May 7: The Tigers have now officially announced that they have optioned Meadows, selected Vilade and transferred Gipson-Long to the 60-day IL.
May 6: The Tigers plan to option center fielder Parker Meadows to Triple-A Toledo before tomorrow’s matchup with the Guardians, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. Detroit will promote Ryan Vilade to take the active roster spot, Petzold adds (on X). The Tigers will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster but can do so by transferring Sawyer Gipson-Long to the 60-day injured list.
While Detroit is out to a respectable 18-17 start, they’re riding a four-game losing skid after this evening’s loss in Cleveland. Their decent overall results are largely a credit of the pitching staff. The Tigers entered play Monday ranked 22nd in MLB in scoring. They’re 24th in on-base percentage and 25th in slugging.
It has been a very top-heavy group. While Riley Greene, Mark Canha, Kerry Carpenter, Matt Vierling and (in a smaller sample) Wenceel Pérez have hit well, Detroit has gotten almost nothing beyond the top half of their lineup. That’s particularly true at the up-the-middle positions. The catching duo of Carson Kelly and Jake Rogers and the middle infield tandem of Javier Báez and Colt Keith haven’t produced.
Meadows, who has started 26 of 35 games in center field, is off to perhaps the coldest start of all. He has punched out 32 times in 85 plate appearances. Meadows is hitting .096/.224/.219 with a pair of home runs. To his credit, he hasn’t carried those offensive struggles with him into the outfield. Public metrics have rated him among the sport’s best defensive players through the season’s first few weeks. Yet the Tigers clearly need some level of offensive contributions from the bottom of the order.
Plugging Pérez into the lineup is one way to try to inject more life into the offense, though it’ll surely involve a defensive downgrade. It seems that’s a trade-off the Tigers are willing to embrace. Manager A.J. Hinch had penciled Pérez into center field for four straight games at the end of last week. Meadows has gotten the start for the last two games while Pérez battled an illness. The rookie came off the bench to hit for Meadows in the sixth inning of tonight’s game.
Pérez, 24, has started his MLB career with a .296/.387/.556 slash over 62 plate appearances. While he’s not likely to continue hitting at that elite clip, the switch-hitter had a solid .274/.368/.417 showing between the top two minor league levels in 2023. At the very least, he’s currently in a much better groove at the plate than Meadows has been.
Meadows entered the season with 42 days of MLB service. He needs to spend 130 days on the MLB roster or injured list to surpass the one-year threshold in 2024. Meadows has spent 40 days in the majors this year. If he stays in Toledo for around two months, his path to free agency would be pushed back until the 2030-31 offseason.
Vilade, 25, has three games of MLB experience. A former second-round pick of the Rockies, he was once a prospect of some regard in the Colorado system. Vilade stalled out in the upper minors, though, and he only received a cup of coffee at Coors Field in 2021. He spent the 2023 season in Triple-A with the Pirates after being claimed off waivers. Vilade hit .271/.370/.382 with Pittsburgh’s top affiliate but didn’t get a big league look.
The right-handed hitter signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in November. He’s out to a big start in Toledo, hitting .333/.398/.551 with three homers and eight doubles. Vilade has also swiped eight bases in nine tries. He’s striking out at a 27.3% clip, which is a concern, but the overall production was enough to snag a roster spot. Vilade has bounced all over the diamond for the Mud Hens, starting multiple games at second base, third base, designated hitter and in all three outfield positions. He can work as a bat-first utility piece off the bench.
Send down Torkelbust and Baez also. Bring up Malloy. Trade a prospect for a high average hitter
Baez probably isn’t going anywhere, but they could option Tork Bomb and bring back Baddoo, since he is one of the few non-pitchers already on the 40-man roster. Malloy isn’t on the 40-man roster yet. The Tigers would have to DFA someone from their pitcher-heavy minor leaguers to make room for him.
If the Tigers could clean out the deadwood (Torkelsingle, Baez, Keith, Maeda), they could be a good team
Torkelsingle….good one!
That is good but not quite as good as Spencer 0fer4kelson.
Colt Keith is probably headed down once Gio Urshela is healthy again.
Agree with this comment as Keith needs to get his timing back and the Tigers can no longer afford him doing so in the Majors. How many more 2-1 games do they need to lose before Harris and Hinch figure this out!
I doubt Gio coming back impacts Keith. Prolly means the new guy gets sent down since it would freeup vierling for OF duty
Javier Báez isn’t going anywhere except maybe DFA. He has long since passed the cutoff where he can be sent down to the minors without his consent.
