Detroit Tigers Set to Contend in Years to Come with Strong Farm System

Plenty of debates are going to be had about whether or not the Detroit Tigers made the right decision holding onto starting pitcher Tarik Skubal through the 2024 MLB trade deadline.

As the potential American League Cy Young winner, he would have been the best player on the trade market had the Tigers wanted to make him available.

It turns out Detroit never got close to moving the ace of their staff, but the front office was busy nonetheless leading up to the deadline as they completed several trades.

To the surprise of no one, the Tigers were one of the most active sellers ahead of the deadline. They completed four deals all centered around veterans who are in the final guaranteed year of their contracts.

Catcher Carson Kelly and left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin were dealt to the Texas Rangers in separate deals. Chafin could have club control beyond this season as he has an option for the 2025 campaign.

Starting pitcher Jack Flaherty was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They sent another player to an NL West team when the San Francisco Giants acquired Mark Canha from Detroit as well.

With an eye toward the future, the Tigers did a solid job of extracting value from players who didn’t have long-term value to the franchise. Following all of their wheeling and dealing, Detroit has the No. 11 ranked farm system in baseball with four players ranked in the Top 100.

post trade deadline farm system rankings via fangraphs

also how many top 100 prospects each team has pic.twitter.com/0BCuuRxEHK
— BrooksGate (@Brooks_Gate) August 1, 2024

Two prospects who helped buoy that ranking were acquired ahead of the deadline.

The best youngster the team acquired was a catcher, Thayron Liranzo from the Dodgers.

Liranzo was ranked by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN as a 45+ Future Value player. He landed in the same tier as Deyvison De La Cruz, who McDaniel compared Liranzo to in his write-up.

“Liranzo is similar but is passable behind the plate with first base his other potential destination, and he's two levels behind De Los Santos at the same age of 21 years old. Liranzo has 25-30 homer upside with some contact limitations but has a better chance to be a useful big leaguer because he has above average pitch selection while De Los Santos' is well below average,” wrote McDaniel.

Landing in the 40+ FV tier was Trey Sweeney, a shortstop who was acquired along with Liranzo from Los Angeles in the Flaherty deal.

“I've always liked Sweeney, but he's trending toward something less than I expected in the draft. He's a 6-foot-3, lefty-hitting utility type (maybe a second-division starter) with above-average power potential and some feel to hit,” McDaniel wrote.

Liranzo and Sweeney aren’t top-of-the-line prospects currently, but a strong finish to the 2024 campaign will have them knocking on the door of Top 100 status.

They will provide the Tigers with plenty of depth to work with during the upcoming offseason.

If Detroit wants to be aggressive in acquiring talent, they can dip into their farm system to create a package to land an established big league player. Or, they can allow the players to develop and hopefully be in a position to contend for years to come.