This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DETROIT – Watching Max Clark hit high gear is a sight. He can’t run that way all the time, but when he senses an opportunity – whether it’s extra bases out of the box or a catch at the fence – he shifts in stride and takes off suddenly, like an electric sports car with zero lag.
When his Aug. 28 hit down the third-base line skirted past Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández and into the left-field corner, the shift about midway to first base was abrupt, earning him an RBI triple off former Tigers teammate Tarik Skubal.
“Around first, I was just kind of cadillacing, and then I saw it get by Teoscar and I was like, 'Uh oh, it's time to go,'” Clark said. “So I turned on the jets. Felt really good. It was probably like a 29.5 [feet per second sprint speed] if I had to guess on the Max Clark scale.”
Clark's guess was uncannily close. His sprint speed registered at 29.3 feet per second on Statcast. More impressive, his home-to-third time of 11.08 seconds was the fastest by a Tiger and the third-fastest by a Tiger since Statcast began tracking, slower only than a pair of Parker Meadows triples in August 2024.
Nearly two weeks later, it’s still the 13th-fastest home-to-third time in the Majors this season. The list of the 12 faster times is dominated by Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Chandler Simpson and Garrett Mitchell.
Those aforementioned players are known for game-changing speed. But as the Tigers evaluate their offensive options for next season, can they better tap into that speed with Clark?
“Cadillacs [are] sometimes cool to cruise with; Porsches are great when you go fast,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I love the Porsche version of him.
“When he can get going, it’s impactful speed. Speed puts so much pressure on the opponent to be perfect. And I’m talking about handling ground balls, I’m talking about first-to-third, I’m talking about shrinking the amount of time in order to defend a player like that. It’s unique, and we see it. We felt it [the previous] series with Chandler Simpson. We see it when we play Milwaukee, how fast they play. Max is scratching the surface of his impact.”
The day after that RBI triple, Clark put that speed to work again, turning a sacrifice bunt into a safe-at-first play by forcing third baseman Max Muncy to rush his way into an error in the third inning. He nearly did it again in the ninth, but Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman corralled Jack Dreyer’s wide throw at first to salvage the out. The bunt still set up Kevin McGonigle’s walk-off single.
COMPLETE TIGERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
The Tigers have just eight sacrifice bunts all season (tied for last in MLB); Clark got two of them in one game. He also has one of just two bunt hits by a Tiger this season.
He’s still learning how to harness that speed in the stolen base department. His swipe of second base last Friday in Cleveland off Guardians pitcher Slade Cecconi and catcher Patrick Bailey was his first pure steal in the big leagues; his first stolen base last month came on the back end of a double steal.
The Tigers haven’t been a big team for stolen bases for a few years, and rank second to last this season. They’re extremely calculated on it, noting pitchers' times to home plate and catchers' release times. But Clark has a chance to change the math.
Clark entered Tuesday ranked in the 84th percentile on Statcast with an average sprint speed of 28.7 feet per second. That will change soon.
“When you see him running in open speed, he’s top-tier speed,” Hinch said. “And he’s going to learn how to use it and trust that he can do even more than what he’s doing now. And that’s exciting.”