Detroit Tigers: Top 20 prospects going into the 2020 season
By Tyler Kotila
Take an in-depth look at the top twenty prospects in the Detroit Tigers organization heading into the 2020 season.
The Detroit Tigers 2019 season was hard to watch, and 2020 cannot be much better, so the question falls on the farm system, leaving fans to wonder if there is going to be a way out from this abyss of a rebuild. Former General Manager Dave Dombrowski dumped off plenty of Tigers prospects in the past to try and make a postseason push and win a World Series for the team which, he was unable to do.
Ultimately, since 2013 the Tigers have started stockpiling their farm system with valuable prospects. It is no secret that the arms in our system are the most exciting piece of it, having a plethora of top ten/fifteen first-round picks, generally taking pitchers.
Since Dombrowski left the organization, clueless Al Avila has been trying to stockpile prospects for the future of this team; this happened by selling off assets like Nicholas Castellanos, Shane Greene, Justin Verlander and plenty of others. By trading these players, Avila has been able to bring in more prospects for this rebuilding Tigers organization.
These twenty prospects that were selected as a part of this top twenty list is a mix between MLB Pipeline’s end of the year 2019 rankings as well as some edits made to reflect development. There are plenty of quality players in the Tigers farm system; they may not all be future MVP award winners or Cy Young candidates, but there are role players who will have a spot with this future Tigers team
In baseball, prospects falter and fall apart left and right, with the number of minor league affiliates per organization being more than five, it can make it hard for ALL of these players to crack the big leagues finally. But being optimistic when evaluating these players allows for the best analysis and projections of these youngsters.
Even some of the players in this top twenty list of prospects may not end up seeing the big leagues, but when evaluating these players, I tried to look at the best-case scenario. Using video on these players, it allows us to analyze the prospects better and get a feel for their tools and how they will develop.
The Tigers should have a bright future as these prospects finally move up to the big leagues, and the team climbs out of the abyss they are currently in. Some of them will see the big leagues with the Tigers and some of them may get moved in trades when the team’s window to compete finally opens back up again.
Some of them may plateau in Double-A or Triple-A and fail to reach the projected value, but that is just how baseball can be brutal, with so many levels to the minor leagues, and only so many roster spots at the end of the day. That being said, take a look into the top twenty Tigers prospects heading into the 2020 season, which is just under a month away from kicking off.
March 26th, 2020 is just around the corner, and now is a good a time as ever to get a feel for the Tigers organization, which prospects are poised for significant seasons and could genuinely amount to something if all goes well.