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Detroit Tigers: 2025 Prospect To-Do List

By Chris Brown #Detroit Tigers, #Prospects
Detroit Tigers prospect checklist with goals like improve command and stay healthy

What We Want to See From Detroit Tigers Prospects

The Detroit Tigers have one of the best farm systems in baseball, and we’ve seen impressive things from their top prospects all spring. But there’s always room to improve. So today we offer you a list of what we would like to see from each of our Top 20 Detroit Tigers prospects in 2025.

1 – Jackson Jobe

To-Do: Get More Whiffs With the Fastball

Details: Jackson Jobe’s stuff looks spectacular, both metrically and visually. But for some reason hitters see Jobe’s pitches well, particularly his fastball. And that’s been the case since he reached Double-A. We think he’ll eventually show the command and sequencing to get more whiffs with his heater, but things may be a bit bumpy in 2025. We just want to see flashes of him putting it all together, sort of like his outing at Reading last year.

2 – Kevin McGonigle

To-Do: Stay Healthy and On the Left Side of the Infield

Details: We have very few questions about Kevin McGonigle’s bat. And the questions we DO have are along the lines of “will he be a very good hitter, or a great hitter?” But, after missing time with two injuries in 2024, we’d love to see him stay healthy for a full season in 2025. And it would be outstanding if he can continue to look like a viable defender at shortstop and third base.

3 – Max Clark

To-Do: Lift the Ball More

Details: Max Clark never stops grinding, and he’s a dynamic player who can impact the game in multiple ways. But the final step in his development will be lifting the ball more. He posted a 48% ground ball rate last year, and we’d love to see 4-5% of those grounders get converted into line drives and fly balls. He did make some changes to his stance in the offseason, and we’re hopeful that will do the trick.

4 – Hao-Yu Lee

To-Do: Show a Little More Patience and Stop Missing Fastballs

Details: Lee earned a lot of attention early in spring camp, flashing impressive power and solid defense. But as spring training wore on he started swinging and missing at an alarming rate, particularly against elevated fastballs. That didn’t seem to be a big problem for him in 2024, and we think he just got a little too aggressive in camp in the hopes of earning an MLB job. We’d like to see him cut down on his swing a bit and get back to what worked for him last year.

5 – Josue Briceño

To-Do: Show More Game Power

Details: This might appear like an odd request considering Briceño seemingly hit a million home runs in the Arizona Fall League. But he only managed an ISO of .099 during the regular season last year. Yes, part of that was his knee injury, but we still want to see him take more advantage of his ability to consistently hit the ball hard. 


6 – Thayron Liranzo

To-Do: Make More In-Zone Contact, Improve Receiving

Details: Liranzo has huge power and a terrific eye at the plate. We aren’t worried about him expanding the zone much, but it would be ideal if he could make a little more contact in the zone. And we think he shows the physical ability and desire to catch, but we’d love to see him continue to improve the finer points of catching.

7  – Bryce Rainer

To-Do: Make Consistent Contact, Look Like a Shortstop

Details: Remember the Spring Breakout game? Do more of that. We know about Rainer’s power, and we know about his huge arm. We just want to see consistent contact and solid defense at shortstop.

8 –  Jace Jung

To-Do: Make More In-Zone Contact, Handle Velocity

Details: Jung didn’t show any power during his MLB run in 2024, and he struggled to even make contact this spring. He has plenty of pop, but he has never been particularly great at in-zone contact. And he really needs to find a way to hit premium velocity in the zone. Jung rarely chases, but pitchers won’t bother to try to get him to expand if they know they can throw it right past him.


9 – Troy Melton

To-Do: Stay Out of the Middle, Find a Way to Retire Lefties

Details: Melton has one of the best arms in the system, with a plus fastball that reaches the upper 90s, a trio of solid secondary offerings, and the ability to consistently throw strikes. He just needs to work the edges of the plate more to avoid the home runs that led to an elevated ERA in 2024. And left-handed batters were a huge part of the problem, batting .325/.397/.505 against him. That obviously needs to improve.