Torkelson was totally over-hyped and over rated. He is what he is and probably will continue to under perform for however long they let him.
Lol. Yep. Beat college hitter in the 21st century (top 3 at most). Unanimous great future among scouts, but franklinatubbsghost the math teacher knows more
Sometimes a scuffling hitter can regain his Mojo after a spell in AAA. Rooting for that to be the case for Parker. He’s a great young man who can become a great CF for the Tigers.
Yes, but is he great?
His defense is elite. He simply has to get his OPS around.700 and he’ll be great.
Well, they had to try something, seeing that they sat on their hands all winter long….
He’s been hitting under.100 for a while so glad to see him going down to figure things out. I guess it doesn’t hurt to test drive Vilade and see what he has to offer. I forgot how young he actually is. If he doesn’t work out then shift him off the 40 man and try something else.
Malloy needs to be brought up soon.
There is no way he makes it thru waivers.
Hope Parker gets a nice reset and is able to come back and help the ML team at some point down the road. He’s been fantastic defensively. Wish they would send down 0ForFourKelson and bring up Malloy, let’s see what he’s got. Have Canha play 1B full time.
loving all these tork nicknames but this one might be my fav
A torkelson option can’t be far off right? He’s clearly got some potential as a contributor still but his timing is just way off. Why not send him down to TOL until June so he can work without costing them games? You have Canha to cover 1B and you could give Malloy an opportunity while Tork works in AAA. It’s time Scott.
Vilade was not on my short list to be called up, but if he can get more than 1 hit per week that would be better than Meadows.
I like this choice in Vilade due to his ability to play both IF/OF positions.
Finally sent meadows down, Keith has to be next
I would have called up Malloy, but Vilade’s speed should play up in Comerica so let’s see what the kid can do!
I wonder if McKinistry will be on the hot seat if Vilade pans out.
I think we might already have the answer to that. We need Vilade more than McKinstry since he plays CF regularly. I don’t think they were planning on playing Perez there everyday and McKinstry only has 2 games at CF for his career. So when Urshela comes back, McKinstry will be the expendable one, mainly because he’s not hitting, but also because we have Vierling, Ibanez, and now Vilade who can back up Urshela at 3B. We also have Buddy Kennedy at AAA. I think Colt Keith stays and platoons with Ibanez at 2B. Once (or if) Meadows comes back, Vilade could lose his spot.
I hope he gets going down there as he has a lot of talent, too much to be starting like this. The majors need the A.I umpiring desperately. The Tigers won a game two weeks ago with Meadows getting on base with a in the middle pitch called a ball. Last night Canha was called out on a ball 4.
Moving players up or down was the reason I thought they only wanted guys with options. It can’t hurt the players only help. I seen a girl wrote a story for a blog about the Tigers on how well Nevin is doing, but she dd not include that’s what Detroit did to his dad. It’s good for the Nevin’s, hes got a good chance in Oakland. Is first base now the new hot seat?
Baseball was much better without the whinny challenge flag.They totally neutered the manager. Heckling the ump used to be one of the best parts of the game.
Billy Martin was great. Lay into the ump and fireup the team……no…
Now we get “a time out”…..
I’ll get banned if I say what I think. Pet name days, dress up days….bigger bases so “they don’t get hurt” ……
Baseball used to teach. People make mistakes, sometimes things don’t go your way – right or wrong, people have power and can change things like a manager use to, get mad, try harder, you can not always be successful, try again….together we can make a success, you may not get your chance, weird things happen….the list goes on….
Now we get arrogant showboating, selfish hrs and the bat flip…you used to get beaned for that…..safety at home plate….the challenge, rules on the manager….even intentional walks are automatic, “so the pitcher doesn’t get hurt”…anybody remember Miggie putting an RBI into right field because they were being lazy about it?
A scurry of blind squirrels running a baseball team. Who knew?
Remember the good old days when you could just blame Lloyd?
Even I have hope in all these prospects….
I’ve got nothing else.
Coulda, should, woulda…..
Hired the Superfife!
Harris isn’t in a rush because he wants to build his own team. Avila rebuilt the farm after DD, but was terrible at his free agent signings. Until Clark arrives, Harris is playing with another GMs players, and can’t really take the credit. So Canha and Urshela become the limit of what he will do. We will be watching the “Wendy’s” offense all season and asking “Where’s the Beef?”
Al did draft some real gems but Harris has kept adding to that base. Hopefully the beef is in AAA. Jung, Leonard (once he’s back from injury), Malloy and maybe Dingler are the next up for test drives likely at the expense of at bats for Keith, Meadows and maybe even Rogers/Kelly or Tork if he doesnt pick it up. Maybe he has a pizza phobia and doesn’t want to hit homers and carry that stupid pizza spear. At least he has 12 doubles.
