Ton of information in this one including Henning sneaking in a short drop in sentence on Greene. I put it in italics.
# Henning: Looking at best, good, and everything else from colorful Tigers 2025 farm season
full article at link
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MINOR LEAGUE HITTER OF THE YEAR: Kevin McGonigle, West Michigan/Erie. It was easy during a season as exceptional as McGonigle put together to forget he was two years out of high school. McGonigle’s raw bat-to-ball hitting talent is perhaps the best — no exaggeration — of any Tigers “kid” since Al Kaline won a batting title at age 20 in 1955. In a combined 88 games at Lakeland/West Michigan/Erie, he batted .305/.408/.583/.991, with 19 homers. McGonigle is ranked by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline as the second-best prospect in all of baseball, behind Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin. Aware of McGonigle’s rare gifts, lots of folks wanted the Tigers to make him part of their September/October roster. That would have been a mistake, offensively (MLB pitching is merciless these days), as well as defensively, where he has work to do.
It’s unclear where McGonigle will spend most, if not all, of 2026. Probably, he starts the year at Triple-A Toledo. But timing matters. McGonigle is still a bit light on minor-league at-bats, which is why he’s playing in the Arizona Fall League. The Red Sox saw last year with Roman Anthony that ample time on the farm can pay off — for all parties. The Tigers, ideally, also want him to qualify — as he figures to credibly do — for a full season in Detroit and a Rookie of the Year Award in 2026 (or 2027) that could bring a bonus first-round pick**.** All of which means he has a chance — a chance — to make the club out of 2026 spring camp.
More: Tigers’ top prospects likely to debut in Detroit in 2026; how quickly is TBD
Runner-up: Max Clark, center field, West Michigan/Erie. All of the above analysis applies to Clark, who also would factor into any trade discussions concerning Riley Greene.
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** MINOR LEAGUE PITCHER OF THE YEAR:
Runner-up: Kelvis Salcedo, Florida Complex League Tigers/Lakeland. Salcedo, 19, turned in some elegant work at a pair of entry-level spots: 18 games, 1.83 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 68.2 innings, 25 walks, 85 strikeouts. Good, mid-to-higher-90s fastball, with a tough cutter/slider mix. Salcedo is listed at 6-foot, 180 pounds (he now is closer to 200), and was signed for $70,000 in 2023 out of Santa Barbara, Venezuela. Always, of course, there are worries about kid pitchers, beginning with health. But during a season when few arms were making headlines across the Tigers farmlands, Salcedo’s talents were an exception.
**Second runner-up: Lucas Elissalt, Lakeland/West Michigan.
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BIGGEST OVERALL STRENGTH ACROSS THE TIGERS FARM: Up-the-middle players. McGonigle and Clark. Eduardo Valencia, Thayron Liranzo, and Josue Briceño at catcher, with the Tigers’ second pick from July, catcher Michael Oliveto, now joining the crowd. Bryce Rainer, Jordan Yost, and John Peck at shortstop, all alongside Jude Warwick, Peyton Graham, Jack Penney, Woody Hadeen, Jose Dickson, Javier Osorio, Jack Goodman — and Franyerber Montilla, who could be back in 2026 after ripping up his knee in July. Max Anderson and Hao-Yu Lee are third basemen who play alternatingly at second base. The Tigers have been sticking with centerpiece position players and bats in their first three drafts in the Scott Harris era. The bats play, and the middle-infield skills translate into defensive versatility Detroit tends to chase with most of its serious draft picks.
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MOST ACUTE AREA OF NEED ACROSS THE TIGERS FARM: Pitching. The good news, perhaps, for the Tigers is that pitching often is mercurial, and a year from now the team’s overall crop could look much different. Pitchers can evolve in a hurry. Also factoring is that big arms mending from Tommy John surgery can make it back a year later and change a farm system’s profile and timetable for delivering big, hard-throwing starters and relievers. The sorrier story for Detroit is that so few breakthrough pitchers sprouted in 2025 and that too many others regressed. One possible explanation for the falloff is a matter of choice: The Tigers in these past three drafts under Harris and Co. have gone with hitters in their earliest slots, a preference plenty of Tigers draft critics believed was overdue when hitters are scarce and pitching often can be found in later rounds. But the Tigers have been picking their share of pitchers in second, third, and fourth rounds, as well as later, and not many to date have been rocketing toward Detroit. The Tigers farm needs a major pitching rebound in 2026.
PITCHING WEAPON NOT YET BEING TAKEN SUFFICIENTLY SERIOUSLY: Kenny Serwa, the knuckleballer who is now working in the Arizona Fall League and who — in this view — could make it to Detroit as early as next season. A bit more control of that flutterball and he’s in line for big-league work. In fact, Serwa throws a pair of knucklers, the slower of which functions as his change-up. He’s an interesting dude, Serwa, who in August turned 28 and who was never drafted and never played in the minors until 2025. The Tigers saw his work (he has a knuckler that can cruise as high as 87-88 — uncanny speed for such a pitch) as well as a mid-90s four-seamer among other options, and last winter signed him. He has a heavy to-do list, which is why he’s throwing this month in Arizona. There also are reasons why he could, possibly, be tossing in Detroit in 2026. The knuckler is a pitch that can take you places.
BIGGEST AREA OF NEED AMONG FARM PITCHERS: Where’s the velocity? It’s fine to throw strikes, but where are the number of hard-throwers you fundamentally need to defeat big-league hitters? There are Tigers guys who can reach 100 (Single-A reliever Marco Jimenez as one example), but in keeping with a farm system that was alarmingly light on impressive arms in 2025, the lightning-throwers were comparatively few. Whether it’s top-of-the-rotation guys, or back-end relievers, the Tigers, throughout their system, need more heat.
WHY THE TIGERS HAVE ARMS POTENTIAL: There were pluses in 2025. Elissalt, Andrew Sears, Joe Miller, Hayden Minton, Preston Howey moving from the bullpen to starting; Rayner Castillo coming back after a bumpy start; Carlos Marcano, Gabe Reyes, Jake Miller and Jatnk Diaz returning from injuries; Luke Stofel, and a phalanx of youngsters fresh from the Dominican and Lakeland hatcheries: Eddy Felix, Antonio Florido, Anderson Diaz, Jhonan Coba. More muscle should be added steadily in 2026 following Tommy John layoffs (Paul Wilson, Blake Dickerson, Andrew Dunford, etc.). Malachi Witherspoon and Cale Wetwiska were July draft picks who could make a difference in 2026. It would help, also, if Jaden Hamm returned to his 2024 ways and looked like a budding rotation arm destined for Detroit. Pitching always is hard to peg. Tigers are due for better luck, and performances, in 2026.