How Detroit Tigers No. 1 prospect Max Clark learned to be himself again
LAKELAND, Fla. — Three days after the Detroit Tigers selected Max Clark with the No. 3 pick in the 2023 MLB draft, he attended the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where his life flipped upside down.
“To my right was Mike Tyson,” Clark said, breaking into a smile, standing outside the Tigers facility. “So, I had a couple of conversations with him. We actually sat front row at the ESPYs, so LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce — like all of these just insane untouchables.”
But it got better.
Way better.
After Clark was announced as the Gatorade national male athlete of the year, he glanced at the “insane untouchables.”
“Kelce and Mahomes looked at me and gave a nod of respect,” Clark said. “That was the coolest thing I've ever experienced in my entire life — super cool.”
Clark, the Tigers top prospect according to MLB Pipeline, has been living a life on hyper-speed since the draft.
“So, I got drafted, packed after the draft, did the media stuff, hopped on a plane and went to L.A.,” he said. “The Gatorade celebration was incredible. I mean, there were guys like (Seattle Seahawks receiver) D.K. Metcalf, and it was unreal.”
“Did you actually go up to them?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, it was insane,” he smiled.
Don’t get the wrong impression. He wasn’t name dropping or bragging. He was just explaining his crazy life, which has only gotten crazier.
Here was a Midwestern 18-year-old kid at the time, the son of a retired special education teacher and the stepson of long-haul truck driver, who was chatting up superstar athletes.
I mean, what did you do the summer after graduating from high school?
Since then?
More whirlwind.
He got back from Los Angeles on July 14. Three days later, he flew to Lakeland, went through physicals, signed with the Tigers for a $7.7 million bonus and started two weeks of training camp. Oh, in the middle of that, he flew to Detroit and threw out the first pitch before a July 21 game, and met Miguel Cabrera.
Then, he returned to Lakeland and started playing in the Florida Coast League.
Remember, he hadn’t played in a baseball game since May. The first pitcher he faced on July 29? Cam Schlittler, the Yankees seventh-round pick in 2022.
“It was definitely hard,” Clark said. “In high school, the last guy I saw on the mound was like 82-83 and then the starter for the FCL Yankees was like 96-97. I was like, ‘Okay, this is awesome.’
“It was a super, super, crazy 360.”
He tore up in the FCL, hitting .320 with a couple homers in his first seven games.
“For me the FCL was great — hit for power and average,” he said.
Then, the wheels came off.
Learning to handle struggles
After Clark moved up to Single-A Lakeland, he went into a funk, going 3-for-26 with 13 strikeouts.
“I played probably the worst baseball I've ever played in my life,” he said.
More than anything, he struggled mentally.
One strikeout turned into another, one frustrating game became a horrendous week — there was no break like in high school. No time to get a breather and snap out of it. “Just completely mental shock,” he said.
But here’s the silver lining: He learned from it. Grew from it.
“You can't let game after game after game kill your mindset,” he said. “Because it will kill an entire week or even two and that's exactly what happened to me.”
He figured his way out of it — talent usually wins — then went 4-for-12 in the playoffs.
“Honestly, I was kind of glad to struggle now,” he said. “I was able to figure myself out in two weeks of just horrendous baseball that I've never experienced before.”
That’s a lesson that he will take with him for the rest of his career.
“There's gonna be a time where it feels like you're the worst baseball player, and there's gonna be a time when you feel like you're the best,” he said. “So, it's like figuring out how to keep that mental wave at the middle.”
Now, looking back, maybe his problem was trying to be somebody else, trying to act like what he thought a minor leaguer should act — head down, quiet and professional — trying to be someone he wasn’t.
And it sucked the joy out of him.
If there is one thing the Tigers organization preaches it is this: Be yourself.
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A fun-loving character
Recently, as I watched Clark on the back fields at TigerTown, one thought came to mind: He is a joy-filled, fun-loving, bounce off the walls character. He has the tight pants, blue glove and jewelry dangling around his neck.
He has a unique energy, kind of skipping across the infield, punching fists with a coach working a pitching machine, and floating to the outfield to catch balls. He exudes fun and confidence.
“That's just me,” he said. “I want to get back to being myself.”
This is who he was in high school. Charismatic. Having fun. Not a care what the outside world thinks.
“You know, 75 to 80% of the people are gonna love it,” he said. “There are players we play against who aren't gonna like it and that's totally fine because they're not a part of our team. They're not a part of our culture. I want to be happy and then super competitive, and that's definitely what people are gonna get.”
He arrived in Lakeland in early January and feels he has improved his defense significantly, working with Arnie Beyeler, the Tigers minor league outfield coordinator.
“The strides I've made in those months have been incredible,” he said. “My transfer is faster. My arm has gotten better just from playing catch. My footwork has been probably the biggest step.”
He has tweaked his swing, trying to find a cleaner path to the ball — there were times it got too long last year — and the results have been impressive. He has hit some monster homers in Lakeland.
“The power that has come out of that has been real,” he said.
Still a growing teenager, he has added about 15 pounds of muscle from the Tigers weight training program and nutritionist.
“Our nutritionist is awesome,” he said. “And then the weight room program has been great.”
Cleats tell a bigger story
The other day, Clark was walking to the minor league clubhouse, carrying a plastic Dick's Sporting Goods bag with some new cleats.
“I had to go pick up some new pairs,” he said.
Because he had blown out of his old cleats doing outfield drills.
"Wait,” I said. “You just went into a Dick's and bought some cleats off the rack?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Did you tell them you are a professional baseball player?”
“No,” he said.
Many MLB baseball players have shoe deals. Shoot, Cabrera would show up for spring training and there would be boxes and boxes of cleats and shoes spilling out of his locker.
Clark doesn’t have a shoe deal. He does have a batting glove deal with Bruce Bolt and a deal with Old Hickory bats. Some days, he’ll show up and there’ll be 20 pairs of batting gloves and a dozen Old Hickory game bats.
“It’s like Christmas all over,” he said.
And soon, he will experience that with cleats.
“Since I'm with Bruce Bolt, it's hard to fight with these cleat companies because they want to outfit everybody head to toe,” he said. “So Nike gloves, Nike batting gloves, Nike everything, or Adidas everything. I'm not gonna be disloyal to Bruce Bolt because I've been with them for almost three years already.”
The scene reflected one of the last areas of his life that is still normal — a teenager going into a sporting goods store to buy some gear.
I doubt he’ll ever do that again.
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On bended knee
Clark turned 19 in December, but seems so much older.
He is engaged to Kayli Farmer, a Dayton soccer player, because, well, of course, darn near every player at TigerTown is engaged. They have dated since he was a freshman in high school, and he popped the question with most of her team watching.
“I come out and I sneak up behind her,” he said, smiling. “It was perfect. There's a light drizzle which made the pictures unbelievable. There's a rainbow. Nice little raindrops.”
Picture perfect.
That’s his life.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Tigers prospect Max Clark learned to be himself again
