Something the Detroit Tigers have lacked for a long, long time is speed. Sure, they have some players who can run and plenty who grade out around average, but I’m talking about a real burner. A guy who is a threat to steal a bag every time he gets on base. At various times over the past two decades, the Tigers have brought in a player like Cameron Maybin in 2017, or you’ll recall Quintin Berry back in 2012, but they haven’t really developed that kind of player. The fact that we have to go back a good ways just to find two free agent acquisitions who fit the bill says it all. Perhaps, center field prospect Seth Stephenson will finally be the homegrown player who provides elite speed off the bench.
The 25-year-old right handed hitter has racked up a whopping 179 stolen bases over the past three seasons in the minor leagues. His 5’9” 165 pound frame isn’t built for power, it’s built for quick jumps, and high end straightline speed. That was his strength when the Tigers selected him in the seventh round out of Tennessee, where he was a star defensive center fielder. After some slow early progress, Stephenson has done a great job over the past two years in building a hitting foundation from which his speed can play a decisive role for his teams.
The element of excitement at West Michigan Whitecaps and Erie SeaWolves games when Stephenson was on base was palpable in 2025. He has not only the speed, the ability to get good reads on pitchers and jumps that make even courtesy throws to second base from minor league catchers ill-advised. Even better, he finally got stronger and developed some batspeed, moving from slap-hitting fringe prospect you might want as the 26th man on the roster solely to pinch-run, into more of a quality contact oriented hitter who can make things happen with his legs. As a result, Stephenson looks more like a player who may be able to hold down a full-time bench role in the future. Think of him as potentially a right-handed hitting Jarrod Dyson from the Royals run circa 2014-2015
Boasting 70 grade speed, Stephenson profiles as a plus defender. Stephenson has a solid arm as well, fitting into right field well on top of being a good center fielder. His role as a future major leaguer would mainly be to start against left-handers, though his splits are nicely balanced, and otherwise come in to pinch-hit and boost the outfield defense in close, late game situations. He’s very well suited to that task.
At the plate, Stephenson puts the ball in play a ton, and has really worked hard to build himself up physically over the past two seasons. His batspeed has perked up, and more and more he’s been on time to pull the ball while still spraying the ball around to all fields with a little more authority. Not only does he have the speed to beat out singles on throws from shortstops and third baseman going into the hole on the left side of the infield, routine singles down the line or up the gaps can turn into doubles as he regularly beats throws into second from outfielders who don’t hustle or can’t make strong accurate throws to second base. Over a quarter of his knocks in 2025 were extra base hits as a result, despite 45 FV power grades.
Stephenson struck out just 14.2 percent of the time in 2025, and actually cut his strikeouts down two percent when he moved up to Double-A Erie after the All-Star break. His walk rates are just average, but again, as long as Stephenson is putting the ball in play a lot, he’s a menace on the basepaths for any defensive unit in the game.
Over the past two years he’s worked to develop a little more power, and while he hit 8 home runs in 2025 after never topping 5 in a season, that’s clearly not his game. Stephenson hits the ball in the air a good amount, but his swing is built to hit the ball hard on a line, and he tends to hit a ton of pop-ups if pitchers get him swinging up in the zone or chasing pull side power too much. It’s good that he’s trying to develop some pop, but the sweet spot for him is line drives and gap power. His max exit velocities say it just isn’t worth it for him to try and hit like a light-hitter with good HR totals, like Isaac Paredes. The more balls in play that aren’t routine fly outs or easy pop-ups, the better for Stephenson’s speed game.
The increased strength doesn’t need to translate into much more over the fence power. It’s more about having the batspeed to handle velocity and still turn on inside pitches. Stephenson accomplished that much in 2025, and he’ll be looking to solidify himself at the Double-A level this season and get into a position where the Tigers might value him enough for his defense and havoc wreaking speed on the bases to call him up as a bench weapon sometime this summer.
The road to a full-time gig is probably closed at this point. The road to a part-time gig where he brings plus defense and high end base-stealing ability with plenty of contact at the plate, is wide open to him. ZIPS projection systems is a big fan, forecasting a part-time role in which Stephenson racks up 25-30 stolen bases a year, puts the ball in play a lot, and plays plus defense in the outfield. That’s good enough for 1.3-1.4 fWAR projections in the big leagues in the years ahead.
That’s a bit optimistic in terms of his likely playing time, but it does lay out the upper floors of his potential impact. All he needed was a quicker bat to handle better stuff, and the strength gains produced that jump in 2025. Now we’ll see how far he can take it as he tries to break into the major leagues in 2026-2027.