Even though you might be aware of these athletes, it’s possible that you missed their excellent seasons if you weren’t paying close attention. July is usually the busiest month in baseball, with midseason excitement about the MLB Draft and trade deadline generally driving interest in prospects. To be fair, Tigers supporters have been dissatisfied with the big league team’s trajectory, but regrettably, this has also resulted in a significant deal of apathy with the franchise as a whole. Fans’ attention is once again focused on the minor league ranks, so now is a good opportunity to find out which minor league players are doing well enough to garner attention when the rankings are announced.We’ll examine the older elite prospects in another post. I’ve assembled a look at three pitchers and two hitters who are doing well at the farm but aren’t quite well-known elite prospects in this post. Two of them are relievers, and unless they develop into truly elite bullpen prospects, relievers seldom receive much attention from prospect writers. The names of these individuals may sound familiar because we have previously written about them, but they merit some recognition for their achievements before we examine the farm system in its entirety. RHP Rayner Castillo of the Flying Tigers of Lakeland
This year is Rayner Castillo’s first taste of full season ball for the Tigers. Castillo is a 19-year-old starting pitcher who has been with the team since 2021. After four brilliant starts to start his tenure in Lakeland, he had an ERA under 2.00 by mid-June. Although things haven’t gone quite as well in his last three outings, Chris Brown of Tigers Minor League Report and our own managing editor, Brandon Day, are both taking notice of the abilities he is displaying. Castillo is physically capable of handling a starter’s schedule of games. Despite being classified at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, he has obviously gained a large amount of muscle since that weight was taken, as evidenced by his muscular lower body and thick torso. His fastball velocity has increased by many miles per hour in tandem with this. Three years ago, he was regularly hitting 90 mph, but these days, he is a mid-90s pitcher with occasional high 90s mph fastballs. Castillo has only made one significant off-speed pitch thus far. He tosses it like a curveball at 80 mph, and neither its movement nor its spin rate are very noteworthy. It’s not enough if he’s going to be a starter in the long run, but it’s plenty enough to keep Low-A hitters off the board. Castillo still has a lot of work ahead of him, and he might end up in the bullpen. He’s more of a sinker type than a four-seam heavy pitcher, so he’ll need a better third pitch to avoid that, either a changeup or splitter, and most likely a slider over the curveball. As long as he’s still productive, there’s no harm in letting him start games. He can handle playing more innings, and the extra reps can provide him the extra push he needs to start games at the higher minor league levels. He will most likely be ranked in the lower third of our upcoming list of top prospects. SS Franyerber Montilla, FCL Tigers Another player who will assuredly make his first appearance on our top prospects list next time around, Franyerber Montilla has been terrorizing Complex League pitchers all summer long. The teenage switch-hitter is slashing .278/.417/.444 and walking 18 percent of the time. His season stats were verging on the ridiculous after the first month of play, but a brutal 8-for-47 stretch since June 28 has thrown a splash of cold water on the situation. However, even in that difficult series of games, he hasn’t lost track of the strike zone and has taken 12 walks while striking out an equal number of times. According to Tigers player development chief Ryan Garko, “Montilla is profiling as a very complete player right now,” Baseball America reported. He’s a capable shortstop defender. He bolts. He’s got a powerful arm. We expect that as he becomes stronger, the hit tool from both sides will continue to demonstrate power that is remarkable for his age. Montilla was chosen as one of the Tigers organization’s biggest risers and was included on Baseball America’s list of the finest performers in the Complex League. Long-term defense, Montilla’s chances of staying up the middle are favorable. At six feet even, he’s a decent size for the position and, despite his slight physique, he won’t look like a future beefcake in the coming years. He should continue to have above-average quickness and arm strength. After Kevin McGonigle, he is now the organization’s second-best shortstop prospect. Though Montilla is just three months older than Rainer and has already made an impression in pro ball against far stiffer competition than Rainer has yet to face, Rainer might have something to say about that shortly. SS Workman Gage, Erie SeaWolves
I was ecstatic when Workman was taken by the Tigers in the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft. Colt Keith’s ascent and Spencer Torkelson’s decline have defined the team’s draft class from that year, while Workman vanished from the collective consciousness a year or two after the selection was made. In 2023, he struggled in Double-A and was even sent to West Michigan for the last three months of the minor league season, giving the impression that his career was about to implode. The biggest change from earlier in his career is that Workman is finally beginning to show a mature understanding of the strike zone. He started taking walks at an average rate or better last season and has maintained that into this year, drawing free passes 13.2 percent of plate appearances in Erie this year. This year, he’s married that with a drastically reduced number of strikeouts. Whacking a whole 10 percent off last year’s terrifying 38.8 percent whiff rate in Double-A has done wonders for his overall productivity. Apparently, that experience was the wake-up call he needed. Workman has been a steady presence in the Erie lineup throughout the entire season.
