TOLEDO – Detroit Tigers prospect Max Anderson keeps doing it.
The one thing the Tigers need so desperately.
He keeps hitting.
Anderson, the Tigers’ No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline, is hitting .338 at Triple-A Toledo with an .834 OPS.
Just consider his weekend:
Which is not really surprising.
That’s why the Tigers selected Anderson in the 2023 MLB Draft, a move that looks better every day.
In 2023, the Tigers selected center fielder Max Clark at No. 3 overall. Clark is at Toledo, where he is hitting .272 after going 2-for-4 on Sunday with two RBIs and two runs scored. Clark has gone through his struggles, has made adjustments and says he has come out the other side. That’s exactly what you want to see in player development.
The Tigers took Kevin McGonigle at No. 37 – and he’s been absolutely fantastic in his rookie year for the Tigers, racking up hits and becoming so valuable that the Tigers can’t take him out of the lineup.
And then they took Anderson out of Nebraska with their second-round pick, at No. 45 overall.
“I think with the three picks that we just made, we believe in the hit tool for all three of them,” Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said in 2023 after that draft. “We believe in their decision-making at the plate. We believe in their ability to make adjustments to what the pitchers are doing to them. And we believe in the adjustability of their swings. We’ve seen them make adjustments throughout their seasons that gave us greater conviction that they will be able to adjust to the pitching that they’re going to find in pro ball.”
Come to think of it, that’s exactly what they have done.
While some fans have lost complete faith in the Tigers after their recent losing streak – spurred by an absolute crazy number of injuries, not just to position players but pitchers, throwing everything out of whack − this trio of players is one of the reasons why I still have faith in the future.
Anderson swinging for the big leagues
Anderson, 24, is a right-handed hitting second baseman who has hit at every level for the Tigers.
At High-A West Michigan in 2024, he hit 11 homers in 121 games, finishing with a .270 batting average.
At Double-A Erie in 2025, Anderson hit .306.
He was sent to the Arizona Fall League, where he slashed .447/.609/.809 in 14 games and was named a rising star.
So he was invited to Tigers spring training, getting a locker in the middle of the room. A portable one. The kind that suggests: We want you to come and learn, but don’t expect to stick around.
Then, the craziest thing happened. He kept getting opportunities and kept producing.
Yes, he got even more chances because Gleyber Torres was in the World Baseball Classic. But Anderson made the most of it. He ended up playing in 21 games in the spring, tied for the most on the team. More than anything, he looked like he belonged and wasn’t overwhelmed, not at the plate and not on defense. He had a .333 batting average (12-for-36), driving in seven runs with three doubles and a homer.
So, he was producing while learning.
“They’re in a spot you want to get to in your career,” Anderson said. “It was just a good experience to build relationships and then kind of see what they were all about and what they do that makes them great.”
He learned about the focus that is required to play at the MLB level.
“I think the biggest thing is just the ability to lock in,” he said. “I think that’s what separates a lot of people. That’s one of the biggest things I took away and I’ve been trying to work on. I think that comes with the mentally of growing as a baseball player. I think that’s the biggest difference when you keep on moving up levels.”
He learned something else during spring training: how big leaguers focus on defense.
“They’re locking in for their defense every ground ball they take,” he said. “They’re taking every rep like it means a bunch, like it’s the World Series, so I think that’s also something that you can take to your defense and work on it really hard. For me, I need to be able to take every rep, to get as much as I can out of it, to improve my defensive game.”
Of course, he got hurt, too
Anderson was assigned to Toledo and came out hot, hitting .313 in the first four games. But then, he pulled a muscle in his left leg.
“Right out of the box, I knew I pulled my quad,” he said. “I played the rest of the game but knew, yeah, there’s something wrong with it. So, got it checked out [with an] MRI. And then figured out what happened.”
Anderson was put on the injured list on April 5.
You sensing a theme here?
Not only are the Tigers banged up at the MLB level, but some of their prized prospects have been hurt, too.
Rehabbing like the rest of the Tigers
Anderson returned to Lakeland, Fla., for his rehab and recovery, where he found a whole bunch of other Tigers.
“There’s a lot of people there,” he said of the injured Tigers. “There’s a whole team there, but the people that they have [helping the Tigers recover], they’re great. They’re very helpful. They’re getting everybody back to healthy, and they’re doing a great job. I had a good experience there, just being able to talk to everybody. That’s a lot of downtime there, so you’re hanging out and you’re trying to make it as good as it can be in a bad situation.”
The longer he stayed, the more players from the MLB team seemed to show up. “It’s tough when you’re down there seeing more and more guys come down,” he said. “It is brutal. It’s always tough to go through that and see people walk in and know how they feel. So it is tough, but they’re in good hands.”
While Anderson was in Florida going through rehab, he had a lot of down time. And he had a chance to catch his breath and think about spring training. It had been a whirlwind going from the 2025 minor-league season to Arizona fall ball to Lakeland for spring training.
“There were some [at-bats] in the spring where I felt a little out of whack,” he said. “So I think, in a sense, that downtime can be good for you. Just get away from the game. Just resetting the mind sometimes helps people.”
Producing at home
Anderson got healthy and was activated from the injured list on May 7.
And the timing was perfect because he was able to play a week-long series in Omaha, Nebraska – his hometown. “I was back home, so I was happy to get back healthy,” he said.
He was able to see his parents just about every day.
“I went out and got dinner with them a bunch,” he said. “So it was great.”
And, yes, he was able to sleep in his childhood bedroom. “Yeah, I did,” he said. “I stayed at home. So that was like high school baseball over again.”
Then, Anderson did what he always does: He hit.
Anderson had nine hits in five games in Omaha, including a pair of homers.
“It was pretty cool, like a dream,” he said. “There was a packed stadium the whole entire time.”
Anderson shouldn’t be viewed as savior
As the Tigers have struggled – they finally snapped an eight-game losing streak on Sunday – fans have clamored for the Tigers to bring up prospects, guys like Anderson, who plays mainly second but has gotten some time at third (29 games in the minors).
“We’re paying close attention to it,” manager A.J. Hinch told reporters in Baltimore on Friday, May 22, talking about prospects in general. “It’s not as simple as just try something. There are roster ramifications. There are playing-time ramifications.”
Anderson is not on the Tigers’ 40-man roster, so it would require juggling the roster to add him to the Tigers.
“We’ll always evaluate and see what’s possible and what’s best,” Hinch said, not speaking directly about Anderson. “The goal is keeping these guys focused here on that not being an option, but we’ll have to consider everything as we continue to get into this.”
It makes it a heck of a lot easier – and a true option – to consider when a guy keeps producing. And that’s what Anderson has done.
Whenever the Tigers do call Anderson up to Detroit, he should not be viewed as a savior. Nobody should get that kind of pressure.
But every day, it’s clear that he’s inching closer to Detroit.
And he’s doing it the old-fashioned way: He’s hitting his way there.
Swing by swing.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prospect Max Anderson keeps doing the one thing the Tigers need now
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
