Detroit Tigers' Top Prospect Battling Illness, Looking to Return to Lineup This Weekend

Keith is expected to be the team's starting second baseman this season after signing a six-year contract this offseason. When he debuts, it will be his major league debut.

Keith enters the season as the No. 2 prospect in the organization and the No. 22 prospect in all of baseball.

Using a quick and short left-handed swing, the Mississippi native does a nice job of marrying quality contact rates with noticeable impact at the dish. He elevates well and rarely expands the zone, leading to the high slugging percentages and extra-base-hit rates. With Triple-A Toledo, he maxed out with an exit velocity of 110.1 mph and slugged a 473-foot homer (per Statcast) that ranked as the fifth-longest in the International League last season. Higher EVs and more tape-measure shots should be in his future as he grows more comfortable getting through long seasons.

The Tigers moved Keith -- a below-average runner with a stocky frame -- from third base to second on a near-full-time basis by mid-August last season out of the belief his reaction times and throwing motion work better at the keystone. He’d be a bat-first player at either place, but there is a clear lane for Keith to seize a spot in the Majors and join Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene as homegrown premier talents in Detroit.