Detroit Tigers: Projecting the 2022 Lakeland Flying Tigers lineup

Continuing our roster-projection for the Detroit Tigers full-season affiliates.

Last week Rogelio started trying to project the starting pitching rotations for each of the four full-season Detroit Tigers affiliates, and this week I’m taking at shot at predicting the lineups for each club.

It’s admittedly a bit of a niche series that will be rendered pointless in a few weeks when the actual rosters are released, but in the absence of any real Detroit Tigers news, it feels like a worthwhile thought experiment.

Last year the Lakeland Flying Tigers broke camp with 15 position players on the roster, so that’s our target for today, too. One resource we’ll use is this minor-league mini-camp roster tweeted out by MLive’s Evan Woodbery last week.

We’ll split the list into three groups — Catcher, Infield, and Outfield — and then offer some background information on each player.

Detroit Tigers: Lakeland Catcher Predictions (3)

• Josh Crouch – The Tigers had some issues with catching depth in their system, and they addressed their needs on day three of the 2021 draft. Josh Crouch was one of the top statistical performers among Division I catchers last year, hitting .311 with 15 home runs for Central Florida. He played 24 games with Lakeland after the draft, but his OPS was just .594, so we project him to return to Low A to begin the season.
• Danuerys De La Cruz – De La Cruz spent his first two seasons in the Dominican Summer League, where he displayed solid on-base skills. Last year he led all Rookie-level hitters in OPS (.975) and wRC+ (157), so Low-A seems like a natural step this season. He split his time fairly evenly between catcher and first base last year, and he could do so again in 2022.
• Eduardo Valencia – Like Crouch and De La Cruz, Valencia is a mini-camp invitee who has shown some offensive ability. He’s a .284 career hitter with good contact skills, but he has just one home run in 134 games. Valencia moved around to four teams last year, and seems on track to be a solid organizational catcher.

Detroit Tigers: Lakeland Outfield Predictions (5)

• Roberto Campos – No longer a complete man of mystery, Roberto Campos had a solid pro debut in the Florida Complex League last year. He homered in his first at bat, and while there are some questions about his pure hitting ability, he probably did enough to warrant a promotion to Low-A.
• Jose De La Cruz – De La Cruz received Detroit’s biggest bonus in the 2018 IFA class, and he impressed with his physical tools and early performance in the DSL. The Tigers challenged him with a jump to Low-A last year and he floundered, hitting just .127 in 39 games before heading back down to rookie ball. He’ll get another crack at full-season ball this year.
• Kingston Liniak – A prep outfielder from the 2018 high-school class, Liniak has shown promising flashes of his tools – he hit 10 HRs and stole 19 bases last year – but he hasn’t proven he can hit yet. He’s a career .203 hitter in the minors, including a .193 batting average in 107 games in Lakeland last year, so it’s hard to picture him jumping to High-A.
• J.D. McLaughlin – Speaking of tools, J.D. McLaughlin has plenty of speed and arm strength to go along with interesting power potential. He barely played at Oregon State in 2020 before transferring to Central Arizona College last year, where he hit .338 with 13 home runs and 33 steals. The Tigers used their final pick in the 2021 draft on him, and he saw three games in Lakeland at the end of last season.
• Carlos Pelegrin – It’s possible the Tigers choose to go with Pelegrin’s Cuban countryman Lazaro Benitez, who had the better 2021 season, but we’re guessing Pelegrin gets the not because he’s slightly younger, received a larger bonus, and has more upside.