Detroit Tigers Prospect Profile: Get to know Joey Wentz

At the deadline last week, the Detroit Tigers continued to add to their pitching-heavy minor league pipeline with the addition of three minor league arms.

The biggest name of the three pitching prospects that came to the Detroit Tigers at last week’s deadline is LHP Joey Wentz from the Atlanta Braves. A first-round pick in 2016 out of high school, Wentz has moved his way up through the minors pretty quickly, starting his age 21 season this year in Double-A.

Wentz’s ability to get through the minors quickly is attributed to his success through the lower ranks. With the Single-A Rome Braves in 2017, he was 8-3 with a 2.60 ERA in 26 starts. This came along with a 10.4 K/9 ratio.  He brought this into 2018 with the SIngle-A Advanced Florida Fire Frogs where he pitched to a 2.28 ERA in 16 starts.

His Single-A success combined with a good spring he was assigned to Double-A Mississippi Braves to start 2019. Wentz wasn’t as successful this year, but most guys go through growing pains at some point.  He was 5-8 with a 4.58 ERA before he came to the Detroit Tigers this year.

Once traded, the Tigers moved him to Double-A Erie, where Wentz has made one start thus far. He went 5 strong innings vs. the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, surrendering 1 ER from a solo home run while striking out 6 batters. That’s a good sign and maybe he just needed a change of scenery for this season.

While some fans may not be too happy with the packages Detroit got back from the deadline due to the lack of highly ranked prospects and bats included, but Wentz could end up being a key piece to this rebuild.  In addition to being a former first-round pick, he also was a top 100 prospect last season.

A big reason for why Wentz has a shot to be part of this rebuild is because of how the Tigers’ minor league pitching has performed over the past year. We have seen pitchers like Tarik Skubal, who wasn’t a highly-ranked prospect, as well as Alex Faedo, who hasn’t pitched as well as we all hoped for being a first-round pick, progress to pitchers that we could potentially see in Tiger uniforms in the future.

I also haven’t mentioned the rest of the outstanding pitching staff that we hold in our minor leagues. Obviously, these guys are very talented, but I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that they ALL are performing well. I think we have to credit the pitching staff in the minor leagues at some point.

Wentz will be part of a stacked Erie Seawolves rotation for the rest of the season.  I think he will really benefit being with the likes of Matt Manning, Casey Mize, Skubal, and Faedo.  I think the competitiveness in that locker room will help push each of them to new heights and is something that we can look forward to for the years to come in Detroit.