Detroit Tigers prospect Max Clark sees big picture, learns from mental performance coach

Some baseball players, admittedly, wear their hearts on their sleeves.

But Detroit Tigers center fielder Max Clark, one of the top-ranked prospects in baseball as one of the youngest prospects in baseball, wears his heart on his feet, literally. A peek at Clark's cleats show his motivations over the past month.

The 19-year-old decided to stay away from X (formerly known as Twitter) this season. He blacked out his profile photo and hasn't posted anything on that social media platform since a few hours before the first game of his season with Low-A Lakeland.

One day, though, Clark logged on and searched his name.

He picked the first 10 positive comments he could find as well as the first 10 negative comments, putting those 20 comments on custom-designed Adidas cleats. The positive comments went on a blue cleat for his right foot; the negative comments on a red cleat for his left foot.

"There was definitely more positive than negative," Clark said, "but some of the negative ones were funny, so credit where credit is due."

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Clark will see and hear comments — both positive and negative — for the rest of his career, but he can influence the narrative with his performance on the field. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 draft, still in the earliest stages of his development, has taken steps to work on his mindset with Tigers mental performance coordinator Aaron Lewis, while also working on his swing and his approach with other coaches.

In 2024, Clark reported to Lakeland for his first full professional season. He is hitting .253 with one home run, 16 walks and 19 strikeouts in 22 games.

Clark, a left-handed hitter, wants to advance first to High-A West Michigan and then to Double-A Erie, hopefully by the end of the season, but more importantly, he has finally learned to buy into the process of his development, rather than just the outcomes.

He admits he doesn't have it all figured out.

"I’m still growing every single day," Clark said. "Even big leaguers don’t have it all figured out. I'm just trusting my process, trying to figure out what I need to get out of here, what I need to do to be the best I can be here, what I need to do to be the best for the Tigers. I'm trying to grow each and every day as a ballplayer."

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His cleats are a canvas for his experiences, with his latest customization about navigating the praise and criticism that comes with being a top first-round pick last summer, selected one spot ahead of a player — Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford — who has already made his MLB debut this season.

Clark, one of the most popular high school draftees, with nearly 400,000 followers on his active Instagram account, might not make his MLB debut with the Tigers until 2026.

For comparison, 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick Spencer Torkelson has 49,000 followers, 2019 No. 5 overall pick Riley Greene has 32,000 followers and 2018 No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize has 27,000 followers.

Clark ranks as the Tigers' No. 1 prospect and the No. 12 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

Some of the negative comments on the red cleat: Max Clark was the wrong pick; I've never been more sure of someone being a bust than Max Clark; He sucks, how can people not see that?

Some of the positive comments on the blue cleat: Max Clark is the best player in the 2023 high school class; Elite talent in the 2023 draft. Max Clark is ridiculous; I'm very, very excited about Max Clark.

"What got pushed to the media was just the negative cleat," Clark said, "but what some people have also noticed is there's a positive cleat. The red represents all the negative things. I don't buy too much into that. That's kind of ironic considering I put them on a cleat, but in reality, they don't sit with me at night."

Only Clark could pull off those cleats.

"I mean, I'm not the person to be out there flashing like that," said fellow prospect Kevin McGonigle, hitting .333 with six walks and three strikeouts in eight games with Low-A Lakeland, "but that's the type of player he is, and I think it's awesome. He has multiple customized pairs. They're all pretty cool."

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Clark laced up the cleats with the social media comments for the first time April 14, almost immediately following his escape from a slow start to the season. He struggled in his first three games against the Dunedin Blue Jays, going 0-for-11 with two walks and four strikeouts in 14 plate appearances.

No hits in Dunedin, from April 5-7, had Clark thinking about the end of the 2023 season, in which he hit just .154 (6-for-39) with 12 walks and 15 strikeouts across his first 11 games for Lakeland in the Florida State League.

"Some stuff crept into my mindset early because I had such a rough year last year," Clark said, "but I had a talk with our mental sports scientist, Aaron Lewis. We sat down at dinner one day, and it was like, it's the same game I've played for 18 years."

The Tigers hired Lewis as a mental performance coordinator in March 2023. He previously spent four years as a performance expert with the U.S. Army and seven years as a mental performance coach with the US Army Special Operations Command.

Lewis earned his bachelor's degree from Albion College in 2001 and his master's degree from Florida State University — specializing in sport and exercise psychology — in 2008.

These days, Lewis is helping Clark and other players with the Tigers.

"Aaron is great," Clark said. "He's always open to talk. He's a text away. He's just super-conversational, too. It doesn't feel like you're talking to someone who has a master's degree in sports science. He sounds like a friend who wants to help, but his knowledge is so extended to where, any problem you have, you can go to him. That's a big plus to have.

"A lot of pro and college athletes struggle with mental health. It's a real thing. Having him by my side is huge because it's another step we can use to get to the next step. If I'm struggling or having a bad day, he's a text away."

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Clark learned to focus on his process — rather than the outcomes — after the conversation with Lewis. He is evaluating his swing decisions and exit velocities more than his batting average and isolated power.

He has hit .292 (21-for-72) with one home run, 14 walks and 15 strikeouts across his past 19 games, immediately following his three hitless games and his conversation with Lewis. He also has eight stolen bases in eight attempts.

Clark has worked with Tigers hitting coordinator Max Gordon on his swing mechanics.

"Three years is when I need to be hitting for juice, not Year 1 in the Florida State League," Clark said. "The way the game trends, the way my swing trends, it's coming and it's development. It's just going to take more work, more time in the gym, a little bit more of a swing, whatever it may be, we figure that out as we go."

Clark has extremely high ground-ball rates.

It was an issue in 2023 and remains an issue in 2024.

Getting the ball off the ground is a "priority" for Clark as his first full season continues, but that doesn't necessarily mean he needs to be launching for home runs.

"There are times where I get super groundball-heavy," Clark said, "but usually, it's not based on a pitch that gets me to hit the ball on the ground. Typically, it's because my hips aren't working the way they need to be in that swing. It's actually on the mechanical side."

Staying process-focused will help him when he struggles in the future while advancing in the farm system, just as it's currently helping him with the Flying Tigers.

His feet are firmly planted in his customized cleats, his right foot in the blue cleat with positive comments and his left foot in the red cleat with negative comments.

Clark is going to trust his process, no matter what people say on social media.

"I know it's cliche, but this game is about 90% mental," Clark said. "It wears on you. Going into my first full season, there's a lot of stuff between my body, between my mind that have to stay right. Having someone that can level you out in an hour conversation is huge because there are going to be more struggles."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers prospect Max Clark learning the mental side of the game