Franklin grad Max Clark made his pro debut in the Detroit Tigers organization last summer, finishing the season at the Low-A level in Lakeland, Florida.
Tom Hagerty | Detroit Tigers
After getting his wisdom teeth extracted last week and then seeing the temperatures in Johnson County plummet below nature’s Mendoza Line over the weekend, Max Clark was plenty ready to pack up his car and head down to Florida.
The warmer weather was a draw, to be sure. But more than anything, the Franklin graduate was just eager to get back to work doing exactly what he’s always dreamed of doing.
Drafted third overall by the Detroit Tigers in the 2023 Major League Baseball draft, Clark got a brief taste of professional ball with 23 games in late summer, and that was enough to assure him that he’d made the right life choices. He calls that initial two-month stretch the most fun he’s had in his life.
“Once I finally got on the field down there, it was where I was supposed to be,” Clark said. “It was home. And it was a blast. The guys down there, the staff — there’s so many resources down there to help you get better that I really did feel like I was in the right place.”
That doesn’t mean those two months were seamless. Baseball is very much a game of failure, and Clark experienced more of it during those first 23 pro games than he had at any time prior.
But that was to be expected. Raking at a .500-plus clip is easier when you’re teeing off on overmatched high school pitchers or facing hurlers in a summer travel tournament that don’t have the benefit of extensive scouting reports. The game is much different when you’re playing a six-game series against a team that has multiple coaches and staff members dedicated to breaking down exactly how to get you out, and Clark experienced his fair share of ups and downs in that setting.
Not right away; Clark had at least one hit in each of his first five pro games in the rookie-level Florida Coast League, batting .421 (8 for 19) with two home runs — including his first career walk-off shot in a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays on Aug. 1. He followed with an 0-for-14 drought from Aug. 11 to 17 before recovering with an eight-game hitting streak that included his first four games for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, Detroit’s Low-A affiliate.
After collecting three hits in his first 10 Lakeland at-bats, though, Clark endured a 2-for-27 skid from Aug. 30 through Sept. 8 that included a four-strikeout game against the Tampa Tarpons.
“That was the first stretch of baseball that I’ve ever played that bad in my life,” Clark said, “and it was hard mentally. It was hard. And I think that was the biggest separator; once I learned how to mentally zone out and kind of just focus on my at-bat, focus on this pitch, the next pitch and so forth, it allowed me to get out of that slump. But there for a while, I was really pressing, trying to get hits, trying to hit the ball hard, trying to do too much, and that slowly just down-spiraled myself into a bigger hole.”
He broke the dry spell with a two-run single in the Flying Tigers’ regular-season finale, a 4-1 victory over the Tarpons on Sept. 9. Clark then went 4 for 12 for two walks and two runs scored in a three-game playoff series against the Clearwater Threshers. Learning to balance his emotions, he says, was a valuable skill that he hopes can help him guard against similar prolonged slumps down the road.
Veteran players such as journeyman minor leaguer Quincy Nieporte, a 29-year-old who’s played at every level of pro ball except the majors, helped the former Grizzly Cub find his way through the rough patches. But facing professional pitching for the first time was going to be an adjustment no matter what; Clark says that the spin being put on pitches in Florida was the biggest shock to his system.
“You’ll be up 2-0, 3-0 on a guy, and he’ll just spin you a slider and roll over and it’ll ruin your entire at-bat,” he said. “The ability pitchers have to spin pitches at that level is just something that I’ve never seen before.”
Facing a higher level of pitching caused Clark to recalibrate his expectations. At Franklin and on the summer travel circuit, he could often toy with pitchers and take any mistake for extra bases or out of the park. That’s not the case anymore.
He used to hate getting walked in high school; to him, those were wasted opportunities that could or should have been extra-base hits instead. But he’s since gained a greater appreciation for the small things.
“You have to really dial in on, what does this guy have? What does this guy utilize the most? What pitches does he like to throw on what counts?” Clark said. “You have to use the data around you a lot more, and you have to find wins. Even the smallest wins are still wins. If a dude hangs a changeup and you fork it into right field for a single, that’s a win, because you just beat a good pitch of his. You drag out an at-bat and you draw a walk, that’s a win. The guy’s pitch count’s up, you just saw all of his pitches. …
“You have to take what the game gives you at this level. You can’t really go out and press for much anymore; the guys are too good.”
