In this space we’ll hit on top prospects around the league who are getting the call to the big leagues and what their impact will be from a fantasy perspective for the remainder of the 2024 season.
The Detroit Tigers aren’t likely to compete for a Wild Card spot in 2024, even after sweeping the Mariners with a pair of exhilarating come-from-behind victories to start out the week. They’ll enter play on Friday with a 59-63 record, putting them 13.5 games behind the Guardians in the American League Central and 7.5 games out of the Wild Card.
Since they aren’t worried about making the postseason though, it allows them to turn the page to the 2025 campaign and see what they have in some of the intriguing prospects in their system. They already promoted Dillon Dingler after moving Carson Kelly to the Rangers at the trade deadline and added Justin-Henry Malloy and Wenceel Perez to the mix earlier in the season.
That youth movement will continue Friday as they promote Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung from Triple-A Toledo. Let’s break each of them down and see if they have any viability from a fantasy perspective.
Prospect Profile: Trey Sweeney
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Sweeney, 24, was part of the return package that the Tigers received in the deadline deal that sent Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers. Overall on the season, Sweeney has slashed .267/.345/.450 with 15 homers, 71 RBI, 20 stolen bases (in 24 attempts) and a 130/49 K/BB over 487 plate appearances. That production has picked up since the trade, hitting .381/.447/.667 with a pair of long balls, nine RBI and four swipes in his first 11 games at Triple-A Toledo.
The combination of power and speed is definitely intriguing – especially from a middle infield position. What’s going to be the determining factor on whether or not Sweeney holds any fantasy relevance is how much playing time he’s going to see. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports that Sweeney and Jung “are expected to start a significant number of games down the stretch for the Tigers at their respective infield positions.”
Does that mean that the team is finally willing to pull the plug on Javier Báez at shortstop and write him off as a sunk cost? We’ll see, though the timing on that would be questionable after Báez clobbered a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning to beat the Mariners on Thursday. Still, the 31-year-old is slashing a cringe-inducing .188/.227/.303 with six homers and 37 RBI on the season in 278 plate appearances. Two players are going to need to be sent out to make room on the active roster, and there’s a non-zero chance that Báez winds up getting designated for assignment here.
If that’s the case, and the runway is completely cleared for Sweeney to see the bulk of the team’s acat-bats at shortstop over the final six and a half weeks of the regular season, then absolutely he can be viable from a fantasy perspective in deeper mixed and AL-only formats. He could also wind up as a middle infield option in 12-teamers.
Prospect Profile: Jace Jung
Of the two prospects that the Tigers are promoting on Friday, Jung is the one that comes with a higher cache in prospect circles. The younger brother of Rangers’ slugger Josh Jung, Jace ranks as the fifth best prospect in the Tigers’ organization and as the 64th best prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline.
After coming up primarily as a second baseman, the Tigers shifted Jung over to third base this season in order to install Colt Keith as their regular second baseman. There aren’t any third baseman on the club’s current roster that should take regular at-bats away from Jung, so expect him to be in the lineup on most nights for the remainder of the season.
The 23-year-old slugger was hitting .258/.380/.461with 15 homers, 63 RBI, three stolen bases and a 95/71 K/BB over 430 plate appearances in the minor leagues. The power is his calling card, and that’s the tool that’s going to make him relevant from a fantasy perspective. Whether or not he can show that at the big-league level this season remains to be seen. Some prospects struggle in their first exposure to major league pitching while others hit the ground running. Fortunately, those in leagues that utilize weekly waivers will at least get to see him over the weekend before deciding how or if to bid on his services.
Third base and corner infield have been wastelands in deeper mixed leagues this season, so if Jung has an everyday job and shows some power, he’ll be worth a look in those formats. Just don’t expect him to be a five-category contributor as the speed will be minimal, you can’t count on the batting average and he probably won’t be an asset in runs scored while hitting near the bottom of the Tigers’ lineup.
If having to choose between the two, the stolen bases that Sweeney will provide give him a much higher floor from a fantasy perspective.
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