Tigers Prospect Update: Class-A minor league affiliates bring home championships

As the Detroit Tigers continue to sweat out their own playoff fate in the final weeks of the regular season, a pair of their minor league affiliates have captured postseason titles of their own.

The Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers captured their first Florida State League title since 2012 with a 8-2 victory over the Daytona Tortugas on Tuesday. Lakeland completed the rare sweep of the Florida State League in 2025 and became just the third team in league history to win both halves of the regular season, as well as the FSL championship. Lakeland won 75 games in the regular season and finished with a dominant 44-21 record at home.

Tigers Prospect Update: High-A West Michigan captures first Midwest League title since 2015

Additionally, Detroit's the High-A affiilate, the West Michigan Whitecaps finished off an historic 2025 season with a championship of their own.

After recording the highest winning percentage by any minor league club in nearly 30 years during the regular season (.727), West Michigan fittingly went 4-0 in the postseason against Cedar Rapids to capture its first Midwest League title since 2015.

West Michigan led the Midwest League in almost every statistical category this season — both hitting and pitching — including runs scored (760) and fewest runs allowed (466). Their run differential of +294 was the best in all of Minor League Baseball.

Including the postseason, the Whitecaps finished 2025 with a 96-35 record (.711 winning percentage) and 19 wins in their final 23 games to capture their seventh league crown and sixth as a Tigers affiliate. That's impressive in its own right, but even more so considering the team lost three of its best players when Detroit's top three prospects – Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark and Josue Briceño – were promoted to Double-A Erie in July.

In fact, somewhat inexplicably, West Michigan got even better after the trio's promotion. They went 35-12 (.745) from July 8 through the end of the season, never losing more than two consecutive games in that span.

Meanwhile, McGonigle, Clark and Briceño helped lead the Double-A Erie Seawolves to a Southwest Division Series win over the Altoona Curve on Friday. With the win, Erie advances to its fourth consecutive Eastern League Championship Series. The best-of-three matchup against the Northeast Division champion Binghamton Rumble Ponies begins Sunday.

More Detriot Tigers News and Rumors from Motor City Bengals