Detroit Tigers: Prospects recently added to 40-man roster most likely to make 2018 Opening Day unit

Detroit Tigers fans recently saw the team add a total of seven prospects to the team’s 40-man roster. These are the most likely to make the team’s Opening Day roster come March 2018.

Detroit Tigers executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager Al Avila, along with the rest of the front office, recently added a group of prospects to the team’s 40-man roster.

The Tigers announced the move to add the prospects to the 40-man roster in a tweet on the team’s official Twitter account on November 20.

Detroit tweeted the following:

“Today, we purchased the contracts of catcher Grayson Greiner and OF Mike Gerber from Triple-A Toledo, RHP Gerson Moreno and Spencer Turnbull from Double-A Erie as well as RHP Eduardo Jimenez, LHP Gregory Soto and infielder Sergio Alcantara from Single-A Lakeland.”

The prospects all have considerable upside and, despite playing at varying minor league levels in 2017, could all play a significant part in the Detroit Tigers return to prominence in baseball.

It’s likely that some combination of the aforementioned prospects will be part of the Tigers’ future, but will any of them be part of the team’s present come Opening Day 2018?

Here’s a look.

Very unlikely

First, let’s remove from this discussion the unlikely players to make the jump to Detroit next spring.

Leading the way is Alcantara.

A glove-first shortstop, Alcantara’s future value is most likely going to come from his defensive work.

While he did hit .266 with a .334 on-base percentage at stops with Advanced-A Visalia in the Arizona system and Detroit’s Advanced-A affiliate in Lakeland—where the competition was, respectively, on average 2.6 and 2.7 years older than him— Alcantara is still a few years out from reaching the Majors.

There’s also Soto and Jimenez.

Both had strong seasons in 2017, with Soto pitching to a 2.25 ERA, 144 strikeouts and a 1.306 WHIP in 124 innings spanning 23 starts.

Those starts came split between Single-A West Michigan and Lakeland.

Jimenez also played for West Michigan and Lakeland. However, unlike Soto, Jimenez pitched in relief.

The right-hander worked to a 2.13 ERA, a 1.125 WHIP and 60 strikeouts compared to just 15 walks and 12 earned runs allowed.

As a reliever, he could very well shoot through Detroit’s minor league system in 2018, similar to Zac Reininger, Jairo Labourt and Bryan Garcia this past season.

If that happens, it could put the reliever in a position to debut later in the season as opposed to Opening Day.

Possibly later in the season

Speaking of relievers who could shoot through the system, we now come to Gerson Moreno.

Like a number of relief pitcher prospects who pitch in the Detroit Tigers farm system, Moreno throws hard. His fastball-slider combination will eventually help him miss bats in the Majors.

That could conceivably be sooner rather than later.

Moreno has a bit of a head start on Jimenez considering he finished the season with Double-A Erie.

At first glance, the 22-year-old’s numbers don’t exactly match up well with his dominant displays at Lakeland to begin the season.

Gerson Moreno with Advanced-A Lakeland in 2017: 22.1 innings, 2.01 ERA, 2.42 FIP, 82.7% strand rate, 1.21 WHIP and 12.09 strikeouts per nine innings.

Gerson Moreno with Double-A Erie in 2017: 28.0 innings, 6.43 ERA, 4.65 FIP, 61.5% strand rate, 1.43 WHIP and 11.07 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Double-A stats aren’t exactly easy on the eyes, but it’s encouraging to see that Moreno continued to keep his strikeout rate relativity high despite the step up in competition.

The right-hander’s xFIP also checked in at a very respectable 3.86 in a SeaWolves uniform—against competition that was on average 3.3 years older than him no less.

He also logged a career-best 52.2% ground ball rate with Erie.

If Moreno continues to make progress and start dominating in Double-A and produces similar results with Triple-A Toledo, it’s conceivable he could make the jump to Detroit.

Spencer Turnbull

Spencer Turnbull’s development has likely been hindered somewhat by injuries, but he made the jump all the way to Double-A Erie in 2017.

Similar to how Artie Lewicki jumped from Erie to Toledo and then to Detroit, it’s possible that the 25-year-old Turnbull could make it to the Majors, but at this point, Moreno seems like a better bet to reach Detroit.