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.
Tigers top prospect Max Clark gets it.
He gets why Detroit wanted him to get challenged this year -- first in Major League camp for Spring Training, then with Triple-A Toledo for the season. He gets why they wanted him to get some adversity and see how he responds.
It’s why, when asked what’s the biggest difference he has seen from Triple-A pitching compared to lower levels, the No. 7 prospect in baseball talks about the catching.
“I actually think the catchers are the difference,” Clark said last weekend in Toledo before hitting the road this week. “I think the game-calling is elite. Guys are doing their homework. You have guys that have been in The Show for years. Luke Maile’s got eight years of show time; he’s with Omaha. Ben Rortvedt and Hayden Senger were on [Triple-A] Syracuse.
“... So they’re pitching you so differently compared to what I was used to with a young college catcher, young high school catcher in the lower levels. They read swings better. They understand and they know what my weaknesses are. They’re doing their homework, as am I, whereas I felt like I definitely had an advantage in the lower levels.”
COMPLETE TIGERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
The adjustments to how Clark was pitched came quickly, as he posted a .377 average and 1.009 OPS over his first 17 games with the Mud Hens, capped by his first Triple-A home run in a four-hit game April 17 in Louisville. But over his next 33 games, he slashed .203/.284/.278 with just seven extra-base hits.
He learned how pitchers would follow a curveball with a changeup and get him to think fastball out of the hand. He learned how crushing fastballs in the lower levels meant little if pitchers could get in his head with secondary pitches and get him off the heater. He learned how chasing hits can lead to some bad habits and worse swing decisions.
Slowly but surely, he’s coming out of it.
“It’s been up and down all year, but I feel very confident in where I’m at in terms of the swing, in terms of swing decisions,” Clark said. “The biggest thing I’ve been working on over the last month or so is just direction and allowing the barrel to work through the middle of the zone as long as possible. And I think that’s what I was missing when I got onto that cold streak. I just started trying to yank it for power and all that stuff, and it took away from the ability to hit the ball and impact it, not just hit it but impact it.”
His impact has been on display this week. On Tuesday, the same night that Justin Verlander made a rehab start for the Mud Hens, Clark homered off a 35.8 mph eephus pitch from Cubs catcher Casey Opitz, pitching in what was then a 13-1 game. The next day, Clark was on time for a 93.8 mph fastball and sent it to the right-field concourse, a 420-foot drive by Statcast projections. He doubled his home-run total for the season in a two-day span.
Clark entered Thursday slashing .263/.350/.402 in 52 games. His four home runs are down from last year’s 14-homer pace, but his 13 doubles are four shy of last season’s total and on pace to beat his previous career high of 21.
“The homers will come,” Clark said. “Just trying to put the barrel on the ball and see what happens.”
The progress is in the metrics. His 47.1 percent pull rate matches his career high with High-A West Michigan in 2024, according to FanGraphs. He was hitting breaking pitches and offspeed better than fastballs (.219 vs. four-seamers, .243 vs. sinkers), but his expected metrics and low whiff rate suggest that should even out.
This is the process the Tigers want him to experience. Better to go through it there than have to learn it in the big leagues.
“The decision on Max Clark really should center around his ability to come and stabilize and impact the team, not just fill a hole that kind of makes you feel good and then you're scrambling and drowning this kid,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told MLB Network Radio earlier this week. “Now, maybe he would be able to make that adjustment, maybe not, but we are focused more on Max's development and what's best for him and ultimately what's best for us at the right time. When he's ready, I don't think the organization's going to hesitate. But he's got a lot to learn.”