10 – Jaden Hamm

To-Do: Throw a Little Harder, Get More Horizontal Movement

Details: Hamm’s fastball and curveball play very well off each other. But they’d work even better if Hamm threw just a tad harder. Perhaps if he could sit at 94 MPH and touch 97. And we’d like to see him continue to refine his slider and changeup to give him more east-west movement.

11 – Trey Sweeney

To-Do: Make More Contact Against Secondary Stuff

Details: Sweeney performed admirably in his MLB debut. He was very strong on defense and he chipped in with the occasional homer. But he has a lot of holes in his swing, and big-league pitchers started really exploiting him late in the season. In then Majors he ran a whiff rate of 45.5% against breaking balls, and 46.9% against offspeed pitches. We’d like to see significantly more contact than that. 

12 – Franyerber Montilla

To-Do: Be More Aggressive and Make More Contact

Details: Montilla has shown a mature approach in his Low-A and spring plate appearances. But right now he’s a little too patient, and it’s costing him. He consistently lays off early-count strikes he should be driving, then he has to battle and starts expanding the zone. And right now his contact skill aren’t particularly advanced, so the strikeouts are piling up. 

13 – Roberto Campos

To-Do: Lay Off the Sliders

Details: Campos made good progress putting the ball in the air more in 2024, and he can continue to improve there. But his main issue is chasing sliders low and away. If he can figure out a way to lay off those pitches his bat might take off in 2025.

14 – Rayner Castillo

To-Do: Throw More Offspeed Pitches and Find More Whiffs

Details: Castillo had a huge breakout season in 2024. His slider flashes as a plus pitch, and his sinker gets him a ton of grounders. But if he wants to succeed above Low-A he’ll need to find a second consistent swing-and-miss offering. His changeup has shown promise, with a 35% whiff rate in 2024. We just want to see him throw it more than 8% of the time.

15 – Ty Madden

To-Do: Recover From Injury, Settle on three Pitches

Details: Madden’s shoulder soreness complicates things. But even before his injury we thought it best for Madden to lean into a future in the bullpen. To us that means ditching his sinker and curve, and settling in as a fastball/slider/splitter pitcher. Maybe toss in the occasional cutter. But the most important thing for now is to get back to full strength.

16 – Joseph Montalvo

To-Do: Throw the Fastball Harder and the Changeup Softer

Details: There’s a lot to like about Montalvo, but he’s still more projection than present. We’d love to see his fastball tick up from 91-94 MPH to 94-96. And right now his changeup is a little firm at 88-89 MPH. A little more separation would help his cause. And he could get it by gaining that fastball velo, or perhaps by altering his changeup grip.

17 – Owen Hall

To-Do: Throw Strikes In Games With that WRX Stuff

Details: This one is fairly simple. We want to see Owen Hall show the stuff he flashed in his live-AB bullpen at PitchingWRX. We’re talking upper-90s heat, a sweeper in the low-80s, and a nasty low-90s changeup. If he does that, and he throws it for strikes, we could be looking at a top-100 prospect at this time next year.

18 – Ethan Schiefelbein

To-Do: Up the Velo a Bit On All Offerings

Details: Schiefelbein has an advanced feel for pitching and a solid arsenal. We’d just like to see a little more power from him, particularly on his breaking balls. They show good shape and he commands them pretty well, but their upper-70s/low-80s velocity might be too soft to consistently get whiffs. And a little extra fastball velo never hurts anything.

19 – Carson Rucker

To-Do: Just Stay Healthy

Details: No special requests here. Yes, it would be cool if Rucker shows power, and hitting ability, and good defense at third base. But mostly we just want the kid to stay healthy. He got really unlucky with his shoulder injury in 2024, and it would be nice if he can get 400 ABs this year.

20 – Brett Callahan

To-Do: Hit For Average, Hit Lefties

Details: Callahan has a lot of solid tools, but he is going to need to continue to hit against more advanced pitching. And we especially want to see him make a little bit more contact against southpaws, who held him to a .220/.316/.300 line last year. 

By Chris Brown

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