he slashed .154/.353/.179 over 51 plate appearances in Single-A after hitting well in the Complex League, but that’s what 18-year-olds are supposed to do. To give some perspective, Clark was 1.6 years younger than the average Complex League player last season and 3.2 years younger than the average Single-A player.
Watch Clark’s at-bats when he starts in centerfield for this Breakout game. There’s intent in everything he does and he’s learning with every pitch. Clark adjusted his swing over the offseason, so we’ll get a good look at that as well.
Bigbie is on the Kerry Carpenter fast track. Drafted in the 19th round in 2021, Bigbie made the jump from High-A to Triple-A last year. There’s some serious power here and he could end up seeing time in Detroit later on this year.
Roberto Campos (IFA) should be the other starting outfielder for Detroit in the Breakout game. He’s the everyday centerfielder in West Michigan, but he might get moved over for Clark. Campos’ bat is fairly average, but he hits the ball really hard. If he can figure out his swing a bit and finally put more balls in the air, there’s some potential there.
Allen came over in a trade with Miami for a minor-league outfielder approaching Rule 5 eligibility. He was elevated to Double-A for eight games after starting the season with West Michigan, where he slashed .264/.377/.485. He also received a spring training invite.
Callahan went 6-for-16 with a double and six runs batted in when Bless You Boys was in Jupiter. He was one of the more exciting players on the field for Lakeland. A little Donny Kelly feeling there, if you will.
Seth Stephenson, a 7th-round pick from 2022, spent most of last season as the everyday centerfielder in Lakeland, but he ended the year in West Michigan. Stephenson is fast and he hit well in his first year as a pro.