The Tigers’ patience with Thayron Liranzo is starting to look justified.
A year after the prospect’s name was tied to the Jack Flaherty trade, Detroit is getting a better read on what it has in him. Liranzo has been up and down since arriving from the Dodgers, but his second selection to the All-Star Futures Game suggests the arrow is pointing back in the right direction.
Liranzo is the Tigers’ lone representative this year, and that matters because it comes after a stretch that tested his stock. He hit .206 with a .659 OPS in 88 games in Double-A, a season shaped by injury and personal tragedy. That drop pushed him out of MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus’ top 100 lists.
Still, the broader picture has not gone flat. Liranzo was the Dodgers’ No. 10 prospect in 2024 after batting .272 with a .962 OPS in Single-A, and he entered 2025 as Detroit’s No. 5 prospect, holding that spot into 2026 despite the rough offensive year. This season, he has looked more like the player the Tigers hoped they were getting, with some of his power starting to show again.
The Futures Game nod also reconnects him to the trade that brought him to Detroit. Liranzo made his first Futures Game appearance in 2024 as a Dodgers prospect, only weeks before the Flaherty deal sent him to the Tigers. After the trade, he also took home MVP honors in the 2024 Arizona Fall League’s Fall Stars Game.
Where he fits long-term is still an open question. Dillon Dingler is set to stay behind the plate for now, while Josue Briceño could either split time between backup catcher and first base or move to first base full-time. If Liranzo keeps climbing and becomes too good to leave behind Dingler, Detroit could eventually have a roster puzzle on its hands.
That kind of slower path is familiar for the Tigers. Liranzo has moved at a more deliberate pace than many top prospects, but Dingler followed a similar route and has worked out well for Detroit.
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Baseball America Just Delivered A Brutal Reality Check On Tigers Prospects
Baseball Americas midseason farm system rankings delivered a sharp reminder of how quickly a prospect pipeline can lose its shine. Detroit slid to No. 22, an 18-spot drop from where it stood before the season, with the decline tied to a mix of injuries and the natural churn that comes when top talent moves up the ladder.
The Tigers have already watched Kevin McGonigle and Hao-Yu Lee graduate from the system, and the depth behind them has been thinned by a wave of injuries across the organization. Even with Max Clark and Bryce Rainer still among Baseball Americas top-100 prospects, the ranking underscores how much pressure is now on the rest of the farm to rebound and restore some of the luster that made Detroits system so highly regarded not long ago. [Read more 🡒]