Detroit Tigers: 2021 Minor League Roster Season Preview

For anyone who follows the Detroit Tigers minor league system, it has been since 2019 fans have seen them in action and a lot has changed.

For one, outside of a few glimpses in summer camps, minor league coverage has been hard to come by. Unless you are hardcore in the minor leagues and followed this along, a few Tigers prospects like Kody Clemens and Trei Cruz were playing in the Constellation Energy League. That league’s sole purpose was to provide a place for independent league players and minors to get some game action.

As Chris Brown discussed back in December, MLB wanted to have few teams, more control, and a shorter draft. With that, a reassembled minor league system came about. Here is how the new structure for the Detroit Tigers.

Low-A: Lakeland Flying Tigers

High-A: West Michigan Whitecaps

Double-A: Erie SeaWolves

Triple-A: Toledo Mud Hens

The Tigers let go of their short-season affiliate in the New York-Penn League, the Norwich Sea Unicons. You may be more familiar with them as the Connecticut Tigers and they changed their name to the Sea Unicorns before the start of the 2020 season. Unfortunately, the opportunity to see future Tigers as Sea Unicorns never happened but they will carry on in the Futures League. 

Household names

Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Jose De La Cruz, and Bryant Packard are among the names that Detroit Tigers fans expect to see in Detroit within a few years. The excitement for these towns to start the season after a long absence was felt when I went to see the alt-site Tigers two weeks ago.  When I spoke to one usher in section 110 at Fifth-Thrid Field, It marked the first time in the ballpark since August of 2019 and he said he was just excited to see action on the field.

Without further ado, we start where our contributor Dan Hasty will be broadcasting games from this season. This roster has the potential to make noise in the Midwest League.  (As of this publishing, the only roster that was not made public is the Lakeland Flying Tigers)