Detroit Tigers Future Friday: 3 Prospects who made huge gains in 2018

The Detroit Tigers saw many prospects continue to find success in the minor leagues this season. Here are three who took the biggest steps forward.

As the season winds to a close Detroit Tigers fans can breathe easy, knowing they survived the first year of the rebuild. While the product on the big league field was sometimes hard to watch, the product in the farm system was much more appealing. And while the Tigers still have a ways to go to be playoff relevant again, it was nice to see some outstanding performances from some of the young talent down on the farm.

Matt Manning, Beau Burrows, Casey Mize and Franklin Perez are all elite right-handed pitching prospects. Combine them with Kyle Funkhouser, Alex Faedo and Gregory Soto and the Tigers will have a solid starting rotation in a few years. That will pair nicely with an up the middle duo of Jake Rogers behind the plate, Isaac Paredes in the infield and Daz Cameron in center field. Christin Stewart and Nicholas Castellanos at the corners both provide some oomph as well.

It’s too early to make sweeping predictions, but this team does have some potential. While those are some of the biggest names in the system, often times it’s the late bloomers or the surprise success stories that have the biggest impact in the big leagues.

Here are three Detroit Tigers prospects who have taken big strides forward this season. Each of them is outside Detroit’s top ten prospects list (by most accounts) but all of them deserve your attention as they continue to produce. Someday, all of these three could be in the Motor City at the same time.

First up, we have a very young, very talented middle infielder.

Jacob Robson

Since being selected in the eighth round of the 2016 draft, Robson’s future value has long counted on him developing at least a little bit of power. He is a speed-first, high-OBP hitter who hit just four home runs in 167 minor league games between 2016 and 2017.

2018 was the year fans were waiting for, as the 23-year-old outfielder finally showed some over the wall pop, while maintaining his excellent speed and on-base skills. He started the year out at Double-A Erie, where he slashed .286/.382/.450 with seven home runs, 11 stolen bases and a 133 wRC+. He was promoted to Triple-A primarily to fill-in while Christin Stewart was hurt, but he hit so well at that level that he never relinquished his spot.

In 57 games with Toledo, Robson slashed .305/.369/.427 with four home runs, seven steals, and a 127 wRC+. He posted a 12.5% walk rate in Double-A and a 9.4% rate at Triple-A, while maintaining a strikeout rate around 25%.

Strikeouts may be a factor down the line, but at this point Robson’s strong season has him in the picture at some point in 2019. Don’t expect to see him there on opening day, but if he keeps hitting over .300 in Toledo he will find his way onto the big league roster. Especially if that power keeps up.

Matt Hall

His big league career has gotten off to a rocky start, but when you look at the numbers he put up just to reach the big leagues this season than Hall’s 2018 looks considerably better.

Hall has performed well since he joined the Tigers system in 2015. He posted a 2.55 ERA and 8.9 K/9 across 23 starts in 2016. He made 24 starts in 2017, with a 2.60 ERA and a much improved 9.7 K/9.

While it seems tough to improve on that, Hall did exactly that in 2018. He began the year at Double-A, where the Tigers experimented with him as a reliever. He posted an incredible 1.58 ERA and a 12.00 K/9 in 57 innings. That earned him a call up to Triple-A Toledo, where he rejoined the rotation. In ten starts he posted a 4-0 record with a 2.67 ERA and a 9.26 K/9. His 3.14 BB/9 was particularly solid, giving him a career-high K/BB ratio.

Hall parlayed his excellent minor league performance into his first big league call up. He’s thrown 6.2 innings out of the bullpen, but has not found any success. He’s surrendered 17 hits and 12 earned runs, with just four strikeouts and three walks.

While it has been a disappointing start to his big league career, Hall’s tremendous season in the minor leagues will keep him in the picture for a rotation spot next season. He has only made ten starts in Toledo however, so expect him to start the season out there to try to reclaim some of his mojo.

While there was a lot of growth across the board in the Detroit Tigers farm system, these three are names to keep an eye on as they look to continue their growth in 2019.