Detroit Tigers Have Pitching Prospect Catching Eye of Evaluators After Strong Season
The Detroit Tigers are a team that a lot of people are keeping a close eye on after the unprecedented run they finished the 2024 season on.
After being sellers at the deadline, the team caught fire, overcoming a double-digit deficit in the standings in the second half. They earned a wild card spot and made the most of it, defeating the Houston Astros in the ALWC before falling to the Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, pushing them to five games.
Coming into the offseason, many people thought that the Tigers would go on a spending spree, looking to augment their emerging young core with established veterans.
It certainly made some sense. If Detroit is going to be a perennial playoff team in the American League and eventually contend for the World Series, some upgrades were needed on the roster.
No big splash has occurred yet as the team has taken a calculated approach to the offseason. To this point, the biggest moves have been one-year, $15 million contracts handed out to starting pitcher Alex Cobb and second baseman Gleyber Torres in free agency.
Part of the reason the Tigers haven’t committed big money or long-term deals to players is they won’t want to block the young players in their system from having spots. Evaluating things for another year, while potentially frustrating to some fans, would make sense.
Detroit has a ton of elite young talent working its way through the Minor Leagues, with a lot of them in the lower levels currently. One of the players to keep an eye on is pitching Jaden Hamm.
Currently the No. 7 ranked player in the Minor League pipeline, he was selected by MLB.com as the player whose stock rose the most this past year.
“Detroit officials were intrigued by the high induced vertical break on Hamm's 92-95 mph fastball coming out of Middle Tennessee State, and the heater proved to be a great weapon for the 2023 fifth-rounder. Hamm posted a 2.64 ERA with 122 strikeouts in 99 innings for High-A West Michigan, earning him Midwest League Pitcher of the Year honors and a healthy bump from outside the preseason Top 30 to inside the current Top 10.”
When you perform at the level that Hamm did in 2024, you are going to start getting noticed and gain some recognition. He was stellar in his short stint in 2023 as a pro, throwing 12 innings while allowing one unearned run, and it was a sign of what else was to come.
Already possessing a dynamic fastball-curveball combination, he has been expanding his repertoire by working on a slider and improving his changeup as well.
If the changeup and slider can reach the level of even just his curveball, he will have a strong four-pitch mix to battle against hitters with. The faster he masters those pitches, the faster he will move through the Minor League system.
As we saw in 2024, the Tigers aren’t afraid to move players rapidly, as Jackson Jobe and Ty Madden both made their MLB debuts during the stretch run.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.