ESPN analyst projects Tigers prospects who could be moved at trade deadline

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Emma Lingan

Detroit Tigers infielder Hao-Yu Lee bats against Philadelphia Phillies during the fifth inning of a Grapefruit League game at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla. on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers enter the second half of the season as the best team in baseball, and they are all but guaranteed to be buyers at the July 31 trade deadline.

There are some clear areas of need that president of baseball operations Scott Harris and the front office need to address, beginning with the bullpen. There are always relief arms available ahead of the trade deadline, but the price of doing business will depend on how close to the top of the market the Tigers are willing to get.

Detroit entered the season with the top-ranked farm system in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, but adding reinforcements to their Major League roster at the deadline could come at the expense of some of their highly-touted prospects. How aggressive will the Tigers be in leveraging their future to maximize their winning potential in the present?

ESPN analyst projects Tigers prospects who could be moved at trade deadline

In a recent column detailing the changes to each team’s top-10 prospect lists following the 2025 MLB Draft, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN took a shot at predicting where the cutoff would be on Detroit's stacked list if the team were to begin to construct a trade package.

“I'd guess the prospects in play for potential deadline upgrades start with [No. 9 prospect Hao-Yu Lee] and go lower down the list, unless the return is a star with years of control,” McDaniel wrote.

Lee was the lone faller in McDaniel's re-ranking of the Tigers' top 10 prospects, dropping from No. 7. The third baseman has a career batting average of .278 over parts of five minor league seasons but is currently hitting a career-worst .246 in his first full season at Triple-A Toledo.

Still, a top-10 prospect should more than suffice as a centerpiece in a trade for relief help, especially for a Detroit team that already has Jace Jung in the pipeline at third base. Parting with a No. 9-ranked prospect or lower to pick up a high-leverage relief arm is exactly the kind of low-risk move the Tigers should feel comfortable taking now, at the opening of their contention window. McDaniel's assessment seems to align with the front office's philosophy. They built a promising pipeline over the years and aren't going to part with their best assets unless it's something that can benefit the Tigers for years to come.

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Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan is an MLB Staff Writer for FanSided primarily covering the Pittsburgh Pirates. She has been covering baseball for more than a decade dating back to her time as a student at Wake Forest University, and she has won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team delegation (2016 Pan-American Championships & 2017 World Baseball Classic). A native of Washington, D.C. and current resident of Nashville, Tenn., she is also entering her seventh season as a credentialed NHL media member and currently covers the NHL’s Nashville Predators for The Hockey News. When she's not watching hockey, baseball or football, she enjoys podcasting, reading, going to the gym, consuming large amounts of coffee and taking long walks with her dog, Minkah. You can follow her @Emma_lingan on Twitter and Instagram.