DETROIT -- General manager Al Avila said the Detroit Tigers see him as a future Major League starter.

Others are more cautious but generally optimistic in their evaluation.

There's no argument, however, that newly acquired pitcher Grayson Long is in the midst of sterling sophomore season in professional baseball.

The Tigers received Long and a player to be named later in exchange for outfielder Justin Upton in a surprising move just before the second unofficial trade deadline.

Long, 23, was ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Angels system by Baseball America and the ninth-best by MLB Pipeline.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound right-hander is 8-6 with a 2.52 ERA in 23 starts for Class AA Mobile. He has 111 strikeouts and 38 walks in 121 innings.

His ERA leads all Southern League pitchers and his batting average allowed of .226 is fourth-best.

"Grayson has been a standout player this season in the Southern League, that features some of the best prospects in baseball," Avila said in a team release. "Grayson is a workhorse-type starter who throws strikes and has a great makeup. Our scouts project him to be a starter at the Major League level."

This is Long's second full season in pro baseball after being drafted by the Angels in the third round out of Texas A&M in 2015.

MLB Pipeline has slotted Long as the Tigers' 12th-best prospect. The site said he has a three-pitch mix (fastball, slider, change) with a heater that "plays up because of its life and because of his ability, when he's on, to locate it well. His secondary stuff needs to develop, but his slider will flash above-average, and he does have feel for a decent changeup."

FanGraphs said he has a "big, strong, innings-eater body," but scouts are cautious about giving him that label because he battled injuries in 2016.

Baseball Census' scouting report sees Long as a reliever, a role that would allow him to get by on fewer pitches while maximizing his velocity.

Long will finish the final days of the 2017 season with the Class AA Erie Seawolves.