One year ago, I wrote the article named, Are the Orioles the American League’s Top Team Again in 2024? In this piece, I argued that the success of the Orioles stemmed from building a young core by drafting and developing players. Making this case, I compared the Orioles draft picks to that of the Tigers. It seemed clear in March of last year that the Baltimore’s approach to their rebuild clearly outshine that of Detroit’s. One year later, the story looks a little different.
Reevaluating the Rebuild
In March 2024, the Orioles had the #1 farm system in baseball for three years running. Today, they’ve dropped to #15 and it’s the Detroit Tigers who claim the #1 spot. In fairness to Baltimore, their top prospects have all become MLB regulars. Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson are All-Stars. Jackson Holliday saw plenty of big league action in 2024. Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser are now staples in their lineup as well.
The difference between the Orioles and Tigers may not (afterall) be the quality of their rebuild, but the timeline. Unlike the Orioles, the Tigers spent much of their early rebuild years drafting pitchers. Alex Faedo, Matt Manning and Casey Mize were projected to be their future starting rotation. Spencer Torkelson was supposed to be their slugger. Yet, the Tigers got many of their young stars from unexpected places.
In the same year the Tigers selected Casey Mize, they also snagged Tarik Skubal in the 9th round. In 2019, Kerry Carpenter was picked in 19th round of the MLB Draft. In 2020, Colt Keith was a 5th round pick. Slowly, but surely, with a exception of Riley Greene, many of the Tigers core of young stars were late round steals.
2024 Turnaround
It’s hard to say we all saw this coming. While Tigers fans were certainly hopeful the rebuild would bear fruit, it really wasn’t until August of last season when the winds began to shift. The late season run was propelled by a series of unlikely events. First, the trade of Jack Flaherty at the deadline resulted in the acquisition of Thayron Liranzo (#81 overall prospect) and Trey Sweeney (former Yankees 1st Round pick). Sweeney received an immediate opportunity to finish the Tigers 2024 season out as the starting shortstop, as the Tigers went on this postseason run.
The success of 2024 surely gave Detroit room for optimism. The re-signing of Jack Flaherty further solidifies the success of that trade. However, it’s also an emerging group of prospects that have the baseball world buzzing about the Tigers future. Jackson Jobe had made his MLB debut late last season and currently sits at the #5 overall prospect in the game. The hard-throwing right-hander is expected to be in the rotation to start the 2025 season. Max Clark, the third overall pick of the 2023 draft is the #6 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline. I’ve covered Clark extensively in Prospects on Deck: OF Max Clark — Tigers. The Tigers also grabbed a pair of middle infielder, Kevin McGonigle (#28 overall), with the 37th pick in 2023.
The Detroit Tigers have the best farm system in baseball.
Here’s why: https://t.co/nUpyKmLNyw pic.twitter.com/vPfppfRL04
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 7, 2025
And still there’s more. In 2024, the Tigers selected shortstop Bryce Rainer (#52 overall) with the 12th pick of that draft. Throw in C/1B Josue Briceño and the Tigers have six of the Top 100 prospects in baseball. There’s also been some buzz about Hao-Yu Lee and hope that Jace Jung (or even Lee) can work his way into the third base spot. With a plethora of infield prospects in the Tigers system and the move of Colt Keith from 2B to 1B, gives the Tigers a variety of options over the next few seasons.
Build or Buy?
While there was clearly a lot of support among the fan base for signing Alex Bregman over the off-season, signing veteran free-agents might not be the ultimate answer. The Tigers bullpen remains among the league’s best, the starting rotation is solid and the lineup going into 2025 has potential to pop. Ultimately, the Tigers depth at the minor league level provides the team with the ability to build a winning franchise for many years to come.
