Detroit Tigers affiliates announce Opening Day rosters

The Tigers Double-A and A-ball level affiliates have released their rosters.

The Detroit Tigers made us wait a bit, but the Double-A and High-A level affiliate rosters have finally been released. The Tigers elected not to promote many players from last year’s Double-A roster to Triple-A this spring. Infielder Hao-Yu Lee was the only big name from the SeaWolves to move up to Triple-A already. So it was fairly easy to see how things would shake out.

We’ll start with the biggest names. CF Max Clark, SS Kevin McGonigle, and C Josue Briceño will all start the year at High-A West Michigan. C Thayron Liranzo, RHP Jaden Hamm, and RHP Troy Melton will lead the way for the Double-A Erie SeaWolves. The rest follows largely as you’d expect, but we’re still waiting for the Low-A Lakeland Flying Tigers to announce their roster. We’ll see how much of the 2024 draft class is represented there this weekend, but of course the Tigers will mix prospects between the Flying Tigers and the Complex League when that fires up in May. As always, they’ll presumably be pretty careful with the young pitchers and not look to send them out on assignments until we’re further into the season.

So, the fate of last year’s top three draft picks, SS Bryce Rainer, RHP Owen Hall, and LHP Ethan Schiefelbein is still up in the air. As the Tigers are typically pretty careful with prep pitchers in their first year of pro ball, we’ll assume Hall and Schiefelbein will go through extended spring camp and probably debut in the Complex League in May or June. If things go as planned they should both get some starts for the Low-A Flying Tigers later this summer.

As for Rainer, he hit the ground running with a very impressive pro debut in the Spring Breakout game between the Tigers and Atlanta Braves ’ farm systems back in mid-March. One would expect based on that performance that he’ll start the season with the Flying Tigers, but it’s possible the organization starts him in the Complex League until they’re satisfied with his progress enough to send him out to full season ball.

The Triple-A Mud Hens started their season last Friday. The other three affiliates will all get under way on Friday, April 4.

The SeaWolves will start off with a strong pitching staff anchored by right-handers Hamm and Melton. RHP Joseph Montalvo is another good addition to that rotation. LHP Jake Miller is a particularly interesting relief prospect who moved quickly with a 2024 breakout. RHP RJ Petit is a quality right-handed relief prospect who should also help lock down the late innings for manager Andrew Graham.

SS Jim Jarvis and 2B Max Anderson are the bigger names on the infield, while veteran minor leaguers like Jake Holton, Carlos Mendoza, Danny Serretti, and Trei Cruz help round out the infield group.

In the outfield, Roberto Campos moves up from West Michigan to tackle Double-A in his age 22 season. He’ll bear watching, while Justice Bigbie’s struggles to find traction at the Triple-A level see him demoted back to Erie to try and right the ship.

Slugging catching prospect Thayron Liranzo is the most highly ranked prospect on the team. Eduardo Valencia will share duties with him behind the plate.

For West Michigan, the featured hitters are plentiful. Clark, McGonigle, and Briceño is one heck of core for a young lineup. All three are comfortably top 100 prospects in the game. Briceño is perhaps the sleeper pick of the three, but after mauling the Arizona Fall League last October, he’ll be getting plenty of attention as he moves back behind the plate after a knee injury last year that cost him most of the regular season saw him play only first base after his return to action. The Tigers plan to integrate him back into catching slowly, so he should have plenty of 1B/DH days in the mix as well.

As for Clark and McGonigle, you probably want to get to the park pretty early this season. Both are likely to advance to Double-A Erie within a month or two. Because Briceño is working his way back into catching, expect him to spend most of the year with the Whitecaps rebuilding his rusty chops behind the dish. At some point, his bat may simply be too good to wait for his defense to catch up. For now, it makes sense to stick with it as he has the skills and his improved athleticism has him looking like a much more viable catching prospect.

In the outfield, left-handed hitter Brett Callahan will be the name to watch besides Clark. Speedy Seth Stephenson is a base stealing monster, and he’ll add another offensive dimension to the club while getting plenty of time in the outfield as well. Clark will presumably handle center field almost exclusively, but obviously the Tigers do love their versatility.

The two most interesting starting pitchers are young right-handers Rayner Castillo and Carlos Marcano. Both are fairly hard-throwing young sinkerballers working to develop their breaking and offspeed stuff at this point, but they should do well at the High-A level as command improves. RHP Kenny Serwa is another fun name to watch as the 27-year-old with a high velocity knuckle ball tries to make his way after getting signed by the Tigers early this year.

Lefties Andrew Sears and Micah Ashman, along with RHP Eric Silva, a relief prospect, are three other talented young pitching prospects to keep an eye on in Comstock Park this year.