Tigers set to promote top prospect Max Clark for series opener

Detroit is preparing to add 21-year-old outfielder Max Clark to the major-league roster for Friday’s opening game against Oakland after a strong July performance in Triple-A Toledo. The promotion, first reported by Baseball America, still requires roster moves on the club’s 26- and 40-man lists and has not been formally announced by the Tigers.

Clark, the No. 13 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, spent the summer developing at Triple-A Toledo while the major-league team cycled through several center fielders. He said his approach was to let his play speak for itself, noting that development “isn’t linear” and that he was focused on “piecing a week into a month, into two months, into 12 weeks.”

Statistically, Clark posted a .338/.466/.620 slash line in July, with eight multi-hit games and an equal number of walks and strikeouts. His power also increased, as he hit five home runs that month, bringing his total to nine since June after only two in the first two months of the season.

“I am so glad of the challenge I had in the spring,” Clark said earlier this summer. “I came out and rocked the first six weeks of the season, forgot how to hit for six more weeks, then came back out of it and got comfortable again. It’s cool to go through the ups and downs of the season and understand how to get out of them and also be OK with failing.”

The Tigers have been without a full-time center fielder following Parker Meadows’ season-ending injury and other setbacks to outfielders such as Matt Vierling and Kerry Carpenter. With postseason prospects diminishing, the club hopes Clark’s athleticism and recent performance can bolster the lineup.