Max Clark, Detroit Tigers prospect, is making progress on the field and in tuning out critics

Clark saw action in 10 games for the Tigers in spring training, and had two hits, an RBI and two walks while striking out five times in 20 plate appearances. He slashed .111/.200/.111. In the field, he also had two dropped fly balls in an inning during a Feb. 24 game, before he eventually was reassigned to minor-league camp March 9.

Clark entered spring training as a long shot to make the Tigers' Opening Day roster, same as his good friend (and fellow 2023 first-round pick) Kevin McGonigle, whose hot spring ended up earning him a ticket to Detroit, where he's started 17 of the Tigers' first 18 games.

Clark, meanwhile, was assigned to Toledo, where he's done what he's done at every rung of the minor-league ladder during his rapid rise up the Tigers' food chain: He's performed, and quite well.

Through 15 games, he's slashing .356/.437/.525 with eight doubles, a triple, seven RBIs and 10 walks with six strikeouts. He has stolen six bases. In center field, he also has five assists, perhaps the most eye-popping number of them all. The hot start had Tigers fans wondering if Clark might get the quick call-up after Meadows went down with a broken arm and a concussion last week following a scary outfield collision with Greene, but the call-up was Wenceel Pérez, who was among the last spring cuts, has major-league experience, is a switch-hitter, and already was on the 40-man roster.

"No, he wasn't a consideration to come up," Hinch said of Clark, when asked last week. "We've been very consistent with him, needing time to continue the development. He's taken everything that we've asked him to do and is starting to apply it in Triple-A and has gotten off to a good start himself, whether that's on base or on defense, or certainly the bat. He's done a really good job of getting himself into Triple-A.

"And we obviously expect him to factor in more and more as these things develop and he continues to develop."

Max Clark is a consensus top-10 prospect in all of baseball, who started the 2026 season with the Toledo Mud Hens. He's gotten off to a hot start at the plate and in the field.

Max Clark is off to an impressive start with the Toledo Mud Hens

Gabe Alvarez has seen a lot of Tigers prospects develop, as manager of the Double-A Erie SeaWolves for three years, and manager of the Mud Hens since the start of 2025.

Alvarez is just now getting to know Clark, and consider him already impressed, not just with the skills, but his IQ for the game ("He has an idea what he's doing up there"), his handling of all the attention ("He's had this buzz around him since way before he was a professional"), and his willingness and eagerness to be a good teammate, even being the youngest player on the team ("The guys love him").

Perhaps what's impressed Alvarez the most, though, is Clark's love of listening and learning. He wasn't lurking outside of Alvarez's Fifth Third Field office last week wondering if he was going to get called up after the Meadows injury. But he's a regular walk-in visitor to Alvarez's office.

"He'll come in and ask questions, and actually very good questions," Alvarez said in the home dugout the other day, bat in hand and a smile on his face. "I think more players should be like that. I think once you kind of get in your head that you've reached a certain level, and you stop wanting to learn, and you stop searching for knowledge, then you've kind of hit the end, I think.

"But he wants to get better, and he's always in the search for something new that can help him."

(One thing, by the way, that's not new for Clark is all the attention and adoration of fans. That figures to play quite nicely for the Mud Hens' bottom line at the box office as well as the Swamp Shop, where there's already plenty of Max merch. But it's also led the ballclub to hire extra security, working for the entire team, but with a heavy emphasis on Clark, who regularly has fans waiting for him outside stadiums, hotels and even his car, Alvarez said.)

Clark split his first pro season between rookie ball and High-A Lakeland, then split 2024 between Lakeland and High-A West Michigan. In lockstep with McGonigle, he split 2025 between West Michigan and Double-A Erie. The Tigers, under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, have typically liked their top prospects to hit nearly every minor-league stop, but especially Toledo. They decided McGonigle, the consensus No. 2 prospect in baseball entering the season, didn't need a layover in northwest Ohio. Clark, a top-10 prospect, did, and he gets it.

And he's not getting wrapped up in when his time will come to be back in the clubhouse with McGonigle, even though you think that'd be a challenge, given he's as close as ever, physically, to Detroit.

Max Clark isn't worried about when he'll be called up by the Tigers

On a recent day, during an on-field interview with The Detroit News, that day's Tigers game was playing within his line of sight, on the videoboard beyond left field. McGonigle's double sparked a first-inning rally in Detroit. Clark is thrilled for McGonigle, his friend since 15, and his roomie in recent years. But this is McGonigle's time (in The Show and in The Dough, after he signed a $150-million contract this week). Clark's time will come. He follows every Tigers game, tweets when he can. But his focus, on this sunny April afternoon, is on the St. Paul Saints.

"You've got to be as present as possible," said Clark, who's leaning on plenty of Mud Hens with big-league experience, most notably (and interestingly) a pitcher six years his senior, Ricky Vanasco. "Because you have to be as present as possible in the big leagues, too. So, just taking it day by day, understanding what it takes to have success on that night, to win ABs, to win pitches, to win the game, that's what's most important."

