The Tools series continues with the best power hitters in the Detroit Tigers system

The Detroit Tigers aren’t a championship club, and the farm system isn’t elite. But the organization seems headed in the right direction, and things are far better now than they were a few years ago. And a lot of that improvement has to do with power.

From 2010-2019 the Tigers had just 13 minor-league hitters reach 20 home runs in a season. It’s a list that includes journeymen like Danny Dorn, Brad Eldred, Mike Hessman, and Gabriel Quintana. The only prospects were Steven Moya, Christin Stewart, and Casper Wells. In 2019 the entire Tigers minor-league system saw just five players hit more than 15 home runs. And none of them were real prospects.

But in the last three seasons there have been 15 different Tigers minor leaguers who hit 20+ home runs in a season. And that power production has begun to bubble up to the big leagues. Last year Kerry Carpenter and Spencer Torkelson became just the fifth and sixth homegrown Tigers to hit 20+ home runs in a season since 2000. And, as you’ll see below, there’s more power on the way.

But a quick aside before we get to the list. Baseball scouting types tend to offer two different grades for power. The first is the Raw Power, which is just a measure of how hard and far a player can hit the ball. The other grade is for Game Power, which is how well that raw pop plays in games.

In the past Raw Power was typically measured in batting practice, and sometimes pejoratively called “five o’clock power.” And Game Power was simply measured in terms of production. Now, thanks in part to our data warlock Jerry, we have a lot of exit velocity data we can use. And for our purposes maximum exit velocity maps well to Raw Power. And while we’ll still rely on game production, we’ll also fold in 95th percentile exit velocity for our Game Power.

To the list!

Detroit Tigers Top Power Tools

1 – Colt Keith

Colt Keith headlined our list of the best hit tools in the Detroit Tigers system. And he deserves to top this list, too. He’s pretty dang good. Keith doesn’t have the most raw power in the system, but he’s close. And no one gets to more of it than him. In 2023 he finished 2nd among Tigers minor leaguers with 27 home runs, and he led the organization with 38 doubles. Keith’s average exit velocity (88.8 mph) and max EV (110.1 mph) in Toledo were pretty average by MLB standards. But they are nearly identical to Nolan Arenado’s exit velo numbers, and he seems like a decent player. It’s also worth noting that Keith’s 95th percentile EV (106.7 mph) is 1.5 mph harder than the MLB average. Colt Keith may not win a home run crown, but there’s probably at least one 30-homer season in his future.

Colt Keith absolutely demolishes this ball for a 2-run homer. It’s his 2nd home run with Toledo and his 16th overall. How about 108.9 mph off the bat and 473 feet. 👀🐎💣 pic.twitter.com/FIV8r0vStF

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) June 30, 2023

2 – Jace Jung

Jace Jung slugged .647 in his college career, earning him a reputation as a hitter with easy plus power. But Jung’s pro debut in 2022 wasn’t terribly impressive, with just one home run over 30 games. He may have been injured, or tired after a long season. But whatever the reason, it’s long in the past now, as Jung led all Tigers minor leaguers with 28 home runs in 2023. Jung doesn’t hit titanic blasts or produce otherworldy exit velocities, but he refined his approach over the course of the season to turn his plus raw pop into plus production.

After spraying the ball to all fields in 2022, Jung became an extreme pull hitter, with extreme fly ball tendencies. In fact, he was one of just two minor leaguers (min 500 PA) with a fly ball rate above 45%, and a pull rate above 51%. There were just four qualified big leaguers to top those marks in 2023, but they combined to slug 144 home runs. They also combined to bat .222, but this is an article about power. And it sure looks like Jace Jung’s approach will give him a chance to hit 30+ homers a year in his prime.

Jace Jung with a 416-foot bomb to right to tack on two more runs for the @erie_seawolves. It’s his 2nd home run of the day and his 17th of the season, tying him with Colt Keith for the most in the system. @SamLebo14 has the call. pic.twitter.com/2r9r834UJu

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 30, 2023

3 – Justyn-Henry Malloy

Malloy is the third and final Detroit Tigers minor leaguer who hit 20+ home runs 2023. He blasted 23 out of the park in his 135 games with the Toledo Mud Hens, and he can probably hit 25 or more a year with some minor adjustments to his approach. In fact, Malloy’s raw numbers are almost identical to Colt Keith’s. They produced similar average exit velocity (88.4 to 88.8) and max exit velocity (109.9 to 110.1) numbers in Toledo. The only real differences are that Malloy put the ball on the ground about 4% more often than Keith, and he just didn’t swing as much. We discussed Malloy’s patience in our hit tool piece, and it’s a huge part of his game. But he may have to get a little more aggressive to reach his power ceiling.

