Detroit Tigers: Colt Keith finally gets the respect he deserves

The Detroit Tigers' third base prospect finally makes a top prospects list

Baseball media outlets have begun to roll out their top 100 prospects lists for the 2023 season, and one common theme between all them up to this point was that Detroit Tigers third base prospect Colt Keith was snubbed. He hadn't made a single list...until now.

Keith made ESPN's Kiley McDaniel's preseason top 100 (subscription required) prospects list at No. 75. Wilmer Flores also made the cut at No. 90. Jackson Jobe and Cristian Santana also made the list as honorable mentions.

McDaniel is clearly higher on Keith than any of the other mainstream prospect experts. The fact that he's ahead of names like former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis (Twins) proves that McDaniel thinks he has a lot of potential.

Here's a snippet of what McDaniel had to say about the 21-year-old:

""His control of th strike zone has been better than expected, and he has developed enough physically to have plus raw power, plus pitch selection, and good feel to get that power in games. That physical development now makes staying in the infield defensively a longer shot, but his bat profile will play anywhere.""

Kiley McDaniel, ESPN

Keith decided to put on some weight last year in an effort to hit for some more power, and it worked out wonderfully for him. His slugging percentage was .544 in 2022, up from .393 in 2021. The guy can flat out rake.

The one area where I disagree with McDaniel is the ability to play the infield long term. He recently did an interiew with Woodward Tigers where he said he had lost some weight in an effort to be more agile in the infield. He also said he's been working on his defense much more than he was in the past. To be fair to Kiley, he probably didn't have that information available to him while he was putting this list together, but I'd probably still disagree with him here regardless.

It's awesome to see Colt Keith finally be recognized for the hard work he's put it. He's arguably the Detroit Tigers best prospect right now. Hopefully he keeps it up and we see him make more lists.