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Noteworthy Detroit Tigers Minor Leaguers: Part Two

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Welcome to the second in a series of four articles about Detroit Tigers minor leaguers who didn’t make our Top 25 prospects list.

If you landed here without reading the first list, go ahead and click here to read our preamble. The quick version is we like our Top 25 list, but there are plenty of other Tigers minor leaguers with noteworthy skills, and some of them may get them to the big leagues one day. We just want to relate what we’ve seen from them over the past few years.

There are more than 40 players in all, so we’ve split this list into multiple parts, and we’re listing the players alphabetically. Enjoy!

Jack Anderson – RHP

We forgot Jack Anderson on the first list, but he jumps to the top of the line here. Anderson is a pure reliever who closed games for Florida State in 2021 despite lacking high-octane stuff.  What Anderson does have is three distinct offerings, pitchability, and deception, and he pounds the strike zone. He struck out 72 batters and walked just 14 in 59.1 innings across Low-A and High-A in 2022, and he added another 10 innings in the Arizona Fall League. His fastball is only 90-93 mph, but both his slider and a changeup show above-average potential. So far that’s been enough for him to continue to close games in pro ball, but he’ll need to prove he can keep getting outs as he climbs the ladder.

Ulices Campos – RHP

Campos is another player who slipped past our alphabet detector. Maybe it was because he’s not the most famous Campos in the system. In any event, he owns a very interesting arm and could pop onto more radar screens in 2023. He made his pro debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2021, and then last year he posted a 2.92 ERA with a .192 batting average against in 49.1 innings between the complex league and Low-A in his age-20 season.

Campos stands just 5-foot-10, but he has a sturdy build and a drop-and-drive delivery that helps him sit in the mid-90s with both his four-seamer and his sinker. He also throws a mid-80s slider than that generated a whiff rate above 50% in the Florida State League and a firm changeup that sits around 87 mph. His walk rate is a bit high, and there’s effort in his delivery, so he’s probably a reliever long term, but he might be one of Lakeland’s better starting pitchers in 2023.

Aaron Haase – RHP

Haase is similar to Jack Anderson, in that he’s a pure reliever who served as a closer in college (Wichita State) despite owning below-average velocity. He’s also a bit smaller than Anderson, standing 5-foot-8, but Haase uses his shorter stature to his advantage by keeping his 91-93 mph, high-spin (2,500 RPM) four-seamer at the top of the zone, and then burying his high-spin breaking ball in the dirt. Haase was dominant for a few months in Low-A, but he made just two appearances for High-A West Michigan before suffering a season-ending injury. He should return to work in the back of the bullpen for the Whitecaps in 2023.

Wilkel Hernandez – RHP

The Tigers acquired Wilkel Hernandez in late 2017 for Ian Kinsler, and it’s been a slow ascent for him ever since. Hernandez showed flashes of promise in 2018 and 2019, but then lost 2020 to the pandemic. He saw a velocity bump that fall, but then went down with Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2021. He returned to Low-A last year and once again showed some promise, at times flashing a dominant sinker that touched 97 mph. But his secondary stuff remained inconsistent, and he hit the injured list in early July and never returned to action. He is reportedly healthy this spring, but he’s now 24 and has yet to pitch above Low-A, so it’s hard to know what to expect. He could make for an interesting bullpen arm.

Zack Hess – RHP

Zack Hess was Detroit’s 7th round pick in 2019 and he was viewed as a potentially fast-moving relief prospect. The pandemic threw a wrench into those plans, but Hess did make it to Double-A and the Arizona Fall League in 2021. Unfortunately, he then went down with Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2022. When he’s healthy his fastball parks in the low-to-mid 90s, his slider flashes above-average potential, and he has a usable changeup. He’s always had a violent delivery, with a prominent arm stab and a pretty severe head whack that leads to release point inconsistencies and high walk totals. Hess missed enough bats to survive in the low minors, and he may continue getting late-inning chances once he returns from injury. But his pure stuff isn’t quite good enough to consistently succeed at higher levels without his control getting a notch or two better.

Jake Holton – 1B

Holton is one of the more patient hitters in the system, and he combines that with decent bat-to-ball skills. He was a two-way player in junior college and he’s a quality defender at first base who has also seen some time in the outfield corners. He’s a solid player, but the main thing holding him back right now is a lack of in-game power. Holton has strength — he hit five home runs in a six-game series at Fort Wayne last year — but he went deep just 13 times overall. He may see an uptick in power production with a move to the more hitter-friendly Eastern League, but the offensive bar to succeed as a first basemen or corner outfielder is very high. Holton’s bat is just a bit light to project him as more than a quality organizational player.

