Detroit Tigers: Farm system rankings leave some questions
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Tigers have been ranked in the top-five of all of Major League Baseball in regards to their farm system. Baseball America($) released its list where they ranked in the top five, coming in at fourth.
Keith Law of The Athletic($) also released his farm system rankings ahead of the 2021 season and Spring Training. However, the Tigers were ranked twelfth overall on Law’s list. Why so much discrepancy between the two rankings? Who knows. But either way, the Detroit Tigers definitely belong in that top grouping of the rankings.
For even more variance, the Tigers are in that top-five category on MLB Pipeline‘s rankings as well. They have the Tigers at number two trailing only the Tampa Bay Rays on this list. It is interesting, but looking around it seems the consensus is that the Tigers belong in the top-five.
With the influx of high draft picks in the past few years and another on the way, there is no way not to at least have them considered. Take a deeper look at Law’s ranking and why he put the Tigers at twelve.
The Detroit Tigers have a strong farm system, but are they in the top-five?
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In his write-up on the Detroit Tigers, Law makes a few good points about the farm system being very top-heavy.
With Riley Greene, Casey Mize, and Spencer Torkelson carrying the weight of the farm system its easy to point that finger.
However, the Tigers farm system has been growing, and though it is top-heavy as Law suggests, there’s plenty of exciting prospects who are more than adequate enough to call it a strong farm system.
Another area that Law professed on was the lopsided part of the farm system. But almost every Tigers fan should have known that coming into any sort of farm system rankings.
The Tigers have always been the pitching dominant farm system when compared to other teams since the 2010s.
Once this rebuild started, it was all pitching, but since then the addition of several high ceiling position players has meant that the Tigers are evening out. The development of some of these players is the key part of this, but if players like Dillon Dingler, Parker Meadows, Wenceel Perez, or even Andre Lipcius can develop into something.
The hope is higher with second-rounders like Dingler or Meadows but the hope is the Tigers can even out the farm system with players like that. Losing out on pretty much all of the players from the J.D. Martinez trade does not help the situation either.
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Nonetheless, the Tigers farm system is still good and still belongs near the top of the league. A top-five ranking seems more than justified. Law putting the Tigers down at 12 just seems to be a bit of low-balling, but hopefully, with a somewhat normal year ahead some of these prospects can show they made the most of their time away from the organization.