Detroit Tigers Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2026 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival 

1. SS Kevin McGonigle | 21 | AA | 2026

The 37th overall pick in the 2023 draft, McGonigle has great hands on both sides of the ball along with plus speed and burgeoning power. A left-handed hitter with a quick swing, he broke out in 2025, slashing .305/.408/.583 with 19 home runs and just 46 strikeouts against 59 walks  in 88 games across three levels. McGonigle has one of my favorite prospect traits in that hitting is the easy part for him. Detroit’s not an easy park for lefty power, but the pitching in that division is soft, so maybe it all comes out in the wash. 

2. OF Max Clark | 21 | AA | 2026

The third overall pick out of high school in 2023, Clark’s a six-foot, 205-pound lefty who slashed .271/.403/.432 with 14 homers and 19 steals in 111 games between High-A and Double-A. The numbers don’t leap off the page, and he hit .251 in those 43 Double-A games, but he’s always been above league average against older competition, frequently flashing the power-speed topside that makes the rotisserie world go round. 

3. 1B/C Josue Briceño | 21 | AA | 2027

Briceño struggled in his 45 Double-A games (.232/.335/.381) but was dominant for 55 games with High-A West Michigan, slashing .296/.422/.602 with 15 home runs, carrying over his success from the 2024 fall league, when he won the Triple Crown. He’s a big dude at 6’4” 200 lbs, so maybe he just wore down a little bit, but the Double-A hiccup is enough to cost me some confidence that he’ll be the next big thing.  

4. SS Bryce Rainer | 20 | A | 2029

The 11th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Rainer is a left-handed hitting shortstop at 6’3” 195 lbs who has drawn comparisons to Corey Seager with his easy opposite-field flick. Trouble is he’s played just 35 games as a pro, though he did slash .288/.383/.448 with five home runs and nine stolen bases during that Low-A sample. Might be a decent Buy window this winter.

5. 2B Max Anderson | 24 | AAA | 2026

Here’s what I wrote about Anderson in Prospect News: Johnny Levels Up or Marconi’s Cooking: 

“With the trade deadline around the corner and Detroit 13 games up in the AL Central, Tigers 2B Max Anderson (23, AA) should bring some scouts to the stands. He’s slashing .341/.391/.562 with 11 home runs and just 43 strikeouts (14.2%) in 67 games, and while he’s not exactly an extra piece to the team’s long-term plans, they’ve got a lot of pieces in place already and even have some big pieces yet to sort. On the other hand, their best infield in two years might have McGonigle at shortstop and Anderson at second base. I love these situations for some reason. Been tracking this Tigers thing for a while in this space, and it’s fun to see them become something close to what people expected to see from Baltimore.”

Well that didn’t pan out. At least not yet. And now the Tigers are considering trading Tarik Skubal. Might’ve been wise to hold onto Anderson considering he trashed the AFL, slashing .447/.609/.809 with four home runs in 14 games. The line itself illustrates why I take fall league outcomes with a million grains of salt, but you can’t exactly erase what happens on the showcase circuit just because of the sample size considering nobody else will be doing that. 

6. C/1B Eduardo Valencia | 26 | AAA | 2026

I must be missing something here because I don’t see Valencia in consideration as a fantasy prospect anywhere I look, unless I look at the real world, where Detroit just added him to the 40-man roster for fear of losing him to some other organization who could certainly justify handing him a major league roster spot after he slashed .319/.405/.622 with 13 home runs and a 19.1 percent strikeout rate in his first look at Triple-A pitching. I realize it was 50 games, and you can argue that most of the talent is gone by that home stretch, but he was similarly effective in 53 Double-A games (148 wRC+) where he was still age appropriate, particularly for a catcher. He’s not some tiny guy either at 6’2” 180 pounds, so there’s not a lot of reason to doubt the huge power jump from his previous season high of six to his 2025 outcome of 24 homers in just 103 games. 

7. OF Cris Rodriguez | 18 | DSL | 2030

Rodriguez signed for a franchise-record $3,197,500 bonus and then slashed .308/.340/.564 with ten home runs and ten stolen bases in 50 Dominican Summer League games. Listed at 6’3” 203 pounds, Rodriguez generates plus bat speed from the right side and already creates loft with regularity. He’s got as much power potential as anyone in the lower minors. 

8. 2B Hao-Yu Lee | 23 | AAA | 2026

Lee tapped into a new level of power in 2024 by hunting for fastballs he could pull. Despite the enhanced aggression, he struck out just 17.9 percent of the time alongside an 8.5 percent walk rate. The approach didn’t work as well in Triple-A this season. Lee slashed .243/.342/.406 with 14 home runs in 126 games. Even with this slight step back, he was six percent better than league average (106 wRC+) and stole 22 bases despite being 4.3 years younger than the league’s average age. At 5’9” 190 pounds without prodigious power, his ultimate upside is limited, but he should be ready to take quality professional at bats at the major league level sooner than later. 

9. SS Jordan Yost | 19 | NA | 2030

The club’s first-round pick this year at 24th overall, Yost is a six-foot, 170-pound left-handed hitter who is just starting to leverage his excellent contact skills to create in-game power. He didn’t get assigned anywhere after the draft, so there might be an opportunity in First-Year-Player drafts to acquire Yost at a relative discount. This organization has been successful with precisely this player type, and Yost has plenty of speed to become a five-category contributor for our game.

10. C Thayron Liranzo | 22 | AA | 2027

A powerful backstop at 6’2” and at least his listed weight of 195 pounds, Liranzo features a good idea of the strike zone and until 2025, impressive plate skills for a switch-hitting catcher his size. He hit just .206 with 11 home runs in 88 Double-A games this season, so there’s a good chance he opens 2026 at that same level. 

Thanks for reading!