Minor League Baseball

Detroit Tigers' 20-Year-Old Prospect Off to Awesome Start in 2025 Season

Max Clark, selected No. 3 in the draft in 2023, has reached base in 20 of 21 contests this season for the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps.
Brady Farkas|
Whitecaps center fielder Max Clark runs toward the dugout on Friday, April, 4, at LMCU Ballpark.
Whitecaps center fielder Max Clark runs toward the dugout on Friday, April, 4, at LMCU Ballpark. | Adam Vander Kooy/Holland Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers enter play on Friday at 20-12 and in first place in the American League Central. After making the American League Division Series in 2024, the Tigers have real goals to play deep into October this season.

However, the good news also extends down to the minor leagues, where top prospect Max Clark continues to turn heads at High-A West Michigan.

Clark, 20, was the No. 3 pick in the draft in 2023 and is currently carrying a .304 average and a .467 on-base percentage. He's got one home run and 17 RBIs, as well as two stolen bases. He's reached base in 20 of 21 games this season, according to MLB Pipeline.

Clark is in his third professional season, hitting .274 across the Rookie League, Low-A, and High-A levels. He has 12 professional home runs.

Once Jackson Jobe loses his prospect eligibility, he will become the highest-rated prospect in the organization. He is currently the No. 5 prospect in the sport as a whole.

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

The left-handed hitter is hit-over-power at this still-early age of his development. He ran solid contact rates against most pitch types (save for the slider) in the FSL and generally didn’t chase much, leading to healthy walk and strikeout rates. His exit velocities were around average for the level, and his power didn’t quite pop in terms of slugging numbers due to a high ground-ball rate. Just entering his 20s, Clark has already added strength from his amateur days, and if he adds a little more loft as part of that trajectory, there’s the potential for at least average power.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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