Fortunately for Clark, he wasn’t the only Tigers draftee riding the highs and lows. Kevin McGonigle, another high school standout who was taken No. 37 overall, was with Clark both in rookie ball and in Low-A. The two roomed together throughout their miniature 2023 season.
Having played together on the travel circuit and on Team USA, Clark and McGonigle had already developed a bond before being drafted; going through this initiation process together only served to strengthen it.
“He’s been huge,” Clark said of McGonigle. “He and I, we bounce stuff back and forth off of each other all the time. He’s an insane player — I think he was the steal of the draft. He’s a baller. … We have such a good connection; we both want to see each other win. We both respect each other as players. He’s turning into my best friend, my guy.”
Despite the periodic struggles — Clark finished with a .154 batting average in 11 High-A games after hitting a more robust .283 with a .954 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in rookie ball — observers remain high on his potential. MLB Pipeline’s fall rankings listed Clark as the No. 15 prospect in all of baseball and the best in the Detroit organization. But unless he performs well enough during spring training to convince the decision-makers otherwise, it’s likely that the Tigers will put him back in Low-A to start the season.
If he can perform well enough there, he’s likely to get promoted to Detroit’s High-A affiliate in suburban Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Whitecaps, sometime this year. Plenty of highly touted teenage prospects have ended their first full pro seasons at that same level, but while Clark is more than willing to be patient — he’d rather be fully ready to climb the ladder than get rushed and fall — it seems clear that he wouldn’t be sad if he could take an extra step or two in 2024.
“I do have deadlines that I want to hit,” Clark said, noting that he’d prefer to keep any specific goals on that front to himself. “At the end of the day, trying to be the best that I can be and dominate at every level that I do go to is going to be the ticket to getting to those higher levels. Like … I had a really good FCL showing, but then I struggled in Low A, so this year I need to dominate Low A to even think about getting to High A, and I need to dominate High A to even think about getting to Double-A, and so on and so forth. Because to dominate at every level is definitely the key to getting called up, and that’s what they’ve preached to us with the Tigers. Win your league, dominate your league, get called up. And so that’s my goal coming into 2024 — dominate every one I play.”
The fact that the Flying Tigers kept Clark in the postseason lineup despite his post-promotion struggles spoke volumes about the faith in his potential and his long-term value to the organization. Despite the dry spells — Clark finished with a .154 batting average in 11 High-A games after hitting a more robust .283 with a .954 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in rookie ball — observers remain high on his potential. MLB Pipeline’s fall rankings listed Clark as the No. 15 prospect in all of baseball and the best in the Detroit organization.
That status will likely lead to greater opportunities to showcase his skills. Major League Baseball is debuting a Spring Breakout in March that will pit top prospects against one another in an exhibition setting, and while Clark hasn’t officially been told that he’ll be part of the Tigers’ roster for it, his face is being used to promote the event on MLB.com, so it’s a fairly safe bet that he’ll be included.
Clark’s busy offseason wasn’t limited to batting practice, weightlifting and wisdom tooth extractions. He got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Center Grove graduate and current University of Dayton soccer player Kayli Farmer, in the fall, and they’re tentatively planning to get married in December of 2025.
“Kayli’s been by my side pretty much this entire ride,” Clark said, “so to finally get engaged and to finally be together, semi-officially, it’s super, super cool, and we’re looking forward to getting married and chasing this together.”
For Clark, that chase resumes at the Tigers’ Lakeland complex. He’s been happy to spend most of the last four-plus months back here in Franklin, but he has also enjoyed taking his first forays into adulthood since high school ended, and he’s looking forward to continuing the maturation process, both on the baseball field and off.
“It’s been nice to be home; don’t get me wrong, I love it,” Clark said. “But it’s also nice to have the ability to live on your own and be comfortable with that. Because for the next three years, that’s what it is, especially with my fiancee in college and my parents still in Indy. I had to learn at a young age how to be mature, between talking with scouts and college guys and so on and so forth, but now living on your own, that’s another step of maturity that I’ve taken, and I love it.”
He gets to wake up every day and play baseball for a living. What’s not to love?
