Detroit Tigers infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee had a pretty rough spring. After a slow start in camp, he headed off to represent his native Taiwan in the World Baseball Classic. An oblique strain suffered before the tournament even began caused him to miss the opportunity, and then it lingered, costing him the first week of the International League season with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. After just nine games in which he didn’t do a whole lot and was busy trying to find his footing after nearly a month without any plate appearances, everything flipped as the 23-year-old suddenly got his first chance to play in the major leagues when Zach McKinstry went down with a minor injury.
No doubt his call-up was one of the best days of his life, but to much of the fanbase who don’t follow the farm system, the reaction was more like, who is this guy? He played all the 2025 season at Triple-A Toledo, and while he had a solid year at the plate, posting a 106 wRC+ with 14 home runs and 22 stolen bases, his numbers certainly don’t leap off a FanGraphs or Baseball Reference stat page. For prospect watchers, however, it was another year of solid progression for a young hitter who has always been well ahead of his age curve.
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Lee was acquired by Scott Harris when he shipped starter Michael Lorenzen to Philadelphia at the 2023 trade deadline. This was one of the first trades Harris made, and it’s turning out pretty well so far. Lee conquered Double-A Erie in 2024 when he was just 21 years old. His numbers in Toledo weren’t that impressive when he jumped to Triple-A last year, but with a February birthday he had just turned 22 years old when he took on the highest level of the minor leagues, consistently competing against good prospects and veteran pitchers, many of whom have major league experience. Production is key, but without the context of age and experience, it’s easy to miss the real picture developing beneath the surface. Lee has been challenged year after year with aggressive promotions, and even in a year where he struggled at times, he still managed to hold his own in 2025.
Lee is currently ranked sixth on MLB Pipeline’s ranking of the Tigers farm system, one spot behind fellow 2B/3B right-handed hitting Max Anderson. In my view, that’s a minor mistake and Lee is pretty clearly the more talented prospect of the duo, but it is fitting in a sense to have them back-to-back on a list, because they’re both bound to play a similar role in the major leagues.
Each has plus raw power, and neither really profiles as a good defensive infielder. They both tend toward mashing left-handed pitching and just trying to hold their own against right-handers, but their profiles diverge from there. Lee is the more disciplined hitter of the two, and also the more athletic player of the duo. He has the potential to clean up his game and become an average third baseman or second baseman, whereas Anderson is very competent, but just doesn’t have the range and quickness to get much better than he is. Those traits extend to baserunning, where Lee gets the most out of his average speed by being a crafty, aggressive baserunner with some knack for reading pitchers and getting good jumps to steal second base. Anderson’s lack of speed is a real limitation on his baserunning ability that can’t really be overcome through experience. Lee’s overly aggressive style of play can cause him to make the occasional poor throw, but he also has more knack for making a tough play than Anderson does, and the mistakes of aggression may be cured by more time and experience.
Lee struck out a very reasonable 20.9 percent of the time in Triple-A last season. That’s basically league average, but he also walked 11.2 percent of the time. Much less a free swinger than Anderson, Lee is better at holding his own when he isn’t really seeing the ball well at the plate. He’ll take his walks and uses the whole field to spray singles and doubles, and as he showed against the Reds on Sunday, he has all fields pop as well. The issue for both hitters is that they tend to do most of their damage against left-handed pitching, and that will probably limit both of them to a part time role in the major leagues.
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For Lee, the main issue continues to be breaking stuff from right-handed hitters. He handles fastballs well, but he can look like the bad version of Javier Báez when right-handers with good sliders start feeding him heavy doses of benders moving down and away out of the strike zone. That’s his challenge to overcome, whereas Anderson has better hands and strikes out less, but tends to swing at everything within reach rather than being patient enough to hunt for something he can drive. That can work in the minor leagues, but the lack of a strong approach also means he’s more likely to get his weaknesses exploited at the major league level. We’ll see if he can develop a little more of an approach this season, in which case he too might be a nice player to have on the roster in 2027 in the wake of Gleyber Torres holding the second base gig everyday.
The other advantage for Lee, is that he’s a year younger than Anderson. While Lee has more pro experience, there’s still more time for him to start shoring up his issues with right-handers than Anderson has to work with in trying to develop his strike zone judgement and overall swing discipline. With the benefit of better athleticism and strike zone judgement, my bet is on Lee to prove the more useful player to the Tigers in the year’s ahead, although Anderson could potentially make a decently productive first baseman with the ability to handle some second and third base as well.
McKinstry’s injury provided a perfect opportunity for Lee to come up, right as the Tigers were about to face their first sustained set of left-handed starting pitchers. It was also an opportune moment to get with him with the major league roster to forge some ties, get to know and be known by the regular roster, and get his feet wet in the major leagues. The Tigers believe in those team building aspects, and they also like to dangle the carrot a little bit to interesting prospects who aren’t of blue chip quality. After getting a taste of the major league life, Lee will be hungrier than ever when he returns to the minor leagues. Perhaps if Anderson was healthy, he would’ve gotten the call instead considering Lee’s lack of reps in spring camp, but it didn’t work out that way, and Lee has done a solid enough job with the opportunity. If a similar opportunity arises, I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to Anderson instead, because this is all about future roster building and getting these guys a little experience when the right opportunity comes along. Neither is really ready to seize a regular role just yet in my opinion.
When McKinstry returns, you can bet that Lee will return to the Toledo Mud Hens. With Colt Keith still not doing enough damage to really expand his role, and several lefty starters ahead on the docket, the Tigers had an opening for an infielder to hit left-handed pitching. Lee fits the bill. Launching a go ahead bomb against lefty reliever Sam Moll was just what AJ Hinch and the Tigers’ front office had in mind when they called him up. But the Tigers probably don’t want to convert a recently turned 23-year-old prospect into the next Andy Ibánez just yet. Lee needs more time to work against both handed pitchers to see if he can shore up his weaknesses against right-handers, and perhaps find his way to more than a weak side platoon role next season in the wake of Gleyber Torres likely departure in free agency.
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Hao-Yu Lee is a reasonably talented young player, and his aggressive, bull in a china shop style is a lot of fun to watch. He’s likely to be voted first out of the dugout in a benches clearing scenario, and he runs the bases with a dynamism you might not expect for a thickly built power hitter. He’s also been ahead of the curve, tackling tough levels at an early age and generally finding his way. While he doesn’t quite profile as a future full-time player right now, the Tigers lefty heavy regular lineup will have use for him in the years ahead. If Lee can take one more step and post better numbers against right-handed pitching, while playing a bit more under control on defense, he could creep up into top 100 prospects lists by season’s end, and have an even better chance of taking a roster spot later this season, or in 2027.
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