Another real gem of a comment from the brain damaged STYMEEDONE. The more you comment, the bigger a joke you become. Harris wants to build his own team with his own players? You’ve got to be joking. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Why has Hinch made the young hitters bad? Not sure what your rationale is for that. For every Meadows and Keith there is a Carp and Greene. Tork and Rogers hit well last year too. So I guess he’s responsible for all that good hitting too right?
Seems like your argument should be more directed towards the hitting coach and less towards Hinch.
@Colavito – we need someone with a triple digit IQ to translate a post made by you, with your single digit IQ. Each time you post, the comment section gets exponentially more stupid!
Good thing they aren’t bogged down with bad contracts (besides Baez) on any of these young guys.
Meadows looks like a bust. Tork is a bust for sure, even if he starts hitting a few homers, his game is such a disaster (defensive butcher, not patient at the plate, poor baserunner), Keith looks like a bust, fortunately only cost them $26 million for that, chose the wrong guy to build the core around.
Glad I’m not Harris, who is going to get all kinds of hate when he eventually has to trade away Greene and Skubal because the team isn’t ready to take the next step forward. Max Clark will ultimately make or break Harris and be the primary determining factor in whether the Tigers will be competitive or not over the next decade.
How are they busts? It’s 100 ABs dude. Give the kids a chance. Tork hit 31 HRs last year!
Like we have a choice?
I think sending Meadows down was a good move as he can work on his timing and get his stroke back but we will miss his great defense. I think Keith also needs to be sent down for the same reason as Meadows but the kid has a good future with the club. I am so sick of watching Baez swing at every slider and missing by 5 ft and with RIP he is a damn joke. I say DFA him, eat the contract, get his negativity out of the clubhouse and just move on…thanks Al Avila. With this pitching, it would be great if he could just get one good power hitter in the middle of the order to drive in runs. Wishful thinking.
Keith’s K rate is less than 20%, about half Meadows’ level. Keith just has to learn to barrel it up, and he will.
Vilade already 1-2 tonight with 2 RBIs. Of course, it’s 7-7 in the top of the 3rd.
Vilade takes a 2 out BB in the 5th. 1-2, 2 RBI’s and OBP of .667 in his 1st game so far.
Vilade singles in the 7th driving in his 3rd run of the night. 2-3 and a BB and 3 RBIs. That’s a month of production for Parker Meadows. Tigers lead 9-7.
Vilade and Ibanez looked sharp tonight. Lots of positives on offence in that game.
Lol. So much anger,stupidity and jealousy in this post. Sad to see from someone probably over 60.
You are the one constantly losing his mind with your angry “HINCH IS A CHEATER” rants. I can picture you screaming out the window about it to your neighbors or maybe at the grocery store. Chill out.
Try writing a positive post for once instead of just complaining about the same thing over and over. P.S. you are in the minority with your opinion about Hinch, but it’s a free world and you are welcome to your opinion. The Tigers are winning, be happy dude.
He’s as unhinged as STYMEEDONE. The difference is he hates Hinch and STYMEEDONE hates Harris. They make it loud and clear every post they make about their angst towards their hated one. Me thinks their cheese has slipped off their cracker.
Talking about yourself again, I see, Colavito. Slippy slidy continues with that aforementioned cheese off your self hating cracker.
And now you have moved on to conspiracy theories. Did your Tork bobblehead doll tell you big bad Hinch was picking on him 😉
Colavito mad, Colavito smash.
Colavito’s mom dropped him on his head too many times when he was a baby.
At least your angry old man act is mildly entertaining. It is your signature move on here and WHY EVERYONE KNOWS YOU. I get more of a Ty Cobb vibe from you than Rocky Colavito. Like you would just slide into everyone with your spikes just because…probably while growling “you’re a fart in the wind boy!”
I am also not a huge fan of the City Connect uniforms so at least we can agree on that.
Thanks for giving me a good laugh on a crappy grey Saturday.
Man, does Colavito love to hate on himself and on Hinch. As far as his supposed “Most know who I am and my background in MLB”. Here are the answers. You’re a bitter nobody and all the background you have in MLB is you hate A.J. Hinch. That’s the extent.
Each one of these type of posts reinforces my belief of how low iq you truly are, Colavito. You’re far stupider than STYMEEDONE and he set the bar at a sub ten intelligence quota. You’re in the negative numbers, if there is such a thing.