Our 2024 Detroit Tigers minor league award series begins
Detroit Tigers fans have come to view the organization as a bit of a pitching factory. That might be overstating things a bit, but it’s hard to argue with the results of the big league level.
Still, 2024 was a bit of a strange year for pitching development in the minor leagues. Some aspects of the year were typical, unfortunately. Injuries spoiled or outright ended the seasons of a few of Detroit’s top arms, including one of last year’s award winners. And many of the young high-school arms from the 2023 draft struggled in their first full season.Â
The strangest aspect of the season was how many of Detroit’s top pitching prospects struggled at the higher levels, only to go to the big leagues and find success. It happened often enough for us to completely reconsider how we view performance at Triple-A.
In any event, there were definitely strong performances from several pitchers this year. And that’s what we’re here to highlight today. Our voting for these awards was simple. Chris, Jerry, and Rogelio each ranked their top three pitchers, and then we assigned points for each slot. Three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote, and one for third.
Detroit Tigers Pitcher of the Year Award
We mention Jaden Hamm in the title, so there’s no big surprise here. But we also wanted to spend a little time discussing the other pitchers who received votes.
Honorable Mention – Carlos Marcano
Carlos Marcano landed half of a third-place vote after a a solid, if under-the-radar season in High-A West Michigan. Marcano’s 3-11 record and 3.86 ERA don’t leap off the page, but he was also the youngest qualified pitcher in the Midwest League. His 112 innings pitched ranked 5th in Detroit’s system, and his 3.36 FIP was 4th among Tigers farmhands with at least 80 innings pitched.
Marcano throws strikes, but he doesn’t wow with stuff. His fastball sits in the low 90s, but there are games when he’ll show an above-average changeup and an average breaking ball. If he can tease out a little more velocity and show more consistency with his secondary pitches, he may work his way into real prospect.
Honorable Mention – Garrett Burhenn
Garrett Burhenn landed one third-pace vote after leading the system with 122.1 innings pitched and finishing third with 123 strikeouts. He has always been a bit overlooked in the system. Part of that is being a 9th-round pick in the same draft as Jackson Jobe, Ty Madden, Dylan Smith, and Brant Hurter. He also wasn’t terribly impressive in 2023, spending all season in West Michigan and posting a 4.04 ERA with just 6.7 strikeouts per 9 innings.
But Burhenn came into the season with a more polished slider. That pitch helped his strikeout rate jump to a batter per inning. And it propelled him to Double-A Erie, where he was a key member of the rotation for four months.
Honorable Mention – Lael Lockhart
Lael Lockhart earned an honorable mention in last year’s Breakout Player category, and this year he just misses this list with 1.5 third-place votes. Like many Tigers prospects, Lockhart struggled to prevent runs in Triple-A Toledo. But his 5.32 ERA with the Mud Hens also came with a top-10 strikeout rate (26.2%) and a strong .239 batting average against.
3rd Place – Jackson Jobe
Jackson Jobe took home this award last year. But he falls to 3rd place in 2024 after landing just a single (second-place) vote. Jobe lowered his ERA by half-a-run this year (2.81 to 2.36). He also threw more innings than in 2023 (91.2 to 64.0) and climbed all the way to the big leagues.
It was a terrific season overall, but he did see his strikeout rate fall and his walk rate rise this year, making him feel a little less dominant. He’ll head into 2025 with a strong claim to being the best pitching prospect in baseball. And he’ll have a good chance to land a spot in the Detroit Tigers’ starting rotation.
2nd Place – Rayner Castillo
Rayner Castillo had two disastrous seasons in the Florida Complex League in 2022 and 2023, combining for a 7.80 ERA over 60 innings. But he was a changed man in 2024, turning in a spectacular effort to help lead the Lakeland Flying Tigers to the Florida State League championship series. Still just 20 years old, Castillo began the season on the Injured List after having his wisdom teeth removed. Then he hit the ground running, compiling a 2.56 ERA over 70.1 innings and inducing a 58.6% groundball rate.
Castillo is an enormous young man, but he also stands out for his ability to pound the strike zone, and the ease with which he fires mid-90s fastballs. His strong season landed him two second-place votes from us. And while he hasn’t received much national attention yet, that may soon change after his trip to the 2024 Arizona Fall League.
1st Place – Jaden Hamm
Jaden Hamm was a unanimous winner for us, earning all three first-place votes. He didn’t lead the Detroit Tigers system in any category, but he was near the top in all of them. He finished the year with a 5-4 record and a 2.64 ERA, with 122 strikeouts and just 31 walks in 99 innings pitched. In the process, Hamm went from an unheralded and unranked 5th-round pick in 2023 to a top-100 prospect in all of baseball.
The Tigers were somewhat cautious with Hamm in 2024. They kept him in Low-A West Michigan all season. He never threw more than 90 pitches in any one outing. And he only topped five innings in one start. But the gloves should come off a bit in 2025. And if Hamm can repeat his success in Erie, he may even find himself pitching in Detroit by September.
That’s it for today’s list, but check back soon for our other awards.
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Rogelio Castillo