Tigers' High-A affiliate rolls to first Midwest League title since 2015

High-A West Michigan finished off its historic 2025 season in the most appropriate of ways.

Having recorded the highest winning percentage by a Minor League club in nearly 30 years during the regular season, the Whitecaps kept the good times rolling straight through the playoffs. West Michigan polished off a perfect 4-0 postseason mark with a 3-1 win over Cedar Rapids at Veterans Memorial Stadium to capture its first Midwest League crown since 2015.

Including the postseason, the Whitecaps finished with a 96-35 record (.711 winning percentage) and 19 wins in their final 23 games en route to their seventh league crown and sixth as a Tigers affiliate.

West Michigan starter Joe Miller worked himself out of an immediate jam in the opening frame after yielding a leadoff triple to Kyle DeBarge (MIN No. 12) and was never seriously threatened thereafter. The 25-year-old southpaw scattered four hits and a walk after the first and finished with six strikeouts over 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

Bennett Lee opened the scoring for the Whitecaps with an RBI single in the third and Bennett Lee added another run in the sixth on an RBI double. An insurance run in the eighth loomed large when Cedar Rapids scored on a wild pitch and loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half.

Carlos Lequerica squelched the rally on just two pitches, inducing a double play to get out of the jam. Marco Jimenez struck out a pair in a perfect ninth to pick up his second consecutive save and lift West Michigan to the title.

An early-season juggernaut led by Top 100 prospects Kevin McGonigle (DET No. 1/MLB No. 2), Max Clark (DET No. 2/MLB No. 9) and Josue Briceño (DET No. 3/MLB No. 31), the Whitecaps didn't slow down when the trio was promoted to Double-A in on July 7. In fact, they got even hotter.

Without three of the best prospects in the sport, the club went 35-12 (.745) from July 8 through the last game of the season, never losing more than two consecutive games in that span. Unsurprisingly, the club paced the circuit in almost every offensive and pitching category, including runs scored (760) and fewest runs allowed (466). The combination made for the the best run differential in the Minors (294) by a wide margin.

Only two teams below the Triple-A level -- Giants affiliate San Jose (811) and Dodgers affiliate Rancho Cucamonga (807) of the notoriously hitter-friendly Single-A California League -- scored more runs than West Michigan.