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.
Josue Briceno was staring at something close to a lost season when he arrived in Arizona for the Fall League a month and a half ago. A rundown on the basepaths in a May 12 game for Single-A Lakeland in a getaway game at Daytona had turned into a sprain of the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury that ultimately cost him three-plus months.
“To be honest, I never felt it was going to be that long,” the Tigers’ No. 9 prospect recalled Thursday morning on a Zoom call with reporters, with translation from Tigers Spanish communications manager Carlos Guillen. “I thought at the beginning it was going to be like a cramp or a hamstring issue. I never thought it was going to be that much.
“It gave me a little more maturity, a new maturity. But it was hard at the beginning, working so hard in the offseason just to be ready for the season itself, and then all of a sudden this injury happens. It was kind of frustrating right after that. I was coming back, working out with the trainers, and I’m grateful for them.”
After Briceño returned in September for a playoff race with the Flying Tigers, the Tigers sent him to the AFL to make up for lost at-bats. He ended up with a hitting Triple Crown, the first in the league’s history.
“It never crossed my mind, the idea of doing it,” he said, “but honestly I feel very proud and I can start from there [next year].”
He’ll start with some of the loftiest expectations for a hitter in the Tigers organization. And as Detroit looks for its next wave of prospects after this past season’s influx of young talent helped the Tigers surge to their first postseason berth in a decade, Briceño is clearly someone to watch, even if his position isn’t quite clear.
Briceño’s numbers were eye-popping: a .433 batting average, 10 home runs and 27 RBIs in 25 games. He reached base in more than half of his plate appearances, and hit for power to all fields. The Tigers had high hopes for the 2022 international signing, but not even they could’ve forecast this, especially for someone who just turned 20 years old in September.
Some of it was health, of course. Some of it was a steady diet of at-bats, allowing him to implement some slight changes in his batting stance that Tigers instructors suggested during his comeback.
“Those changes were mainly on the athletic side,” he said, “very tiny, very slight, but they helped me a lot.”
But more than anything, he said, “I was just having fun down there. It was a key part for me.”
Briceño loves to hit. It has been his calling card ever since he caught scouts’ attention in Venezuela as a teenager, ending up with the Tigers for an $800,000 bonus. He also loves to catch, but for the Fall League campaign, the Tigers got him out from home plate and had him play first base and DH, a decision made easier by fellow Tigers prospect Thayron Liranzo being there too.
“It was a little bit odd,” Briceño said, “but to be honest, I think it helped me just a little bit. It did help me focus on my hitting.”
A three-homer game early in the campaign for the Scottsdale Scorpions put him on the radar. A five-hit performance ensured everyone knew when he stepped to the plate.
By season’s end, he was clearly the center of attention in the AFL. A late surge pushed him atop all three major hitting categories, and led to a legendary photo of him sitting with three crowns around him in the stands. The photo brought back memories of another Maracay, Venezuela native and Triple Crown winner, Miguel Cabrera.
“We were taking [batting practice] and all of a sudden they just approached me and they gave me a couple crowns,” Briceño said. “And I was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on out here?’”
Cabrera had a few position changes in his career, from left field to third base to first, back to third, then back to first. Briceño said he hasn’t had any conversations with the Tigers about his position going forward, but he’s ready for anything.
“Listen, I can play anywhere, catching or first base,” he said. “If I can keep catching, that would make me happier. I am a catcher. That’s what I love to do. If I can take reps at first base, that’s OK.”