Tigers Minor League Recap – 5/21

Toledo Mud Hens (Triple-A)

Final: Indianapolis 0 – Toledo 3 Final/7

Top Performer(s):

Gage Workman, SS — 1-for-3, HR, RBI, R
Jace Jung, 2B — 1-for-2, HR, R, RBI, BB

Nick Margevicius — 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 Ks. Threw 83% 4-seam fastballs today, got 40 swings and 7 whiffs vs it. Allowed just 3 base runners today, which is significantly better than his last showing.

Dylan Smith — 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 Ks, save. Doubling up the pitchers this week because I think Dylan Smith should get a shoutout here. Fastball averaged 94 MPH and he got tons of swings and misses while collecting the save in his AAA debut. He needed just 12 pitches, 6 whiffs on 7 swings, to get his 3 Ks and completely fooled the hitters. He even reached 21 IVB (induced vertical break) on one fastball.

Game notes:

The game was called after the 7th inning due to weather. Nick Margevicius got the start today and had his longest outing of the season. It was certainly his best as he allowed just 3 baserunners and getting 7 Ks. Jace Jung and Gage Workman sandwiched Manuel Margot’s RBI single with home runs to score all the runs that the Mud Hens needed to pull out the win. Dylan Smith got the save by pitching the 7th before the game got called and looked great doing so.

Dylan Smith, making a strong Triple-A debut for Toledo, struck out the side in the 7th. 👀 pic.twitter.com/M84st6lvsX

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 21, 2025

Tomorrow’s projected starters:

Game 1 Dennis Enns (1-1, 2.70 ERA) vs Thomas Harrington (2-3, 5.59 ERA)
Game 2 TBD vs TBD

Erie SeaWolves (Double-A)

Final: Hartford 3 – Erie 18

Top Performers:

Jake Holton, 1B — 3-for-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI
Max Anderson, 2B — 2-for-6, 2B, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
7-8-9 hitters — 9-for-12, 3 2B, 2 3B, 3 BB, 10 R, 9 RBI

Garrett Burhenn — 5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. Longest outing of Garrett’s season, he had yet another solid game. It’s his 5th game giving up 0 or 1 walks and his 4th game getting at least 5 Ks. The Yard Goats got to him early getting a home run in 2nd and 2 sac flies in the 3rd to get he early lead, but he held on for a few more innings and let the offense take over.

Game Notes:

Today was the Jake Holton show as he has his 5th career multi-home run game, 2nd of the the 2025 season. His first home run came in the bottom of the 3rd and was a grand slam giving the Seawolves the lead. The second came in the 6th inning, which was a 2-run shot where Max Anderson was on after hitting a double 2 batters earlier.

Jake Holton hits his team leading 8th home run, an opposite field GRAND SLAM, 103 MPH off the bat. Erie now takes the lead, 6 to 3. pic.twitter.com/fxrSuITlle

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 21, 2025

Max Anderson had a pretty big game as well. He hit a 3-run show in the 4th inning and drove in the 4th run of the day on that double. He’s had a great season and is only 4 home runs away from tying his season total last year despite only 26% of the PA.

Those two performances have somewhat outshined the bottom third of this lineup. Each of the 7-8-9 hitters (Chris Meyers-Ben Malgeri-Danny Serretti) scored (3,4,3) and drove in (3,3,3) as many runs as the Yard Goats scored. A dominate performance from the Eastern League’s best team who now has a +117 run differential.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: Joseph Montalvo (2-2, 5.60 ERA) vs Mason Green (2-1, 5.85 ERA)

West Michigan Whitecaps (High-A)

Final: Great Lakes 1 – West Michigan 1, suspended in the bottom of the 3rd

Game Notes:

There was supposed to be a double header today, but instead Game 1 was suspended in the 3rd inning due to rain and Game 2 postponed. It was tied 1-1 with Josue Briceño driving in the only West Michigan run via a solo home run and Joe Vetrano doing the same for Great Lakes. Rayner Castillo was the starter. The only hit he gave up was the home run, but he also walked 3. Hard to have a good game with the rain though.

Tomorrow’s projected starters:

Game 1 will be a continuation of the game started today

Game 2 Max Alba (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs Eriq Swan (0-2, 6.23 ERA)

Lakeland Flying Tigers (Single-A)

Final: Fort Myers 3 – Lakeland 5

Top Performer(s):

Franyerber Montilla, 2B — 2-for-4, 2B, SB
Garrett Pennington, PH-DH — 1-for-1, HR, RBI, R
Cristian Santana, 1B —0-for-2, 2 BB, R, SB

Moises Rodriguez — 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. We’ve noted Moises Rodriguez and his power fastball before and tonight was no different. The sinker averaged 98.2 MPH and topped out at 99.3 MPH. Fort Myers made a bit of contact against him but nothing was in the air.

Game Notes:

Today’s lineup had 3 guys at the top who were on rehab starts. They scored runs in all sorts of varieties. Sac fly, balk, ground outs, and then Garrett Pennington’s solo shot in the 7th. We did get to see the first check swing challenge from Jackson Strong and a nice defensive day from Bryce Rainer.

Couple of fun putouts from Bryce Rainer in the 8th. pic.twitter.com/nlmWCvoWsD

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 22, 2025

The pitching didn’t get a ton of strikeouts in today’s game, but they were able to keep the ball on the ground. Only 2 of the 19 outs from balls in play were not groundouts. R.J. Sales went 5 innings, gave up 2 ER on 6 hits and struck out 1 to earn the victory. He was followed up by Jorger Petri and Thomas Bruss, who got an inning each, and the save went to Moises Rodriguez who got 2 innings.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: TBD vs Dylan Questad (1-1, 4.56 ERA)

FCL Tigers (Rookie ball)

No FCL games today, but they play tomorrow. TBD vs TBD

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