I won’t claim that he’s having a breakout season since, as a nearly 25-year-old playing in Double-A, a.248/.348/.412 and 117 wRC+ isn’t particularly impressive. That hitting line is supported by a.337 on-base percentage, which is high but realistic for a strong, agile athlete who frequently hits line drives. Similar to Hao-Yu Lee, Workman’s sometimes double play partner in Erie, he is having one of his best seasons yet and is hitting a career-high number of balls to the pull side. There is enough evidence in this vast body of work to give me new hope for him.
The fact that Workman may be the best infield defender in the upper half of the Tigers’ minor league system is what makes this development interesting. Although the Tigers have a few more potent offensive infielders in Double- and Triple-A, the shortstop depth chart has been incredibly thin for a long time. Although Workman can play shortstop as well, third base is his natural position. Workman is going to become the Tigers’ go-to break-glass infielder if he can continue to perform at this level in the offensively favorable International League, replacing Ryan Kreidler. Although it’s a small ceiling, the Tigers haven’t successfully filled this position in a very long time.
RHP RJ Petit, SeaWolves of Erie
For the past 18 months, Petit has been in the periphery of Detroit’s prospect pool. This relieving arm is an interesting guy to follow on the fringes because of his huge size and little school background. Eric Logenhagen of FanGraphs noticed him and this year he made his debut on the website’s list of the top Tigers prospects, finishing in 28th place with a 35+ FV. He was also included in our list of players that narrowly missed our ranking of the preseason’s top prospects.
What makes his performance notable is that this is RJ Petit’s Rule 5 Draft evaluation year, meaning Detroit has to place him on the 40 man roster after the season or expose him to be poached by another team during this year’s Winter Meetings. Relief arms with unique traits and high strikeout rates — exactly Petit’s demographic — make up the majority of Rule 5 Draft selections. Brendan White was a surprise addition to the Tigers’ roster following the 2022 season for that very reason. RHP Yosber Sanchez, West Michigan Whitecaps The Rangers signed Sanchez as an international free agent in mid-2018, and he proved unable to stay healthy during his career in the Texas organization. He pitched just 30.2 innings across five seasons and was released shortly before he was scheduled to reach minor league free agency. He latched on with the Cardenales de Lara, a Venezuelan professional team, in December 2022 and pitched in two games with the team before being scooped up by the Tigers as a minor league free agent in May 2023. When Sanchez was called up from the lowest levels of the Tigers’ minor league system, nobody paid much attention. However, by the conclusion of the season, his pitching ability had garnered enough attention to make him a serious bullpen prospect. No one really cares about his numbers; he was too old for the level he was pitching at. Though FanGraphs and Tigers Minor League Report don’t think his command will improve much, he can still show off a powerful, short curveball that doesn’t show too early out of the hand and a fastball in the high nineties. Most importantly, he was able to resume playing affiliated ball without incident. This season, Sanchez has pitched for West Michigan and Lakeland, and he has been every bit as dominant as one might expect from a 23-year-old fireballer in the low minors. Sanchez has had trouble getting hits, and when he does, the rate at which ground balls are produced is over average. He’s hitting triple digits with his fastball, and according to the guys at TMLR, he’s added a cutter, just like the majority of hard throwers in the system. This season, he has tossed 17.2 innings at High-A, giving up too many walks and recording a 1.53 ERA.
Sanchez is much closer to being a finished product and has a maxed-out frame than you would think from a player that threw a considerable amount of innings in Lakeland this year. Sanchez will most likely wind up in Erie before the season is out if he can maintain his fitness. There, he will play against more age-appropriate opponents and we’ll see just how potent his arsenal truly is. There’s a chance for him to become a great setup man if he can improve his game enough to throw more quality strikes.
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