Detroit Tigers Top 30 Prospects for 2024: #1 Colt Keith

For the amount of Detroit Tigers minor league games I have been to since 2017, there have been a handful of times that I can count in which I saw a player that the ball sounded different off the bat. When I heard that expression prior to that, I thought it was just a way to romanticize about baseball.

The first player was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., when he was playing for the Lansing Lugnuts during batting practice at LMCU Ballpark. Then it was Riley Greene, when he first roamed center field. The latest one was Colt Keith. When he went to West Michigan in 2021, he was the youngest player on a team with an average age of 23 years. It was just a small sample size when he got the call-up after hitting .320/.437/.422 at Lakeland, but he finished the season hitting .162.

But baseball is a game of adjustments and still at the age of 20 before a shoulder injury derailed his 2022 season, the signs of his hitting ability were there. He hit .301/.370/.54 with an OPS of .914 in 48 games (58-for-193). He worked with Hall of Famer Alan Trammell on fielding drills when he finished his season in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .344.

Over at the Tigers Minor League Report, we had no problem making him the number one prospect, even when he was injured in the fall of 2022.

What he did last season, stats-wise, is probably one of the best seasons by any Detroit Tigers minor league player in history. He hit .306/.380/.552 with 27 home runs and 101 RBIs, and an OPS of .932. Stop and think about that for a moment. This wasn't at Single-A; it was between Double-A and Triple-A.

He had a hit in 105 out of 126 games. Within that, Keith had 37 multi-hit games: 12 three-hit, 23 two-hit, one four-hit, and one six-hit game. The longest stretch without a hit was three games, which happened twice, once at Erie and once at Toledo.

Colt Keith has been prepping for this moment since birth

In talking to his mother, Mary, and his father, they have done everything to get him to achieve his goal of getting to the major leagues. They moved to various states across the country to get him to this point. His relationship with his agent, Matt Paul, a former minor league player himself, has benefitted his development.

It's not often you get a number one prospect without little to no debate, and here at Motor City Bengals, it was pretty clear he was the number one prospect. He has the potential to be a Rookie of the Year candidate. With this hype, there is at least, substance behind it.

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