Nice little Rainer update included.
# Tigers hitting prospects are mashing in the Arizona Fall League
Full article at link.
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… McGonigle is part of a seven-player Tigers cast in the Arizona Fall League and through 11 games in this post-season, tool-sharpening, six-week venture in refining baseball skills ahead of probable MLB life, McGonigle is carrying numbers in step with his ranking (MLB Pipeline, Baseball America) as the No. 2 prospect on big-league farms: .366 batting average, .491 on-base percentage, .610 slugging, 1.101 OPS, with a pair of home runs and four doubles.
Right there with McGonigle in swinging a bat hot enough to melt a cactus is another Tigers infielder, Max Anderson, who in eight games is searing AFL pitching to the tune of .520/.700/1.040/.1.740, with three homers and four doubles.
…Anderson, on top of his hitting pyrotechnics, has walked 13 times in his eight games, with seven strikeouts. This, from a 23-year-old man and right-handed hitter who supposedly didn’t care for walks.
A third infielder the Tigers shipped to Arizona for AFL games that extend through mid-November is Jack Penney, 23, and a fifth-round grab in 2024 (Notre Dame) whose left-handed bat has likewise been toasty through eight games: .308/.538/.346/.884.
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Rather, it was because McGonigle sprained an ankle early in the season and had so few plate appearances in 2025 (397) compared with fellow hotshot prospect, outfielder Max Clark (533), who was excused from AFL labor.
“It was a great opportunity to get him more at-bats,” Garko said of McGonigle’s Arizona orders. “He’s been super-productive in swinging at strikes and covering all the different (pitch) shapes he’s seen, keeping that really good approach.”
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…Anderson’s ticket to Arizona had much to do with getting him extra stints at third, which he this season added to his minor-league resume after earlier playing second base, exclusively.
That he would hit AFL pitching was expected after Anderson in 2025 batted .296/.350/.478/.828, with 19 homers in 122 games, total, at Erie and Triple-A Toledo. But the Tigers also wanted Anderson to be a bit more discreet in swinging at strikes during his Arizona tour. And that’s been the case with those 13 walks in 40 plate-appearances.
“It’s probably a short sample size that you can throw away, but I think you’re seeing a young hitter really grow up,” Garko said of the Tigers’ second-round pick in 2023, a right-handed slasher who had played at the University of Nebraska. “Max can really hit. He can make contact with any pitch. But what Triple A taught him is you’ve got to stay in the zone. Going into Fall League, we talked about dialing in the zone, and he’s getting used to laying off when it’s not a strike and not chasing.
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a bumpy October for Serwa: two games, 6.1 innings, nine hits, nine runs, five walks, six strikeouts. Ugly stuff compared with his 27 games at West Michigan and Erie in 2025 when his combined numbers were: 3.58 ERA, with a 1.26 WHIP.
His issues in Arizona have been obvious: the knucklers (one he throws as fast as 86, the other is a 74-mph slowpoke) haven’t been behaving. His secondary pitches — a fastball, cutter, and curve — have been getting hammered because the knucklers are missing.
For a pitcher who never was drafted nor played minor-league baseball until this year, the Tigers insist these AFL weeks can be marvelous tonic for Serwa ahead of 2026.
“He’s getting more innings under his belt,” Garko said of Serwa, who was signed last offseason after he had pitched no higher than Independent League baseball. “It’s a unique pitch. He’s working to find that consistency with the slower one, the 75-mile-an-hour one, and also the harder one, and yet what makes him so tough is he still has a pretty good fastball and breaking ball that he could probably get people out with as primary pitches.
“You throw in the knuckler and that can be really hard for hitters to conquer. It’s fun to see hitters deal with it.
“I think our thinking is: How do we make things really difficult on the hitter? He’s got a fastball, 91 to 93 he can locate, so why wouldn’t you throw it and make the hitter respect it? It just makes everything else play up.
“You don’t have too many knuckleballers I can compare him to,” said Garko, who spent six seasons in the big leagues. “I played against Tim Wakefield, but Wakefield had more of a batting-practice fastball. He (Serwa) can throw a little cutter, and a curveball.”
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… following a three-week Instructional League seminar for young Tigers prospects at the TigerTown complex in Lakeland, Florida.
Among notable performers:
Bryce Rainer, the Tigers’ first-round pick from 2024 who separated his shoulder in a June 4 game but is easing into full recovery ahead of 2026 spring camp.
“He’s on track, looks great,” Garko said of Rainer, 20, and a left-handed hitting shortstop. “He’s just getting back into full baseball activity: ground balls, swings, and he’s starting to throw, which is a real big deal. He was excited about getting the ball back.”
More: Baseball America grades 2024 first-rounders: Tigers’ Bryce Rainer was ‘gaining steam’
Another player the Tigers staff noticed, pleasingly: right-handed pitcher Malachi Witherspoon, who was the Tigers’ second-round pick in July from the University of Oklahoma.
“Pretty impressive,” Garko said. “We’re getting him on that offseason program, and I’m excited. He works, and he cares.
“With some players, you hear their voices a little more.”