Clark dreams often about one day winning a World Series one day in Detroit.

Of course, he wants to win every day, no matter where he is. A year ago, he was in West Michigan, where he and McGonigle led the way to a historically successful season in Comstock Park. Clark has come a long way on the organizational depth chart (two levels up), but he's come even further, in his own eyes, as a player and a person.

Clark's biggest strides, in his eyes, aren't necessarily at the plate or on defense — which, by the way, he might just love most of all; he fancies himself a "wide receiver" in the outfield, and he loves that big outfield at Fifth Third Field (you know where else there's a big outfield?) — but rather in the mental parts of the game. He was admittedly "struggling mentally." One bad game would lead to another and another.

"It was just tough," said Clark, "to accept failure."

And now? Clark said even in slumps, he's looking for and finding ways to positively impact a game.

"I think that's the biggest win for me," said Clark, "just maturing as a mental standpoint."

Perhaps it's that matured maturity — it's also worth noting here that Clark got married in December, to Kayli Farmer; the two met as freshmen in high school in Franklin, Indiana, and had their first date at Applebee's — that made the spring scrutiny easier to handle for Clark, who's never really been one to hide in the corner anyway. He wears eye black like a warrior, he has a body of tattoos, and he has more than a half-million followers across his preferred social-media platforms, Instagram (461,000) and X, formerly Twitter (99,400).

And, yes, he has an affinity for chains. He's had that since high school, long before he signed with the Tigers for $7.7 million following the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft.

It's part of who he is, and Clark likes who he is — even if Atlanta Braves TV analyst (and former Tigers pitcher) C.J. Nitkowski took issue with the diamond bling during a spring-training broadcast. The chains, Clark said, didn't drop the fly balls. That was all on him (even if it was windy that day, and he was playing left field, when he's only ever played center field in regular-season games as a professional).

"I don't really know why anybody cared," said Clark, noting that the Tigers have never once questioned his choice of accessories nor asked him to tone anything down. "Obviously, you have to catch the ball, but it had nothing to do with jewelry. … It's just a little fun flair piece. Everybody knows I'm gonna go out there and give you 110% each and every day. And everybody here knows that in the clubhouse. So that's what really matters.

"It's just something that people are going to pick out because I wasn't playing well, and it's an easy target. It comes with the territory, and it's part of it, but we just continue to grind."

Tigers prospect Max Clark is off to a hot start at the plate for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.

Max Clark is ranked the No. 8 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline

When the criticism reached fever pitch in spring training, Clark did respond on social media ("comfortable in my own skin & always will be," he wrote on X) and in media interviews. He's over it, even if he'll still talk about it.

"You can't make everybody happy," Clark said. "They (critics) are not here to help us win a championship, win a ring. And you have to focus on those people that are within the walls and just go out there and compete each and every day. Obviously, nobody wants to make those mistakes. You learn from them, you grow from them, and then you come back the next day and do your best.

"Continue to find ways and talk to those around you that are going to make you better, instead of listening to noise that's only going to make you worse."

Alvarez is just starting to get to know Clark. The two didn't interact a ton during spring training, when Alvarez worked mostly with the infielders, including, most notably, McGonigle.

It's easy, of course, to have a preconceived notion of somebody or something you don't know.

Alvarez knew all about Clark's talent, of course. Clark is the No. 8-ranked prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and three ahead of him (No. 1 Konnor Griffin, No. 2 McGonigle and No. 5 JJ Wetherholt) are in the majors, and won't be defined as prospects for long. But Alvarez didn't know Clark, the young man. He does now.

"People have their perception of him. They see him on social media, they see him with the chains," said Alvarez, who knows a little bit about prospect hype — he once was a top-100 prospect (No. 92, pre-1996, according to Baseball America). "They assume that he's a certain type of person, but he's a very humble, down-to-earth kid.

"And he's a terrific teammate."

Those opinions — teammates' and coaches' — are the ones that actually matter to Clark.

After all, they're the ones on the inside, by his side in the foxhole, that are there to pick him up, while so many on the outside seem to want to tear him down.

This is not to say Clark pays the critics absolutely no mind. He often responds, so therefore, he clearly hears. But the noise doesn't consume him. The diamond necklaces don't define him. It's all about what happens on the baseball diamond, where some days are good, some days are bad, and, frankly, all days are hard.

"It's the hardest game I've ever played," Clark said. "It's the hardest thing in life, to be honest with you. But it's the most fun. And there's no bad days at the ballpark when you're getting the chance to play for money, play in front of fans, play for your family. It's incredible.

"I love it, no matter how hard it gets."

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984

Max Clark, who was drafted by the Tigers with the No. 3 overall pick in 2023, is ranked the No. 8 prospect in baseball.

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Max Clark, Detroit Tigers prospect, is off to good start at Toledo after tough spring training