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There’s a wide gap between the Detroit Tigers top two outfield prospects and the rest of the farm system’s outfielders. Max Clark is a top 10 prospect in the game on most rankings and closing in on the major leagues. Teenager Cris Rodriguez is second ranked in the outfield, but is still anticipating his first season playing stateside (shout out to Alysa Liu) this summer. Behind them, the Tigers have an interesting group of toolsy former college outfielders who could eventually break out but are currently tracking more like platoon or bench types. Jackson Strong may be the best of that bunch.
Strong was a JUCO pick in the 2024 draft, selected out of Canisius College by the Tigers in the seventh round. He didn’t get much more than the minimum bonus, but he signed to start his pro career as a projectible 20-year-old, left-handed hitting outfielder with a nice collection of skills and time to grow into them in pro ball. A year and a half later, that pick is looking pretty good for the price.
2025 was Strong’s full season pro debut and he did everything you could ask, beating up on Single-A pitching and showing little sign of slowing down after moving to High-A West Michigan after the All-Star break. He showed off a good eye at the plate, hit nine homers and stole 20 bases. His plus speed and improving defense in center field comes with enough arm to slot in fairly well in right field if that proves the optimal position for him.
Strong walked 12.3 percent of the time with the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers. He improved that walk rate to 13.8 percent in West Michigan. The one big fly in the ointment was his combined 28.9 percent strikeout rate. That’s the issue keeping him from climbing much higher in the rankings considering the rest of his well rounded game. He’s got a lot of work ahead if he’s going to hit enough to tap into his developing power and plus speed fully.
On the bright side, his swinging strike rate isn’t too bad at 12.4 percent overall. The strikeouts were more from taking way too many called strikes, as his 19.3 percent called strike rate suggests. That may be a case of his disciplined approach going too far into passive territory. If he can defend the strike zone a little more he should be able to cut into that strikeout rate pretty substantially.
Because he was only 20 on draft day, Strong is a little younger than the rest of the college players in his draft class. He’ll head into his second full season of pro ball as a 22-year-old. He’s not a big guy, standing 5’11” and weighing 185 pounds, but he’s a good athlete and there’s enough projection left that he seems likely to get to average power. Right now he’s got a 45 grade on the raw power, but I expect he can bump that to a 50, and if he does, he’s already built to produce in line with his raw power numbers because his swing and approach are already built to hit the ball in the air to right field. So if the power shows up we should quickly see it in games.
There’s potential here for an above average center fielder who gets on base an average amount, hits 15-20 homers per year, and steals as many bases. That’s the likely ceiling, and Strong would have to improve a lot as a hitter, but a player with that much upside is a pretty good value for the price the Tigers paid.
The more likely scenario is that Strong puts it together enough to be a viable depth piece who can play all three outfield positions well, but remains a little too vulnerable to velocity and top shelf breaking stuff to be a full-time major leaguer. He’ll see a lot better strike throwing this season as he holds down center field most days for the Whitecaps, so he’ll have to respond with a more aggressive approach while remaining disciplined enough to take his walks as they come. His progress as he looks to break into the upper minors will be worth keeping an eye on.