As you may have heard, Justyn-Henry Malloy is making a statement down in Triple-A Toledo and Colt Keith is making history with Double-A Erie. Just don't expect to see either of them anytime soon in Detroit.
Two of the Tigers top hitting prospects are off to hot starts this season, while the big club is last in the majors in runs scored for the second year in a row. Malloy has gained particular attention in Toledo, where he's been everything that Tigers new president of baseball ops Scott Harris envisioned when he traded for him this offseason. To wit: a disciplined hitter who drives the ball to all fields.
Keith, meanwhile, hit for the cycle as part of a 6-6 night with two home runs on Tuesday, a feat that's never been accomplished by a big-league player. Afterward, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch got a text from Erie manager Gabe Alvarez with a picture of the box score and a circle around Keith's stats.
"When these kids do something in the minors, we know about it and we celebrate with them," Hinch said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket.
Of course, doing it in the majors is a much different challenge. And while Malloy and Keith are full of offensive potential, the Tigers are still figuring out what to do with them in the field. Both have played primarily at third base this season, but have a ways to go defensively. As Hinch said of Keith, "We gotta find a defensive position for him." Same goes for Malloy.
Asked Wednesday about deciding when to call up a prospect like Malloy or Keith, Hinch said, "It's very complex" and "there’s a reason why the journey in the minors is step by step."
"There’s a lot of people working with these guys and evaluating these guys around the organization. Eventually you pull the trigger and give opportunity when you can and then you have to stay patient to allow that journey to continue. I don’t see anything imminent and we haven’t talked about anything being imminent.
"But we’re always aware that any given stretch can be a time that you’re going to reevaluate with more information and more interaction with people in and around the minor leagues letting us know what these guys are doing."
Malloy, in theory, could help the Tigers right now. Even if he's cooled off after a scalding start, he's hitting .310 with a .440 on-base percentage that ranks fourth in the Triple-A International League and a .940 OPS. The Tigers rank last in the majors in OBP (.294) and OPS (.643) with scant improvement from last year.
Then again, consider Malloy's numbers in the month of May: .245 AVG, .373 OBP, .822 OPS. Still strong, but not knocking down the door to Detroit. And a good reminder that Malloy, 23, had played just eight games in Triple-A prior to this season.
"It’s a longer journey that I think we often want it to be," said Hinch. "You have to be prepared on so many levels in the big leagues, emotionally, physically, different positions, the type of pitching you’re facing."
The next step for Malloy is to adjust to the pitchers who have begun to adjust to him. On some days, he looks in total command at the plate. On others, like an 0-5 with three strikeouts on Wednesday, not so much. It recalls something Harris said this offseason: "Reshaping our offensive identity is going to take time. It has to take time."
The next step for Keith, obviously, is to make the jump to Toledo. And for both players, defense will be key. Ultimately, reaching Detroit is just the first step in the rest of their careers. And Detroit isn't going anywhere this season with or without them.
So the Tigers have no reason to rush.
"I have been around a lot of players who come up and go 0-4, 0-8, 0-12 and that 72-hour window becomes, ‘Oh, they rushed him.' It’s too fast because they weren’t perfect," said Hinch. "I don’t know when it’s going to happen. I will tell you, the players that are performing are going to get rewarded at some point being big leaguers, whether it’s this year, next year, whenever their time is called.
"The better they perform, the more pressure they can put on us to have to make that decision."
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