The Tigers were counting on a major boost this year from Riley Greene. A week into the season, you might not know that he isn't here. As Greene mends a fractured foot in Lakeland, Austin Meadows is carrying a limping lineup in Detroit.
Acquired at the eleventh hour of spring training, Meadows helped the Tigers to their third win of the season Thursday night against the Royals. They might be 0-7 without him. He has a team-high 10 hits and a team-high five runs through six games, batting near .500 for an offense that's otherwise batting below .200.
0-7 isn't a stretch. Against the White Sox on Opening Day, Meadows walked in the sixth to help the Tigers get on the board, walked again in the eighth and scored the game-tying run and tripled in the ninth and came home with the game-winning run when Javier Baez drove a ball off the wall.
In the series opener against the Red Sox, Meadows singled in the first and scored the opening run of the game, then singled again in the eighth and scored the go-ahead run on Baez's two-run bomb. (That Baez guy is pretty good, too.) And Meadows picked up two more hits in the series opener against the Royals, including a two-out RBI in the seventh to pad Detroit's lead in a 4-2 win.
His four multi-hit games are tied for most in the majors with guys like Corey Seager, George Springer and his former teammate and Rays phenom Wander Franco. It was another up and comer in Tampa, outfielder Josh Lowe, whose arrival in the majors made Meadows dispensable. He's been indispensable thus far in Detroit.
"It’s been great," Meadows said on the field after Thursday's win. "The guys have been very welcoming. I feel very comfortable, very at home here. ... Just a very relaxed vibe. I feel like they have a lot of confidence in me, and I’m able to just go out there and do my thing."
For as long as he's been in the majors, Meadows' thing has been hitting. He was a ninth overall pick for a reason. His is a smooth lefty swing, powerful to all fields, good for 33 homers and 89 RBI in 2019 and 27 homers and 107 RBI in 2021, with low-ballot MVP votes in both seasons. With Baez sidelined by a thumb injury, Meadows is the most menacing bat in the Tigers' lineup, which would be rather meek without him.
"We look at the baseball card numbers and we’re going to love the home runs and RBI’s," said A.J. Hinch. "That’s what baseball cards are made for, to show you that. They don’t show you the quality in the at-bats. To use (Rays manager) Kevin Cash’s words about him, this guy can really hit. He can really put together an at-bat. I think it’s important for us to watch him and appreciate him for that."
It's funny. An integral piece of the Tigers' roster wasn't even supposed to be here. But then an integral piece of their roster got hurt. Hinch said the Tigers were already sniffing around for upgrades ahead of Opening Day. When they lost Greene for the first two months of the season, their interest in adding to the roster turned into more of a need.
"I’s amazing to add a bat like that at that time of the spring, very rare, and from a playoff-caliber team in the Rays," Hinch said. "So I applaud the front office in continuing to push forward and make us better."
We say this with caution, wary of the Baseball Gods. But maybe (maybe!) Greene's injury was for the best. If losing him for two months was the price of acquiring a 26-year-old slugger who could hit in the middle of the order for the next several seasons -- he's under team control through 2024 -- wouldn't the Tigers happily pay it again? Meadows isn't here if Greene isn't injured.
"We would have been perfectly content with Riley in center, Akil (Baddoo) in left and Robbie (Grossman) in right," said Hinch. "To add Meadows, who can sprinkle in at any of those positions, it would have helped us either way, but it got pushed across the finish line with the injury (to Greene)."
The rest of the Tigers' lineup should pick up the pace soon. There are too many good hitters stuck on the Interstate, namely Jeimer Candelario (I-60) and Jonathan Schoop (I-85), for the swoon to continue. Baez will be back soon. Grossman (.059), out with a sore groin, should be, too. For now, Meadows will hold things together, a temporary crutch and a long-term weapon.
"It’s another good message to everybody who follows the Tigers that we’re going to keep trying," said Hinch. "We had some bad news with Riley Greene, and it will get better as the summer goes on. But in the meantime, we still gotta put together a lineup and we still want to continue to improve the team this year and next year, and Austin Meadows fits that."