FanPost

Who will be the Starting Detroit Tigers SS in 2020?


Going into 2019, almost all of our top prospects are nearing the majors, and should make their debuts either this year or by 2020:

  1. SP - Matt Manning (AA),
  2. SP - Casey Mize (likely to start in AA),
  3. SP - Alex Perez (likley AA),
  4. CF - Daz Cameron (AAA)
  5. 2B/3B/SS - Isaac Peredes (AA or AAA with good spring training),
  6. SP - Beau Burrows (AA or AAA with good spring training)
  7. LF/DH - Christin Stewart (MLB)
  8. SP - Kyle Funkhouser (AAA),
  9. SP - Alex Faedo (AA),
  10. SS/2B - Willi Castro (AAA),
  11. C - Rogers (AA),
  12. Relief RHP - Zac Houston (AAA),
  13. CF/OF - Jacob Robson (AAA)
  14. Relief RHP - Bryan Garcia (AAA, returning from TJ surgery late 2019 or early 2020)
  15. Relief RHP - Mark Ecker (AA),
  16. SS - Sergio Alcantara (AA), etc.
  17. Turnbull (MLB), Baez (AA), Soto (MLB), Shore (AA), Alexander (AAA)

Note: Prospects not listed below A+ ball

As for our options at SS:

  • Sergio Alcantara (plus defender, below average bat)
  • Isaac Peredes (comp is Jhonny Peralta, but has seen significant time at 2nd and 3rd in 2018)
  • Willi Castro (traded for in the Martin deal, but has a reputation of being error prone despite being able to stick at the position)
  • Make a trade
  • Sign a free agent

Give us your wisdom Detroit fans! Who is our starting SS for 2020? Other free agents can be found here: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/08/2019-20-mlb-free-agents.html

My prediction: Given the state of our organization, and the overall lackup of depth at SS, I think our best option is to either trade or sign a free agent. Detroit has $61M committed to 2020, and 31M of that comes off after 2020. Therefore, I think we should be aggressive in signing Xander Bogaerts (age 27 going into 2020) to a 7 year deal for $150+ million. Red Sox could easily let him slip as Sale, Porcello, JBJ are also all free agents after 2019, with Mookie a free agent after 2020 (who I think we should be Phillies-level of aggressive with trying to sign).

As for the 2019 draft: we could draft a college SS, but I would expect that we draft the best college bat available at #5 overall to increase the speed we can get the player to the majors to fit in with the rest of the core (see Kyle Schwarber, drafted in 2014, hitting homers out of PNC in the 2015 playoffs). This will likely be a 1B, or player at a corner. The 2019 draft is also weak in college pitching, and even polished high school players generally take 3-4 years to develop.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.