Tigers Top Prospect Max Clark Now Struggling Badly Following Scorching Start
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The Detroit Tigers have had some poor luck to begin the season in terms of injuries to their stars, and things have not slowed down there at all.
While most of the attention in this category has been on the pitching staff especially after the devastating Tarik Skubal news this week, a number of position players both in the infield and the outfield have gone down as well.
Desperate times lead to desperate measures, and fans have called for top prospect Max Clark to be called up from Triple-A to play center field after he got off to an absolutely brilliant start to the year in his first action with the Mud Hens.
The last few weeks however have not been nearly as kind to Clark as pitchers have adjusted, and it looks like it could be a while until he does eventually make his Major League debut.
Clark is in Bad Slump Right Now in Triple-A
The noise surrounding Clark early on in the year got the loudest after the first two weeks when he posted a slash line of .356/.437/.525 through his first 15 games, seemingly recording an extra-base hit every single night.
As he started to cool down, the noise got quieter, but now it's getting loud again, just in a negative direction instead of positive. Over the last two weeks, Clark has played in 11 games following a double-header on Wednesday and the numbers have not been pretty.
In that period which has seen 42 at-bats, the 21-year-old has slashed just .167/.255/.190 in his worst stretch of the season so far. Though in the grand scheme Detroit likely is not concerned given his young age, it's tough not to be discouraged after such a hot start has headed so far south.
Clark Can Still Make Tigers Debut This Year
Ultimately, baseball is a game of failure, and how Clark responds to this current run of failure could prove to define his 2026 season and whether he really does crack the big leagues this year. Detroit is certainly watching him closely go through his worst slump in Triple-A because how he navigates out of it can show whether or not he's truly ready.
Should Clark continue to flounder through the next month, it may show that he is not as close to the show as it seemed in the first few weeks, but if he can figure it out and find his gear again, the opposite may be true.
Tigers fans should be watching Toledo very closely in the coming month to see if Clark can find a way to heat up once again, and if he does, they should prepare to see him this summer at Comerica Park.
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Michael Brauner is a 2022 graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in Sports Media. He covers various MLB teams across the On SI network and you can also find his work on Yellowhammer News covering the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers as well as on the radio producing and co-hosting 'The Opening Kickoff' every weekday morning on 105.5 WNSP FM in Mobile, Alabama.