New Injury Slowing Tigers Top 100 Prospect’s Progress to Majors
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The early returns on two of the Detroit Tigers’ top prospects this season are positive. The returns on a third aren’t there yet.
While Kevin McGonigle is enjoying a terrific start to his first Major League season and outfielder Max Clark is having an impact in his first season at Triple-A Toledo, catcher and first baseman Josue Briceño has yet to play this season due to a wrist injury.
It’s the latest injury that has slowed the prospect’s progress toward a potential Major League call-up. He is on Double-A Erie’s 60-day injured list, which means he can’t play until the end of May.
Josue Briceño’s Latest Injury
Briceño was one of several young players invited to Major League spring training, but his time on the field in Lakeland was short-lived. Per the Detroit Free Press (subscription required), he needed wrist surgery in March, which ended his spring. He injured the wrist in a game and it’s not clear when he’ll be ready to return to action. Triple-A action started last week, and the rest of the full-season affiliates opened their seasons this weekend.
When he has injuries, he tends to miss significant time. Back in 2024 he suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss most of that season. That year he only played in 40 games at Class-A Lakeland but produced a slash of .278/.381/.377 with two home runs and 22 RBI.
The Venezuelan product joined the Tigers as an international free agent before the 2022 season and he’s been consistently productive at the plate, but never more than last season when he was healthy for the bulk of the season.
In 100 games with High-A West Michigan and Erie he slashed .266/.383/.500 with 20 home runs and 76 RBI. It’s that bat that continues to keep the 21-year-old among the Top 100 prospects in baseball. But the injury dropped his ranking in Baseball America’s (subscription required) latest update from No. 76 to No. 93. The site noted that the drop was largely due to the injury.
While Briceño rehabs, it gives another young catcher, Thayron Liranzo, time to position himself for the Majors at some point. But Liranzo — who joined the organization in 2024 as part of the Jack Flaherty trade — hasn’t played a game yet either. He played with Briceño at Erie last year and slashed .206/.308/.351 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI. While he has not demonstrated Briceño’s consistent power, Liranzo has been able to avoid major injuries to this point in his career.
That may be the difference that determine which one of the pair gets to the Majors first.
Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist who covers Major League Baseball for OnSI. He also covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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