Detroit Tigers: Minor League Baseball cancellation hits hard for rebuild
By Tyler Kotila
The 2020 Minor League Baseball season has been cancelled, and the Detroit Tigers organization will be affected quite a bit.
The Detroit Tigers organization did a great thing by submitting a prospect hefty 60-man player pool prior to the league’s return to play. The organization focused on letting the younger prospects develop by adding them to the 60-man player pool.
The issue is that his 60-man player pool is not the entire Tigers farm system. With the announcement being made that the 2020 Minor League Baseball (MiLB) season has been canceled, things are going to change drastically.
Most of the top-flight players like Riley Greene, Matt Manning, and Spencer Torkelson are all on the 60-man roster, but some players did not make the cut who just lost their season. Not to mention the struggles that lie within MiLB affiliates are high enough.
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The slash and burn strategy to reduce the number of MiLB teams around the country was still an iffy plan, but with the struggles, a skipped season could bring, things might take a turn south for organizations across all of the big leagues.
The Tigers organization itself could see the loss of the Double-A Erie Seawolves as well as the loss of the Single-A Norwich Sea Unicorns (formerly Connecticut Tigers) if the initial plan were enacted. The loss of a 2020 season certainly is not helping the odds for these MiLB teams.
In terms of players, there are plenty of players chasing their dream to reach the big leagues that now have quite the hump to overcome. The Tigers rebuild will undoubtedly be affected by this, especially after some of the prospects were not named to the 60-man player pool.
Some notable prospects who did not make the 60-man player pool are:
- OF Daniel Cabrera
- INF Kody Clemens
- OF Cam Gibson
- INF Ryan Kreidler
- INF Andre Lipcius
- OF Parker Meadows
- RHP Gerson Moreno
- RHP Wladimir Pinto
- INF Wenceel Perez
- INF Nick Quintana
- RHP Paul Richan
- LHP Joey Wentz (Injured)
- INF Gage Workman
Looking at this list, all of these players may not be worthy of a 60-man roster spot, nor are they remotely close to pitching in the big leagues, but they are suffering. Without a 2020 MiLB season, these players are now forced to continue their development towards their big league dreams on their own.
This is a tall task for any player who is trying to make a crack at the big leagues; a cancelled season could ultimately be the end for a prospect player who is still trying to figure things out that was in need for a boost in performance.
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The Detroit Tigers will simply have to adjust, but the loss of a 2020 MiLB season is troublesome in the middle of a rebuild.