History of MLB deals for top prospects after Detroit Tigers signed Colt Keith

The Detroit Tigers made a rare leap this week in investing in their future.

On Sunday, the Tigers locked up top prospect Colt Keith, their likely starting second baseman on the 2024 Opening Day roster, to a six-year contract through 2029, plus club options for 2030-32, despite his not having made his MLB debut. The contract will be worth $82 million over nine years if all of the options are escalated and exercised.

In 2023, Keith hit .306 with 27 home runs, 60 walks (10.4% walk rate), and 121 strikeouts (21% strikeout rate) across 126 games with Double-A Erie (59 games) and Triple-A Toledo (67 games). He hit .287 and 13 homers in 301 plate appearances with the Mud Hens. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 22 prospect in baseball while he came in at No. 28 on Baseball America's top-100 list.

It is the first contract for a Tigers prospect with no MLB service time since the collective bargaining agreement was changed in 2011 to give draft picks minor-league contracts instead of big-league deals. The 22-year-old Keith is the seventh prospect overall with an MLB deal with zero days of service time over that span, according to MLB.com.

Here is a quick look at how the deals for the six others worked out:

2023: OF Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee Brewers

The Tigers aren't the first to strike this offseason: Last month, the Brewers locked down Chourio to an eight-year, $82-million deal with two team options that could extend the contract to 10 seasons and a potential $142.5 million. Chourio, ranked as the No. 2 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, was the Brewers' Prospect of the Year each of the past two seasons; he's expected to make his MLB at age 20 this season.

2020: OF Luis Robert Jr., Chicago White Sox

The White Sox locked up Robert to a six-year, $50 million contract six months before his MLB debut in July at the start of the COVID-shortened season. Robert played in 56 of the ChiSox's 60 games as a 22-year-old rookie, winning a Gold Glove in center field and finishing second in American League Rookie of the Year voting. That seasoin, Robert hit .233 with 11 home runs and a .738 OPS. Over the next two seasons, injuries limited his playing time, but Robert played in 145 games in 2023, making the All-Star roster for the first time and winning a Silver Slugger award. Robert's contract included club options for 2026 and 2027 that could make the deal worth up to $88 million.

2019: 1B Evan White, Seattle Mariners

White received a six-year contract extension, with three years of club options, worth up to $55.5 million as the franchise's first baseman of the future. His future is no more in Seattle, however, after an early career filled with injuries. White made his MLB debut in 2020, appearing in 54 games at age 24 and earning a Gold Glove. He hit just .176 with a .252 on-base percentage. A hip injury limited him to 30 games in 2021 (in which he hit .144) and hip surgery cut his 2022 season to 28 games in Triple-A. He was optioned to the minors 2023 and missed most of the season again due to injury. The Mariners got out from under his contract this offseason in a trade with Atlanta, shipping him, left-hander Marco Gonzales and outfield Jarrad Kelenic (the prize of the deal) to the Braves for a pair of players. Atlanta then shipped him to the Angels a few days later.

2019: OF/DH Eloy Jiménez, White Sox

Another cornerstone of Chicago's current roster was inked to a six-year, $43 million deal with two years of club options. He played in 122 games as a 22-year-old rookie in 2019, hitting .267 with 31 homers and finishing fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting, and posted a .267 batting average with 31 home runs, 79 RBIs and a .828 OPS. He followed that up with an .891 OPS in the shortened 2021, winning a Silver Slugger, but missed time with injuries in 2021-22. He hit .272 with 18 homers in 120 games in 2023.

2018: UTIL Scott Kingery, Philadelphia Phillies

Kingery, a 2015 second-round pick out of college, signed a six-year, $24 million deal with three club options during 2018's spring training. He played in 147 games as a 24-year-old rookie in 2018, hitting .226 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs. Kingery played in 120 games the next season and improved to a .258 average with 19 home runs and 55 RBIs. He played 36 games in a utility role in the shortened 2020 season, hitting .159 with three homers. That was the beginning of the end for Kingery in Philly: He began 2021 in the minora, making only 15 MLB appearances before undergoing shoulder surgery. Kingery spent 2022-23 in Triple-A, with one MLB appearance as a defensive replacement, posting an OPS under .730 both seasons. The Phillies declined their 2024 option, but he remains in their system as a minor-leaguer for another year.

2014: 1B Jon Singleton, Houston Astros

Singleton was the first player to get a pre-debut MLB under the new CBA rules, as Houston signed the 2009 eight-round pick (by the Phillies) to a five-year, $10 million deal and called him up in June 2014 at age 22. Singleton played 95 games as a rookie but hit just .168 with 13 home runs and 44 RBIs. After he mashed in Triple-A to open 2015, Singleton was recalled as the Astros made their first playoff push in a decade but played in just 19 games. Singleton struggled with marijuana, a banned substance under MLB's CBA, and was suspended for 100 games for testing positive prior to the 2018 season. The Astros released him in May 2018 in the middle of his suspension. He signed in 2020 with the Brewers but didn't return to the majors until 2023, playing seven games combined with the Brewers and Astros.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Colt Keith signing a rare deal before MLB debut