Blake Holub – RHP

Holub is another former two-way player, but the Tigers drafted him as a pitcher in the 15th round in 2021. He’s big (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) and he throws a bit like an outfielder, with a longer arm stroke and a high-3/4 release point. But Holub owns a pretty electric fastball that sits at 94 mph and will touch 96 with natural cut, and he’ll occasionally break off a decent mid-80s slider or low-80s curve. He posted an ugly 6.23 ERA last year, and he walked too many batters, but his FIP was more than two runs lower than his ERA, and there’s enough here to continue developing Holub as a reliever.

Andrew Jenkins – 1B

Jenkins had a big junior year at Georgia Tech, batting .381 with 17 home runs, and the Tigers drafted him in the ninth round in 2022. He has some hitting ability and raw power, though he didn’t get to much of it in a limited sample in pro ball, with his exit velocity topping out around 105 mph. Jenkins is a quality first baseman who may be able to handle an outfield corner, but the main issue for him has always been plate discipline. He posted just a 6% walk rate in college while striking out nearly 23% of the time, and that sort of ratio generally doesn’t portend great things in pro ball. But, if the Tigers can find a way to squeeze out some more patience from Jenkins, he has some interesting offensive potential.

Marco Jimenez – RHP

There aren’t many pitchers in Detroit’s system who throw harder than Marco Jimenez. And there definitely aren’t any other starters in the system of who throw this hard, though Jimenez is a starter in name only. His four-seamer and sinker both sit at 95-96 mph and will touch 99, and he also throws a low-80s slider and an upper-80s changeup that both flash as average or better. But Jimenez has a very tenuous relationship with the strike zone, and his command issues also lead to him getting hit harder than he should. To be fair to him, he did miss all of 2021 with Tommy John surgery, and there isn’t a ton of effort in his delivery, so perhaps he can improve his strike throwing in 2023. Still, we expect him to settle into a permanent bullpen role in the future.

Dom Johnson – OF

Johnson had a fairly limited track record before signing with the Tigers in the 13th round in 2022. He was a draft-eligible sophomore who barely played for Oklahoma State as a freshman, but he had a solid stint in the Cape Cod League and then transferred to Kansas State, where he posted a 1.012 OPS in 57 games. Johnson is just 5-foot-9, but he’s sturdy and tooled up. He’s a plus-plus runner with good bat speed, and while he mostly sprays line drives he can occasionally put a charge into the ball. He hasn’t quite turned all of his tools into usable baseball skills yet, though. He’s not as good of a base runner as his pure speed would suggest, and he mostly played left field in college, so he may need to adjust to playing center more regularly.

Corey Joyce – IF

Corey Joyce was one of the top performers in Detroit’s system last year, finishing with a 144 wRC+ across three levels. He mostly played shortstop, and he saw time at third base, but second base is ultimately his best fit because his foot speed and arm strength are just average. He’s one of the more patient hitters in the system, and he generally stays in the strike zone. Joyce also has sneaky extra-base pop thanks to an uphill swing and a pull-heavy approach. But that approach doesn’t project to produce high batting averages, and pitchers can beat him above the zone with velocity and inside the zone with quality breaking balls. Joyce will be 24 for most of the year and figures to spend the season between Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo. There’s a chance he works his way into a utility role in the big leagues one day.

 

Chance Kirby – RHP

At 27, Kirby is a little bit too old to be considered a traditional prospect. But he has slowly improved each year, and in 2022 he was the anchor of Erie’s rotation, posting an excellent 2.62 ERA and holding hitters to just a .197 batting average. He has a legitimate three-pitch mix and throws plenty of strikes, but his arsenal is just a bit light. His fastball generally sits 90-92 mph with a bit of armside movement, while his slider will vary in speed and shape, but it’s usually in the 82-84 mph range with short, cutterish movement. His best offering is his changeup, which sits around 84-85 mph and shows above-average fade and tumble. He’s the sort of guy who might get added to 40 man roster one day in an emergency, but that’s the sort of thing that is hard to project.

Part Three is coming soon!

Welcome to the second in a series of four articles about Detroit Tigers minor leaguers who didn’t make our Top…

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