Luke Ritter joins Tigers, brings veteran power to Triple-A Toledo

Luke Ritter arrived in Triple-A Toledo with a calling card that is hard to ignore: 97 minor-league home runs. The Tigers signed the 29-year-old right-handed-hitting infielder to a minor-league contract on April 17, 2026, and the move immediately gave Toledo a veteran power bat as Detroit shuffled its upper-level infield after Zach McKinstry went on the 10-day injured list with left hip and abdominal inflammation and Hao-Yu Lee was recalled.

That matters because Ritter is not arriving as organizational filler. He has been in pro ball long enough to leave a real track record, and his official MiLB totals now sit at 2,161 at-bats, 505 hits, 97 homers, 339 RBI and a .234 average. That is the profile of a depth piece with some thump, not a prospect ticket waiting to be punched. In a system where the big-league club just had to pull one infielder up from Toledo, another injury or two could make Ritter more than a stopgap.

Ritter’s path has been anything but linear. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 37th round in 2018, then went to Wichita State and came back into the draft pool as a New York Mets pick in the seventh round in 2019, 208th overall. He was most recently in the Los Angeles Angels organization with Rocket City in 2025 before being released, and MiLB lists him as a 6-foot, 187-pound player born in Minneapolis.

The bat still has enough noise to keep him on the radar. Ritter hit .225/.331/.366 with Syracuse in 2025, going deep 11 times and driving in 40 runs over 438 plate appearances. That line says plenty about the current evaluation: the contact is light, but the on-base skills and right-handed power keep him relevant, especially in a depth chart that can change fast when a club is dealing with injuries at the major-league level.

The other reason Detroit made room for him in Toledo is versatility. Ritter has spent time at second base, third base, first base and shortstop in the minors, which gives the Mud Hens another usable glove across the diamond. Joel Sherman noted the signing, and it fits the same logic the Tigers have already followed with Lee’s recall: when the big-league infield shifts, Toledo has to absorb the fallout and keep enough offense around to matter. Ritter’s 97 homers say he can do that.