Justyn-Henry Malloy ties this one up with a 441 foot bomb!!! 🤯

Bottom 8: TOL 6, IOW 6#LetsGoHens l #RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/QNhoD8ebAi

— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) September 3, 2023

4 – Chris Meyers

Chris Meyers was a destroyer of worlds for 40 games with West Michigan last year. He hit .333 with nine home runs and a silly .304 isolated power. That led to a deserved promotion to Double-A Erie, where the sledding got tougher. Meyers hit just one home run in his first 29 games with the SeaWolves. But he blasted eight over his final 41 games, and then added two more homers in the playoffs. There’s plenty of raw pop here, but Meyers needs to refine and optimize his offensive approach to reach the big leagues. At the very least he looks like a reliable minor-league masher in the mold of Josh Lester.

Chris Meyers with his second home run of the night to center. A three run blast to put @erie_seawolves up 7-4 in the bottom of 7th. pic.twitter.com/Y5UUKEEc65

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 22, 2023

5 – Brady Allen
Brady Allen has long been praised for his plus raw power, but he had trouble unlocking it in games. He hit 13 home runs as a junior at South Carolina, but then slugged just .357 in his first pro season. The Marlins traded him to the Tigers in late May, and a switch seemed to flip immediately. Allen homered in his first game with the Whitecaps and went on to rack up 35 extra-base hits in 82 contests for West Michigan. He can drive the ball out to all parts of the field, but Allen struggled after his late-season promotion to Double-A, and he’ll need to cut down on his ground balls to fully tap into his power potential.

Brady Allen with a 3-run oppo blast to give the Whitecaps an early lead. It’s his 12 home run of the year. pic.twitter.com/59hDvjYkwl

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 12, 2023

Honorable Mentions

The organization’s renewed focus on power might be better reflected in this honorable mention list than in our top five. There are a good 8-10 players who deserve mention here, but we did our best to keep it short. We lead off with Parker Meadows, who is still technically a prospect. He hit 19 home runs in Toledo and 3 more in Detroit, and he has easy plus raw power. Meadows’ 95th percentile exit velocity (107.3 mph) was among the best in Toledo, and he could hit 20+ home runs annually. Izaac Pacheco had a tough season, batting just .211 with 12 home runs. But the 20-year-old still flashes plus-plus raw pop. Dillon Dingler is mostly know for his defense, but he can still put a charge into the ball, as evidenced by his 16 home runs in just 89 games last year.

Justice Bigbie’s spectacular season included 19 home runs. He makes hard contact as consistently as anyone in the system, but his opposite-field approach will likely dampen his over-the-fence production. Jose De La Cruz set a new career high with 12 home runs in 2023. He remains a player to watch because of his immense raw power. He led the entire Detroit Tigers organization with a max exit velo of 115.8 mph, and his 95th-percentile EV was a stunning 110.1 mph. And we finish with Eddys Leonard, who probably didn’t get quite enough attention from Tigers fans. Leonard blasted eight home runs and ten doubles in just 40 games with Toledo, finishing the year with 19 home runs and an even 50 extra-base hits. It’s not just production, either, as he led Toledo with a max EV of 111.6 mph.

Future Projection

There aren’t a ton of Tigers prospects in the lower minors who look like future power producers. But there are three who deserve a quick mention. Josue Briceno might get to his power with strength instead of bat speed, but he does get to it. The 18-year-old finished with the 2nd best slugging percentage in the Florida Complex League. And then he picked up six doubles in just 11 games after a promotion to Low-A. Cristian Santana’s approach needs a major overhaul, but he managed to crank out 12 home runs in his age-19 season. And Kiwi infielder Clayton Campbell didn’t play a ton last year, but when he did, he produced. Campbell cracked four home runs and 18 doubles in just 146 at-bats, which was good for an impressive .219 isolated power.

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