Several players stood out this season for the West Michigan Whitecaps

Today we begin our look back at the West Michigan Whitecaps 2022 season. Later in the week we’ll examine the pitching prospects who stood out in 2022, but today is all about the hitters.

West Michigan became the High-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers last season, and we have already seen a few Whitecaps players rise through the system and onto the Tigers. Beau Brieske, Garrett Hill, and Spencer Torkelson all started the 2021 season at West Michigan, and all played in Detroit in 2022.

Talent played a large role in those rapid ascents, but a good portion of credit also goes to the new player development staff. It’s not unprecedented for Tigers prospects make those kinds of jumps in one year, but it’s not terribly common either. Fewer than 10 position players have made the Lakeland-to-Detroit leap since 2006, and never more than two in the same season.

But next year there’s a possibility Detroit Tigers fans will see as many as five hitters who spent part of 2022 in High-A. While Parker Meadows started the season in a Whitecaps uniform, we are going to focus on the position players who were around for at least 100 plate appearances. Meadows’ fast start is notable, but we’ll give him more attention during our Erie summary.

Also, we have a special guest on the post. Dan Hasty, the voice of the West Michigan Whitecaps, joins us with his thoughts on the prospects who stood out to him.

Dan: It’s always a challenge to give your thoughts on the players you see at your level, since we’re not coming from a scouting background. That being said, the people in Tigers player development from analytics to scouting were extremely helpful this past year in framing our minds to pay attention to the right details. I hope a significant portion of them are retained, provided their vision aligns with the one of Scott Harris.

Colt Keith

I recall the reaction I had when the Tigers drafted Keith in 2020. Was Detroit going to use him as a pitcher? Were the Tigers going to get good fortune like the Braves did when they drafted another Mississippi product in Austin Riley? Keith was second-best pitcher in the state of Mississippi back in 2019, so he was already showing he had an arm. He was named the 2018-2019 Gatorade Player of the Year in Mississippi, just as Riley was in 2014. And Keith showed confidence right away.

https://twitter.com/coltkeith3/status/1271278475777843200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1271278475777843200%7Ctwgr%5E66c35578a82ef1c4ec09c40083ceed652ce12102%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmotorcitybengals.com%2F2020%2F06%2F12%2Fdetroit-tigers-mlb-draft-5th-round-pick%2F

Then he backed it up. Keith was one of just four Tigers minor leaguers to bat .300 or better this season (minimum 100 plate appearances), joining Kerry Carpenter, Reylin Perez and Danny Serretti. He put up a slash line of .301/ .370/.544 with a wRC+ of 150 and nine home runs, before a shoulder injury cut his season short. When you watch him live, his contact is loud, and he hits the ball hard to all fields.

Keith and Izaac Pacheco are both third baseman who project to hit for power and average. That’s a good problem to have. Keith has gotten bigger and stronger while maintaining the same impressive bat speed and ability to barrel up the ball. If he can get off to a hot start in Erie next year he may force the Tigers to call him up to Detroit.

Dan Hasty

Had he not gotten hurt, we’d be talking about Keith as a Top-100 Prospect in Major League Baseball. Completely carried our offense when we desperately needed it. He’s got the talent of a 10-year big leaguer.

Wenceel Perez

Perez has had an interesting story in his time at West Michigan. He burst onto the scene back in 2018 and was quickly pushed up many Tigers prospects lists. But he struggled with the Whitecaps (then Low-A) in 2019, and in 2021 he began the year in Low-A Lakeland before heading back up to West Michigan to finish the season. He struggled with the Whitecaps again, batting just .246 and hitting for minimal power.

However, in his 55 games as a Whitecap this season Perez looked like a completely different player. While he has always had a good eye at the plate, this year he was able to show an increase in power while continuing to walk at a high rate. The ability to hit more balls in the air, which I highlighted earlier in the year, helped him tremendously. His success continued after his promotion to Double-A Erie, but a back injury put a premature end to his season.

Give it up one more time for these three!

Tigers Organization Minor League Pitcher of the month, Wilmer Flores

Tigers Organization Minor League Player of the Month, Wenceel Perez

And the Midwest League Player of the Week, Colt Keith pic.twitter.com/b9afaZt1mC

— West Michigan Whitecaps (@wmwhitecaps) May 10, 2022

Josh Crouch

Dan Hasty: I love how aggressive TMLR was in ranking him during the season. Throughout the season, West Michigan lost so many important pieces, but we knew we’d be OK as long as we kept Crouch. He was the piece at the very bottom of our Jenga tower. His season was a huge testament to his work ethic, and a big win for player development.

The reason why Chris and I were so aggressive on Crouch early on was his ability to hit for power and average while still taking walks. He might be a bit too pull happy (almost 50%), but he emerged as a big win for the player development staff.  He showed a plus arm behind the plate and did a great job of leading the pitching staff. Crouch joined Perez and Meadows in Erie at the very end of the season. You can read more on him in our report here from back in August.

Coming out Thursday is our look at the West Michigan Whitecaps pitching staff.

Related articles: Lakeland Flying Tigers 2022 Bats|2022 Pitchers

Photo credit: Cody Scanlan/Holland Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK