Detroit Tigers Newsletter: Jace Jung's bat looks mighty close to MLB-ready

We know, we know: All the signs of Opening Day fast approaching were out in force this weekend.

The teeth-gnashing over the NCAA tournament brackets. The Red Wings’ playoff chances rapidly cratering with a disappointing road loss. Even the snow falling in and around Comerica Park on Sunday screamed one thing (as much as snow can scream, but you get it): We’re less than two weeks from baseball that counts.

(And less than that, actually, as the L.A. Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the regular season at 6:05 a.m. Wednesday in South Korea. But we’ll get to that in a bit.)

But as easy as it is to look ahead to March 28, when the Detroit Tigers will take the field in Chicago against the White Sox, we actually spent Saturday looking a little farther ahead.

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Hello, and welcome to the Farm-to-CoPa Newsletter!

Yes, while the Tigers’ main squad was thumping the Pittsburgh Pirates — their sixth win in eight games last week — in Bradenton, their prospects, from the full spectrum of minor-league levels, were facing off with the Phillies prospects in Lakeland in MLB's new "Spring Breakout" series, giving us a chance (once we dusted off the ol’ MLB.com login) to scope out a fair swath of the organization’s top prospects (according, as always, to MLB Pipeline) all at once.

Although we didn’t get to see every prospect we hoped for — notably, infielder Kevin McGonigle, the Chase Utley clone drafted at No. 37 by the Tigers in July, was out with a hamstring strain — there were still plenty of highlights from six notable names:

Max Clark

The Tigers’ first-round pick in July — at No. 3 overall out of high school in Indiana — led off Saturday. He went 0-for-2, but worked a six-pitch walk that showed solid plate judgment as Phillies righty Michael Mercado, a 2017 second-rounder nearly six years his senior, tried to get him to bite on inside pitches. Once on base, Clark showed the athleticism that led the Tigers to pass on more established college hitters in the draft; he broke for second on a second-pitch four-seam fastball clocked at 96 mph and beat the throw easily, sliding feet-first into second and popping up on the bag, with a bit of a collision with the shortstop before he could even attempt to bring the tag down.

Of course, that wasn’t the only notable collision of Clark’s spring. As the Freep’s Evan Petzold discovered this week, Clark had a run-in on the road earlier this month with a Tigers fan in his new Corvette. Find out how Clark made a new fan after the accident, and what the incident reveals about the team’s top prospect.

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Brant Hurter

The lanky lefty has drawn rave reviews this spring — manager A.J. Hinch was succinct with the Freep’s Jeff Seidel, saying: "I love Hurter." — and for good reason, as his work in the strike zone has resulted in just one earned run on four hits and two walks, with seven strikeouts in eight innings.

Saturday brought more of the same, as Hurter allowed one run on three hits with no walks and 29 strikes thrown in 45 pitches over three innings. That included four strikeouts: In the first, he got Gabriel Rincones Jr., the Phillies’ No. 10 prospect, swinging on a 9.6 mph sinker in the zone for a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play (more on that in a bit). Opening the second, he victimized catcher Eduardo Tait, Philly’s No. 9 prospect, in a way that’ll seem familiar to anyone who has seen Javier Báez attempt to deal with a slider away; pitch Nos. 1, 2 and 4 broke away from the lefty-hitting batter, with the final pitch just missing the plate — and Tait’s bat. Strikeout No. 3, by Carlos De La Cruz (Philly’s No. 13 prospect) rto end the second inning, showcased Hurter’s command of his changeup — two to open the at-bat around 85 mph — and then a high 92-6 mph four-seam fastball that De La Cruz couldn’t catch up to. Hurter then opened the third inning by getting Caleb Ricketts, No. 21 on Philly’s prospects list, with a sharp 93.7 mph sinker at the knees for a called strike on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.

Jace Jung

The Tigers’ 2022 first-round pick, and their No. 4 prospect, showed why he’s tantalizingly close to the majors in just three plate appearances. With two outs in the first, he launched an 88.8 mph changeup, middle-middle from righty Mick Abel (the Phils’ No. 2 prospect, expected to make his MLB debut this summer) 362 feet into the Tigers bullpen at Joker Marchant Stadium. In the third, he worked a four-pitch walk, laying off four high four-seamers from Michael Mercado. In the fifth, Jung got to Griff McGarry, Philly’s No. 11 prospect whose name is a bit better than his cutter; the infielder launched the 91.2 mph pitch just above his knees 412 feet to right-center, with this dinger landing on the walkway above the Tigers’ bullpen to make it a 3-1 Tigers lead.

Trei Cruz

The Tigers’ 2020 third-round pick isn’t among the team’s top 30 prospects (according to MLB Pipeline), but he helped his stock last season in a couple ways. First, in 120 Double-A games, he hit 14 homers — four more than he had in 180 games over his first two seasons. Second — and perhaps more importantly, considering the Tigers’ emphasis on defensive versatility — he played at least 14 games at four different positions. And sure enough, he starred with his glove against the Phils (despite going 0-for-4) —Cruz was involved in all three double plays turned by the Tigers.

We’ll give him just partial credit for the first DP, as the shortstop who applied the tag to No. 3 prospect Aidan Miller on the first-inning caught-stealing DP fueled by a laser from catcher Dillon Dingler. In the fourth, Cruz and the Tigers infield victimized Rincones (at the plate) and Miller (on the bases) again, as Hao-Yu Lee — the prospect picked up from the Phils in August’s Michael Lorenzen trade — fielded and fired to Cruz at second, and he connected with first baseman Jake Holton to clear the bases. In the sixth, Rincones came up again, this time with the bases loaded and one out. And again, Cruz came through, fielding a grounder and getting the out at second, then firing to Holton at first to end the inning.

