The Best Hitters in the Detroit Tigers System
Last week we finished our Awards series, which was based purely on performance in 2024. Our Tools series takes performance into account, but we also try to factor in pure ability and a bit of future projection.
Our list from 2023 included some talk about scouting grades and shifting offensive environments. We also discussed on-base ability, pure bat-to-ball skills, and the failings of the Al Avila era. Feel free to check back in on that info again this year. But we wanted to keep the exposition a little lighter for 2024.
One comment we will make pertains to the general direction of development in the Detroit Tigers system. In his introductory press conference Tigers President Scott Harris famously talked about dominating the strike zone on both sides of the ball.
Detroit Tigers pitchers put that into practice spectacularly in 2024. The big-league hitters aren’t quite there yet, but, as you’ll see below, help is on the way. In the past two years the Tigers have acquired, drafted, and developed a number of hitters who dominate the zone.
Now, let’s see who they are.
Detroit Tigers Top Hit Tools
1 – Kevin McGonigle
It’s been years since the Tigers have had a hitter like Kevin McGonigle. To be clear, plenty of great hitters have called Comerica Park home. But it’s hard to find another Tigers hitter with McGonigle’s combination of plus bat-to-ball skills, feel for the barrel, and borderline-elite plate discipline. Think Ian Kinsler with fewer strikeouts. Or Placido Polanco with more walks. Those are lofty comparisons, but Kevin McGonigle has a special bat.
We’ll start with the basics. McGonigle, who turned 20 in August, batted .309 last year, with 46 walks and 28 strikeouts in 328 plate appearances between Low-A Lakeland and High-A West Michigan. He led all Tigers farmhands with a 4.6% swinging strike rate. His 1.64 walks-per-strikeout led all minor leaguers with at least 250 plate appearances.
The eye is there, and the contact is there. It’s a beautiful, balanced swing, and he has a precocious feel for which in-zone pitches to attack. There’s also some juice in the bat. His ultimate power ceiling remains to be determined, and things will obviously get harder as he climbs the ladder. But Kevin McGonigle has all the tools to hit .300 in the big leagues one day. He may even contend for batting titles in his prime.
Three hits and a walk for Kevin McGonigle tonight. He’s now batting .355/.434/.504 on the season. @JoePuccio_ calls it all. pic.twitter.com/JRKiK57oCj
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) June 8, 2024
2 – Josue Briceño
What if Kevin McGonigle were injected with super-soldier serum and blasted with Vita-Rays? You’d have Josue Briceño, an impressive physical specimen who also appears to be a hitting savant. Briceño’s plate discipline isn’t quite as special as McGonigle’s, but it’s pretty close. And that’s all the more impressive considering he’s half-a-foot taller than McGonigle.
A knee injury held Briceño to just 176 plate appearances during the regular season. But he has more than made up for lost time by becoming the talk of the Arizona Fall League. Briceño is near the top of the leaderboard in every meaningful offensive stat in the AFL, thanks in part to a small change in his stance.
His bat speed doesn’t stand out, but Briceño makes consistent hard contact, and he’s strong enough to drive the ball out to all parts of the park. The offensive bar at first base is very high, and Briceño will need to keep proving himself against premium velocity. But his combination of contact, patience, and power is likely to land him on some top-100 prospect lists soon.
3 – Hao-Yu Lee
Hao-Yu Lee is a different kind of hitter than the two batters ahead of him on this list. He’s an aggressive swinger who looks to do damage early in the count. That leads to plenty of good, hard contact, but he will also expand the zone at times, particularly on sliders away. He’s not an all-or-nothing slugger though. Lee battles in at-bats, fouls off borderline pitches, and will poke singles the opposite way with two strikes. His overall approach is vaguely reminiscent of Nick Castellanos.
Lee is a .288/.372/.452 hitter in 250 career minor-league games. His average hovered around .300 for most of the 2024 season, even though he was one of the youngest players in the Eastern League. And, if not for a series of injuries, he likely would have hit his way to Triple-A Toledo. There isn’t a huge offensive ceiling here, but Lee learned to pull the ball in the air a bit more in 2024. That gives him a chance to be an average hitter with average patience and power, which would be quite valuable at either second or third base.
Hao-yu Lee AGAIN. He hits a 3-run blast to center to put Erie up 3-0 in the first. Give him 9 home runs on the year and a 10-game hitting streak. @Greg_Gania has the call. pic.twitter.com/tCBPerFnxp
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) June 5, 2024
4 – Max Clark
Max Clark was conspicuously absent from this list last year after a tough pro debut. But Clark is a grinder, always looking for ways to improve his swing. And we saw real progress over the course of the season. Early in the year he seemingly struggled against just about any kind of fastball, often hitting weak grounders to the left side of the infield. By the end of the season he was spraying line drives all over the field, including against near-elite velocity.
He may always be a bit of a tinkerer, but once Clark gets locked in there’s not much he can’t do with his bat. He hit .279 on the year with a 12.4% walk rate and a strikeout rate under 20%, and Clark just seems to have that IT factor in the box. Clark posted a .926 OPS with two outs and men in scoring position, and a .990 OPS against left-handed pitchers. He looks like a future average hitter, but he may yet unlock a plus hit tool.
5 – Jace Jung
Jace Jung squeaks into the fifth spot on our list for the 2nd year in a row. He remains a fringe-average hitter in terms of pure bat-to-ball skills, particularly against velocity, and his power absolutely disappeared after a wrist injury in June. But Jung’s terrific plate discipline carried over into the big leagues, where he walked 15 times in 94 plate appearances. Patience alone won’t be enough to keep him in the big leagues, but it should buy Jung some time to find his power again. If he does, he should be an average overall offensive performer.
The night is Jung.
First career RBI for @jace17jung 👏 pic.twitter.com/aQraKV8piC
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 19, 2024
Honorable Mentions
Roberto Campos quietly had a strong year in High-A, batting .272 with improved power and patience, and his performance was masked a bit by the cavernous dimensions at LMCU Ballpark. Campos posted a .699 OPS at home, but a .791 OPS on the road. Jake Holton is the first player in the piece who isn’t ranked in our top 31 prospects. He’s a quality minor-league hitter with plus on-base skills and fringe-average hit and power tools. Unfortunately, that’s probably not enough to be a big-league first baseman.
Thayron Liranzo has a below-average pure hit tool, but he makes up for that with excellent plate discipline and massive power. A fully formed Liranzo might look a bit like Carlos Santana. That’s kind of the opposite profile of Carlos Mendoza, a pesky fireplug who puts his bat on everything and takes walks, but has little in the way of power. And Franyerber Montilla could probably fit in the next group, because he’s not close to being fully formed as a hitter. But he showed enough with his bat down the stretch for us to feel good about his hit tool in the future.
Future Projection
We finish with a quintet of very young hitters to keep an eye on in 2025. Jose Dickson hit .279 with a .407 on-base percentage in the DSL, earning an All-Star nod. Jesus Pinto didn’t make the DSL All-Star squad, but he basically matched Dickson’s numbers, only with more power. Enrique Jimenez was Detroit’s top signing in the 2022 international class, and he had a solid stateside debut. He batted just .242, but showed good patience and gap power. Fans didn’t get to see any of Bryce Rainer in pro ball, but he was a top-ten prospect in the 2024 draft for a reason. And Ronald Ramirez led all qualified Tigers farmhands with a .343 average last year.
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