Time to get ready for 2026 so will start the 26 MiLB Tiger thread with the annual Tiger’s minor league report producing their top 50 Tiger prospect list.
Link here is for the top ten and included in that link are links to the other 40 prospects. One of the best top four prospects in the minors and then a fall off which makes sense when you look at who made it up last season. Dingler and Melton being the two best performers in Detroit last year.
The pitchers in the top ten:
10 – Kelvis Salcedo, RHP
Signed: International Signing Period, 2023 from Venezuela (DET)
Age 19.9 Height 6’0” Weight 180 Bat/Thr R/R
No Tigers pitcher raised his profile last year as much as Kelvis Salcedo. We first took notice when he landed on FanGraphs’ list of the top Tigers prospects, and then watched as Salcedo dominated opponents in both the Florida Complex League and Florida State League. He owns a pair of mid-90s fastballs, a nasty slider, and a devastating split-change. But perhaps most impressive was his poise and strike throwing. He’s a large young man who will need to stay on top of his conditioning, but otherwise he has the makings of a future mid-rotation arm.
5 – Andrew Sears, LHP
Drafted: 10th Round, 2023 from UConn (CT) (DET)
Age 23.4 Height 6’3” Weight 200 Bat/Thr L/L
Sometimes democracy produces interesting results. This is the highest you’ll see Andrew Sears ranked anywhere, but that’s more a product of our ranking method than us being incredibly high on him. By our method, there’s a bigger gap between Sears and #4 on our list than there is between Sears and #12, Michael Oliveto. None of this is to say that we don’t like Sears. We like him quite a bit. We just wanted to illustrate how confusing things get in Detroit’s system after the top four.
Anyway, Andrew Sears is a lefty with a low-3/4 arm slot, solid stuff, and an absolute bulldog mentality on the mound. His fastballs generally sit around 93-94 MPH, but he can pump them up to 96-97 at times. His mid-80s sweeper is his best offering, and it works well against lefties and righties, as long as he keeps it out of the heart of the plate. Sears also throws a split-change in the upper 80s, but it’s a distant third pitch for him. He walked 13% of the batters he faced in 2024, but a move on the rubber in 2025 cut that rate nearly in half.
Sears works incredibly quickly, often using just a few seconds of the pitch clock before he attacks the strike zone. Lefties do very little damage against him, and he could probably survive as a big-league reliever right now. But he’s big and strong, and he throws strikes, so it makes more sense to keep using him as a starter. If Sears can improve his changeup he has a chance to be a #4/5 starter.
And last years first round pick:
6 – Jordan Yost, SS
Drafted: 1st Round, 2025 from Sickles HS (FL) (DET)
Age 19.0 Height 6’0” Weight 170 Bat/Thr L/R
The Tigers love to draft up-the-middle defenders with good hit tools, and Jordan Yost will be a nice way to evaluate their scouting department. We say that because MLB Pipeline had him as the 50th best prospect in the 2025 draft, while Baseball America ranked him 82nd. The Tigers took him with the 24th overall pick. Rankings are just rankings, and if Yost performs in pro ball no one will care about a perceived reach in the draft.
We haven’t seen him play yet, save for a clip or two during Bridge League action. But Yost has a nice left-handed swing, and he looks like a plus runner who might be able to stick at shortstop. If he can’t stay there, second base and center field both seem like legitimate options. Power was the biggest question mark about Yost heading into the draft, and he will have to get bigger and stronger in pro ball to get the most out of his bat. We are very eager to see him play in 2026.
