Evaluating some of the top prospects throughout the rebuild and their relevance to the current team

I’m only picking guys who have either debuted or are no longer in the organization. This is a long read/essay so tldr: we’ve hit on the vast majority of our top guys, it’s a great sign for our development team that guys are making adjustments like this

Casey mize: looked like a semi bust who might miss his perceived floor draft night of a number 3 guy. Hes turned it around and now is every bit of at least at 2-3 guy in a good rotation. Some regression coming, but he’s been valuable and has a career best k/bb ratio. Not an ace but a good pick Relevance: a glue guy in a rotation that has been one of the best in baseball by the numbers Overall: hit

Matt Manning: one of the only guys you can really call a bust, had one decent year but just hasn’t been able to figure it out. He’s in the bullpen now, could be interesting depth Relevance: not much, could potentially be good depth if he transitions to the bullpen well. Overall: small miss, not every high school arm even in the first round ever sniffs the bigs, he made it and had at least one decent year.

Tarik Skubal: you already know

Alex faedo: was a decent bullpen arm at stretches and showed flashes. Really rooted for him, had a sub 4 era last year with a good sample size, but seemed like he was due for major regression and was an expendable piece Relevance: none Overall: small miss, had less success than you’d hope, but he was a later first round pick than the others outside of skubs. Only a top 100 prospect for a short time

Jeimer candelario: first trade guy, had a good year or two in Detroit before being awful and getting dfa’d. Pretty good for the nats, but recently released by the reds. Relevance: none Overall; hit, has had a good career just not all for us. Also only a fringe top 100 guy, and we only gave up Justin Wilson and Alex Avila. Good trade tbh

Isaac paredes: not great for Detroit, great for everybody else. Relevance: none Overall: major hit on the talent in that deal for him and candy, just didn’t hit for us. And we know how Austin meadows panned out

Franklin Perez: injuries suck Relevance: none Overall: obviously a miss because he did nothing and it hurts more because we gave up JV, but it’s hard to tell what could’ve been.

Jake rogers: not a top 100 guy, but he was listed as a top 10 catcher at points and was said to be the best defensive catcher in the minors. He’s been good, what you want out of a catcher mostly. Relevance: he’s transitioned to being a backup and if he can find the power swing again he’s probably the best backup in the entire league. He’s a floor raiser, if ding gets hurt you feel good with him back there. Overall: hit, he had 20 bombs one year, and is now an inner circle guy on this roster and plays an important role.

Daz Cameron: only none top 100/none top 10 position guy I’ll mention to round out the JV trade, he just couldn’t hit. Relevance:none Overall: miss, I think he’s still playing in the bigs but not doing much.

Riley Greene: our superstar Relevance: very Overall: great

Spencer torkelson: Rough rookie year, 30 bombs the next year. Then after a rough year he made his adjustments and now he’s got more home runs than any other first baseman in the game Relevance: he’s one of the main reasons for being the best team in baseball Overall: he’s probably a hit at this point, maybe not a .900 ops guy, but only a handful of guys are that good. He’s still been borderline elite this year

Colt Kieth: decent rookie year, now he’s really turning it on after a rough start to the year. He’s got an .800 ops now! Relevance: he’s extremely important to the success of the current tigers and the future of the team Overall: 5th round pick I believe, so he’s a major hit. The contract extension is looking great.

Jackson jobe: showed flashes this year but needs to find the swing and miss. The spotty command doesn’t concern me, the lack of swing and miss does a bit. Still excited for his return, obviously the injury this year and overall history are concerning Relevance: was relevant and we won either all or all but one of his starts early on so he contributed for sure Overall: too early to tell, I do think that worse case scenario with injuries and all is that he becomes the next mason miller and just shoves out of the pen. Which would be disappointing to some levels, but I believe he will be hugely valuable in some capacity for a long time

Jace Jung: has really struggled to get it going and it looks like he just flails the bat when he’s in the bigs. Timings all over the place. I will say, he has a good eye, improved tremendously defensively, and does have a decent propensity for shooting balls to the left field. But he still has zero home runs in the bigs Relevance: he filled in for a while and didn’t hurt the team. At this point in the year he is a depth piece that could fill in if the injury bug hits, but they’d probably make a trade if that were to happen anytime soon. Overall: still too early to tell, but I think he will go down as a bust unfortunately. I’m rooting for him obviously, and he did change his stance so we’ll see if that unlocks something.

Wilmer Flores: he had a huge jump that one year, then fell off hard. He was only a top 100 prospect for a very short time. I remember being excited for him. Only to never make it, then he got dfa’d Relevance:none Overall: hard to be too critical because he was an undrafted free agent, but his prospect status rose a ton and then he ended up not making it so it’s a miss.

Wenceel Perez: rated a top ten second baseman at one point, he’s been great as a fourth outfielder last year and has turned it up another notch this year! Relevance: he’s been such a huge player for us and gotten some big hits. He helps soften the blow of Kerry being hurt and before that not performing very well Overall: he fell off prospect rankings pretty quick, but then really made the most of his call up. A surprise hit!

Dillon dingler: not sure if he was ever a top 10 catcher, but he was a second round or comp pick(can’t remember) and he’s been awesome this year, great defense, above average offense Relevance: a huge reason for why we’ve taken a leap, he’s been great Overall: a hit

Bonus hits on guys who weren’t top 100 prospects: Kerry carpenter, Parker meadows, Reese Olson, Gregory Soto (turned into Matty V so that’s huge), and willi Castro(just not for us)

If I missed anybody lmk, I didn’t pick any of the guys still in the minors but I’m super excited to see them make it!