2025 Detroit Tigers prospect reports #32: 2B Max Anderson

The Tigers 2023 second rounder struggled in his pro debut but finished the season with signs of better things to come.

Since Scott Harris took over running the Detroit Tigers in 2022, the team’s draft philosophy has tilted more heavily toward prep talent. Scouting department chiefs Rob Metzler and Mark Connor both came from organizations with a long track record of hunting prep talent, and they’ve done a really good job assembling an excellent young farm system with a few assists from deadline trades. 2023 second rounder Max Anderson is one of the few exceptions where they targeted a college bat early in the draft.

The recently turned 23-year-old was selected with their second round pick, 45th overall, in 2023 out of Nebraska. The Tigers were able to save just over $475,000 compared to the slot value of the pick of $1,906,200, and that money helped them secure Kevin McGonigle and other overslot prep picks throughout the draft.

The second baseman didn’t offer too much in the way of defensive value or speed. The big selling point was good contact ability and plus raw power. That’s a pretty good combo to land for what was in essence, late second round money. His full season debut didn’t feature much of the power, but the ability to hit the fastball was certainly on display. The challenge now is to help him adjust his swing and his approach in order to handle better pitching and start driving the ball in the air. It’s something of a longshot, but if they can pull it off Anderson could look like a pretty good value in the long run.

Anderson was a pretty atypical selection for this front office. He’s decidedly a free swinger who will hack at just about anything close to the zone. His deep crouch and hunched over stance doesn’t prevent him from making a ton of contact despite his willingness to swing, but it does keep him from hitting the ball hard in the air much and leaves him very vulnerable to good fastballs up in the zone.

He does hit the ball hard with good consistency, showing strong hands and wrists from a pretty compact stroke. Anderson posted a 45 percent hard hit rate last year with the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps. The raw ingredients of a quality power hitter exist, but despite really good strikeout rates, Anderson whiffed more than you’d like to see from an advanced college hitter in High-A ball. He tends to shorten up and serve ground balls in two-strike counts, tending to take them the opposite way against better velocity. His strikeout rates look really good, but it’s something of an illusion. He does have solid zone recognition, but he really struggled against good riding fourseamers last year, and his free swinging ways leave him vulnerable to good breaking balls as well.

There are a lot of ways upper level pitchers are going to be able to exploit his weaknesses if he can’t adjust. That hunched over stance and slashing, handsy swing make it hard for him to adjust to pitches in flight and limit his plate coverage. As a result, he struggles to leverage his power to the pull side and to hit the ball hard in the air in general. Spraying grounders and line drives against low 90’s sinkers is a tough way to make a living in pro ball, particularly if you’re not a speed player.

Hopefully we see more swings like the one below from Anderson this season. As we saw in major league camp a few days ago, the raw power is plentiful. A little more upright torso, better leverage from his legs, less tendency to just step open and chop at the ball, these are some positive adjustments he appears to be working on this spring.

Anderson isn’t slow, but he is a thickly built six-foot, 215 pounds and doesn’t have the quickness to steal many bases. His range is a little lacking at second base, but he makes up for it with generally solid hands and a pretty good throwing arm. A college third baseman for Nebraska, there is a good chance that the flexibility conscious Tigers play him there a bit more as he advances into the upper minors. However, he’s played nothing but second base in pro ball so far, and his ideal position is probably first base if he can figure out how to hit for more power against better pitching. It’s a decidedly bat first profile.

2025 Outlook

One positive for Anderson in 2024 is that he did improve as he went along. Hitting low-90’s sinkers is a big part of being a consistent college performer and he’s not the first to have to seriously overhaul his swing and approach to the nastier stuff and more north-south pitching emphasis of the modern pro game at the highest levels. The power didn’t show up with any consistency, but he was more productive in the second half of the season and was able to get in five games for the Double-A Erie SeaWolves in September to get a little feel for the next level. He should start the season there, and I wouldn’t expect a quick trip through the Double-A level.

It’s a bit of an all or nothing profile in the end. He has modest utility as an infielder, but he’s either going to unlock his power potential or not. Significant adjustments in his swing and his approach are required, but if he figures it out the raw power is plentiful enough to send him shooting up the prospect rankings. The Double-A level is going to be a real challenge with a lot more pitchers able to exploit his swing and pitch selection weaknesses, but if a real breakout arrives, it won’t be subtle. The home runs and extra base hits will start piling up for him in a hurry. The likelihood of that all coming together just isn’t very high right now.