How long before Tigers prize Max Clark sets sail for Erie?
Predicting when Max Clark gets his orders for Double A Erie and his next stage of Tigers lineup preparation is natural even six weeks into Single A West Michigan’s spring.
A best guess on when Clark heads for Erie is sometime in July as the midseason breaks arrive for MLB and minor-league teams. Clark got his West Michigan promotion last July and figures to climb another rung 12 months later thanks to numbers he brought into Sunday’s game against Lansing at LMCU Ballpark.
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Clark, who it should be remembered does not turn 21 until December, was batting .317 for the Whitecaps. He had an outrageous on-base percentage of .450, thanks in part to a 19.1% walk-rate, all against a measly strikeout percentage of 12.2. He had two home runs as part of a .433 slugging mark.
He, of course, was also playing center field, hunting down everything an outfielder with his fleet feet is supposed to grab and a whole lot of balls some might have thought he couldn’t reach.
Outside critiques – apart from the Tigers’ internal evaluations – invariably focus on Clark’s light power. As of Sunday, he had 13 home runs in 157 minor-league games.
Not a single Tigers staffer quizzed about Clark these past two years has suggested there is even mild concern about a left-handed hitter’s power. A couple of explanations there:
Clark, as mentioned, is seven months from 21. He is two years out of high school. Power tends to be a latter-stage additive for most players, even when Clark is a sturdy 6-foot, 205 pounds.
The Tigers don’t necessarily believe he will be a 25-30-bomb hitter. But they aren’t ruling out ceilings when Clark steadily shows so many gains in his across-the-board game.
A second reason the Tigers aren’t worried about Clark’s muscle is because of that low strikeout rate.
What development people across baseball know is that K-rates, high and low, tend to follow a hitter through his farm evolution.
Clark’s ability to get his bat on the ball and make hard contact is why his bosses are smiling and seeing validation for all that Tigers scouting execs Mark Conner and Rob Metzler forecasted when Clark was taken third overall in 2023.
When you are squaring-up pitches as often as Clark does, the expectation that he will add down-the-line thump makes eventual home runs more of an accepted fact rather than an area of concern or doubt.
Consider, also, that Clark through his first two seasons with the Tigers has been playing in oversized ballparks (Florida State League and LMCU). Expect those homer numbers to jump more than a tad once he sets foot at UPMC Park in Erie.
What the Tigers appreciate, among the many facets of Clark’s first two seasons, is that he isn’t any more concentrating than they on his extra-base numbers. He has maintained enormous discipline, as his walks and chase-averse at-bats have shown.
Down the road, as his body evolves, he likely will also know when to hunt a pitch that can be put into the seats.
But, for now, Clark and his tutors are sympatico. An extremely talented and important prospect is gestating nicely, probably two months before the next phase begins, at Erie.
More: Tigers' highly regarded prospects Clark, McGonigle aren't worried about tomorrow
West Michigan's talent warehouse
Clark any day now will be reuniting with his draft-mate shortstop, Kevin McGonigle, who has missed the past month with a sprained ankle and is now rehabbing at low-A Lakeland.
McGonigle would figure to be Erie-bound at the same time as Clark. His skill with the bat is a main reason to believe the two will be co-promoted, as was the case last July when both were shipped from Lakeland to West Michigan.
The only hang-up: McGonigle, who was shelved during the last month of 2024 with a hamate fracture, has only played in 97 professional games – 60 fewer than Clark.
That might not matter if the left-handed swinging McGonigle hits as he steadily has shown to be his habit: .313/.414/.452/.865. Two months more of featuring the same left-handed wizardry that made him a 37th overall pick in 2023 and branded him as a 2025 top 25 prospect (No. 16, Baseball America; No. 24, MLB Pipeline) and the Tigers could well decide McGonigle is Erie-ready.
His work at shortstop should also be a growing skill that can transport to Erie without much hesitancy.
It is far less likely that another Tigers blue-chipper, Josue Briceno, will be moving soon to Double A.
Briceno is fine, Tigers staffers agree. But he has been pitched exceedingly tough by Midwest League teams that understand why he hits in that No. 3 lineup slot for Whitecaps manager Tony Cappuccilli.
It has also been miserably cold for much of these first six weeks in the Midwest, which, for a man accustomed to warm springs, likely has been a factor in Briceno’s relatively light .238 batting average as part of an .820 OPS (.344 on-base, .476 slugging).
Briceno has six homers. His average, and OPS, figure to rise as the mercury decides to acknowledge that spring has actually arrived at Comstock Park and elsewhere across the Midwest League.
Watch out, as well, for pitching tickets to Double A.
Marco Jimenez, Joe Miller, Jordan Marks, Trevin Michael, CJ Weins – any could find their way to Erie, as, conceivably, could Kenny Serwa and his knuckleball.
FCL Tigers uncaged
That formal initiation to United States-side professional baseball known as the Florida Complex League has been convened at Lakeland, Florida, and throughout the state’s minor-league corridors.
Among those not surprisingly showing impressive stuff after a first full week of FCL play:
▶ Jose Dickson, 18, shortstop, right-handed hitter: Dickson is 6-2 and weighs only 158 but already has a home run, triple, and double in five games and 12 at-bats. He was No. 14 on the 2025 Detroit News Top 50 Prospects list.
▶ Jude Warwick, 19, shortstop, left-handed hitter: Warwick was talked out of his Michigan State commitment last July after the Tigers grabbed him in the 12th round of the MLB Draft. He has been just fine in six games: .333/.400/.444/.844. Warwick is 6-1, 170. As with Dickson, the Tigers are seeing raw talent in customary need of skills seminars and body-building as 2025 marches on.
▶ Enrique Jimenez, 19, catcher, switch-hitter: Another of those jewels who shone last summer in the DSL, Jimenez has had a marvelous May start for the FCL Tigers: five games, .333/.381/.778/.1.159, with two homers and a triple. Jimenez is 5-9, 170, and on this year’s Detroit News Tigers Top 50 Prospects was ranked 13th.
▶ Jesus Pinto, 18, outfielder, right-handed hitter: He turned 18 only six weeks ago and hasn’t exactly been crushing pitches to date: 4-for-22 in the early going. But Pinto hit just fine last summer in the DSL and has been utterly dazzling this spring on TigerTown’s back lots with defense and range that has been more a marvel than an event.
Short hops
▶ Big start for Erie all-purpose-tool Trei Cruz, who has been playing shortstop and third base, as well as center field. Cruz’s bat has been a fireplace-poker for Andrew Graham’s SeaWolves: .321/.426/.541/.967, with five home runs. Cruz, who turns 27 in July and switch-hits, was a third-round Tigers pick in 2020. It has taken a while, but this has been the Cruz the Tigers thought they were adding five years ago.
▶ Max Anderson won’t cool off at Erie: The SeaWolves second baseman – and second-round Tigers pick in 2023 – arrived for Sunday’s game batting .324/.357/.528/.884, with five home runs.
▶ On the flip side, a surprisingly chilly spring for Erie catcher Thayron Liranzo: .169, with 32 strikeouts in 20 games. His only salvation early: 20 walks, as well as four doubles and two home runs.
▶ Strong possibility in two months for West Michigan: the arrival of shortstop Bryce Rainer from high-A Lakeland. Rainer continues to be a two-way show for the Flying Tigers, with a left-handed batter’s ability to hit rockets the opposite way a stunning skill. Rainer, of course, was last July’s first-round Tigers pick.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: How long before Tigers prize Max Clark sets sail for Erie?