Cruz’s sharpness at short wasn’t a surprise — he logged 310 innings there in Erie, and as he told Our Man Petzold this winter, "I've always played infield. I've always felt like I could play center field, definitely fast enough and athletic enough to do it, but I never thought of it because I've felt good at shortstop." — but it’s good to see the Tigers have options should Báez struggle with his … glove.

Troy Melton

The California native went from a backup catcher in high school to a walk-on at San Diego State to the Tigers’ fourth-round pick in 2022 — and then it got interesting. As Our Man Seidel has detailed, the Tigers reworked his mechanics, turning him into a right-handed flamethrower. And then some — Melton needed just 18 pitches to plow through a perfect two innings against the Phillies prospects. Of those, 12 were strikes, and 12 were four-seam fastballs that topped out at 97.8 mph, bottomed out at 94.7 mph and averaged 96.7 mph.

Wilmer Flores

And, finally, there was the Venezuelan right-hander, who was the organization’s Pitcher of the Year in 2022 then seemingly took a step back last season in Double-A with a 4.02 ERA. On in relief in the ninth, the 6-foot-4 Flores racked up two strikeouts as part of his 19-pitch outing. He was still a bit wild, with a four-pitch walk when he couldn’t command his four-seamer, but Flores also used a nasty curveball for whiffs of the Phillies’ No. 30 (Nikau Pouaka-Grego) and No. 7 (Devin Saltiban) prospects. With a curve working in the low 80s, a slider in the high 80s and a fastball that topped out at 99.5 mph, Flores certainly lived up to the hype that landed him back at No. 10 on the Tigers’ prospect list this spring — and the stuff that might land him in the Tigers’ bullpen this summer.

The trial of Jobe

There was one prospect missing from Saturday’s kids-table game: Jackson Jobe — because he was with the grownups for an MLB spring training start. And did he ever look all grown up, needing just 13 pitches to sit down the three Minnesota Twins he faced. It was an eye-opening performance by the 2021 first-round pick — for himself, as well. The former No. 3 overall pick may have had a bit of extra adrenaline going as he hit 101.8 mph on the Joker Marchant Stadium radar gun. More importantly, Jobe showed some maturity that may get him to the Comerica Park mound sooner rather than later, according to Our Man Petzold.

Back to the majors

Of course, before then, the Tigers will need a bullpen this spring. And a rotation. And a lineup. Whole 26-man roster, we guess. And while most of the positions are set — Tork’s on first, Javy’s at short, Tarik’s on the mound as often as possible, we hope — there are still some left to be determined over the final eight games of spring training. Our Man Petzold spent some time analyzing all the spots over the weekend; head here to find out how he sees the six-arms-for-five-rotation-spots conundrum getting sorted out.

Mann(ing) on fire

Entering the spring, right-hander Matt Manning looked like he might be the odd man out. Yes, he started the Tigers’ combined no-hitter in July. But he also missed a lot of time with a twice-broken right foot and struggled with his control. And now? Manning has struck out 11 of the 32 batters he has faced, with just four hits allowed. All four of those hits have been homers, which isn’t ideal — but that seems pretty unsustainable all season, too. So what has changed for Manning? He has found his edge, according to Our Man Petzold. Head here to get the details on what catcher Jake Rogers calls ‘Classic Matt.”

Carp on the line

There’s one key Tiger without a true position heading into Opening Day: Kerry Carpenter. With Miguel Cabrera’s retirement (and return to camp as a part-time coach), Carpenter will likely log a lot of games at designated hitter. But he’ll still see time in the field, as well. Is he worried about that uncertainty? Nope. As Our Man Seidel observed last week, Carpenter is a man of certainty in all things: At the plate. In his faith. And in his love of his new wife, Lauren, a former Texas softball player. Head here for the full story of the courtship (and her talent as a BP pitcher).

Mark your calendar

As we mentioned earlier, the MLB season will officially begin Wednesday morning when Tyler Glasnow takes the mound for the Dodgers against the Padres (who’ll have Korea’s own Yu Darvish toeing the rubber) at 6 a.m. on ESPN. A little closer to home (by 17 hours or so, via airplane), the Tigers will be getting some screen time of their own with back-to-back-to-back games on Bally Sports Detroit on Tuesday-Thursday against the Phillies, Twins and Mets, respectively. Tuesday’s game starts at 6:05 p.m., while the other two start at 1:05 (allowing for a cool 4 hours of napping between the LA/SD game and the Tigers/Twins matchup Wednesday), and Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games will feature new play-by-play man Jason Benetti, freed from his basketball duties by the NCAA tournament, on the mic.

TL;DR

Of course, one downside of watching a couple hours of Tigers prospects is that you become very aware of your own advancing age. And then you sit down to write a newsletter and see that former closer (and avant-garde hat enthusiast) Fernando Rodney turns 47 on Monday … and that he threw 17 innings for Gigantes del Cibao in the Domincan Winter League this offseason. (Y’know, just in case the Tigers need any veteran arms before Flores and Jobe are ready.)

Other Tigers birthdays this week: José Valverde (46 on Sunday).

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Meet Detroit Tigers' 6 standout prospects from 'Spring Breakout' win