After a promising season stalled by injury, the Tigers’ infielder heads to Scottsdale to reclaim lost development time and refine his offensive approach against elite competition.
The Detroit Tigers are sending shortstop John Peck to the Arizona Fall League, giving the 24-year-old an opportunity to make up for lost development time while continuing to work on the offensive side of his game.
Peck will join the Scottsdale Scorpions after playing just 70 total games across the minor leagues and majors this season. His year started well at Double-A Erie, where he hit .285 with 10 home runs and an .839 OPS over 58 games before earning a promotion to Triple-A Toledo in late June. The promotion lasted only two games before a hamstring injury landed him on the injured list on June 25.
Peck eventually returned through rehab assignments at Lakeland and West Michigan before rejoining Toledo on Aug. 25. He played only four more games for the Mud Hens before Detroit selected his contract on Aug. 31, meaning one of the biggest developmental steps of his season essentially disappeared. Instead of getting an extended look at Triple-A pitching, Peck went almost directly from Double-A into a major league environment.
His first exposure to major league pitching showed where the work remains. Peck finished his 24-game stint with Detroit hitting .162/.275/.176 with one double, seven RBIs and five stolen bases. He struck out in 20 percent of his plate appearances while walking 11.3 percent of the time, showing some willingness to work counts even while the results were limited.
There were also some encouraging numbers beneath the surface.
According to Baseball Savant, Peck averaged 88.6 mph in exit velocity with a 37.7 percent hard-hit rate, essentially matching the major league average exit velocity of 88.6 mph while slightly exceeding the MLB hard-hit rate listed by Savant at 37.1 percent. His 7.7 percent barrel rate was also roughly league average, and his expected batting average of .221 was nearly 60 points higher than his actual .162 mark. His expected slugging percentage was .346 compared with an actual .176.
Those numbers don't suggest Peck was secretly producing like an impact hitter, but they do show that his offensive performance wasn't quite as poor as the traditional line makes it appear. His .208 BABIP was another indication that some of the balls he put in play simply didn't turn into hits.
The larger question is how Peck can turn solid contact into more damage.
One area worth monitoring in Arizona will be his batted-ball direction. Savant had Peck going to the opposite field on 40 percent of his balls in play while pulling only 24.4 percent. For a hitter who has demonstrated some power in the minors, including 10 home runs at Erie this season, finding more opportunities to pull pitches in the air could help him tap into that power more consistently.
His defensive value provides some margin for patience. Peck showed the range, arm strength and actions that made him one of Detroit's better defensive infield prospects, and MLB Pipeline grades his fielding at 60 with a 55 arm. The question entering 2027 is increasingly centered on whether the bat can produce enough for that defense to remain in the lineup regularly.
That is what makes the Arizona Fall League assignment particularly useful. Rather than shutting things down after an unusual season that included Double-A, an injury, abbreviated Triple-A time and his major league debut, Peck gets another stretch of competitive at-bats against quality prospects.
For a player whose development was interrupted just as he reached Triple-A, the additional repetitions could be more important than the AFL stat line itself. Peck needs opportunities to recognize better pitching, continue refining his approach and determine which pitches he can drive rather than simply put in play.
The defense already gives Peck a path to a major league role. Arizona gives him another chance to show how much offense can come with it.
