How Dearborn native, Allen Park grad just helped Detroit Tigers in playoff race

DETROIT – A Dearborn native and Allen Park High School graduate just gave the Detroit Tigers a nice boost in the playoff race.

If you tuned out when the Tigers had a 14-game lead in the AL Central about a month ago, you might have missed the mini collapse that shrunk that gap to 5.5 games at the start of Wednesday.

The Tigers lost 12 of 13 games on either side of the All-Star break, and are 11-18 since peaking at 25 games above .500 on July 8.

So they’ll take all the help they can get right now. And on Wednesday night, that help came from a man named Jakob Marsee.

Who’s Jakob Marsee? Two weeks ago, most baseball fans would have asked that same question.

Marsee, 24, is not considered one of the top prospects in the game. In fact, he was barely a top-10 player in the Miami Marlins’ system at the time of his promotion.

But the first 13 games of Marsee’s MLB career have been outrageous — a .436 average, .542 on-base percentage, and .872 slugging percentage with three homers, six doubles, six stolen bases, and as many walks as strikeouts (nine each).

The best game of his young career came Wednesday night against the Cleveland Guardians, who were just six games back in the AL Central after the Tigers beat the White Sox earlier in the day.

Marsee hit a three-run homer in the first inning to put the Marlins ahead, and then homered again in the fifth inning to break a 4-4 tie. He finished the game two homers, a double, a single, and seven RBI, leading the Marlins to a 13-4 victory.

So the Tigers got a little more breathing room in the division race.

Marsee was born in Dearborn and then played at Allen Park High School. He went to Central Michigan University and got drafted by the San Diego Padres in the sixth round in 2022.

He was one of four players traded to the Marlins last May in the deal that sent batting average specialist Luis Arraez to San Diego.

Marsee was having a solid season in Triple-A, with a .246/.379/.438 slash line to go along with 14 homers, 14 doubles, 47 steals, 68 walks, and 81 strikeouts in 98 games.

Obviously, he’s not going to keep up anything close to this pace. But if he could have one more big game in the series finale against Cleveland on Thursday, it would sure help out his hometown Tigers.