Gage Workman gives Tigers swing they've been missing

The Tigers might not be built to slug, but scoring runs has become a slog.

So they turned to the man known as Tater. Called up Sunday from Triple-A Toledo, Gage Workman hit a pinch-hit, go-ahead, two-run homer in his first at-bat as a Tiger to help Detroit salvage the final game of its series in Kansas City and snap a five-game skid. The Tigers were desperate for that kind of swing.

In their last 11 games entering Sunday night -- a stretch that comprised 406 plate appearances -- the Tigers had hit five home runs, the second fewest in the majors to the Rays. Detroit was 3-8 over said stretch. Tampa, riding one of the best pitching staffs going, was 8-2.

The Tigers are in an uncomfortable spot at the quarter mark of the season. They are banged-up and playing a sloppy brand of baseball that runs counter to their identity under A.J. Hinch. Until their rotation gets healthy and they start playing better defense, they may have to rely a little more than they typically do on the long ball.

Workman, now 26, was a fifth-round pick of the Tigers in the 2020 draft that also produced Spencer Torkelson, Dillon Dingler and Colt Keith. His pop in the minors has been undermined by high strikeout rates. He was left unprotected in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft, selected by the Cubs and later purchased by the White Sox, but Workman earned scant big-league opportunities with either club and was returned to the Tigers last May. He posted an .805 OPS over the rest of the season with Toledo.

He started this season by hitting .358 with an OPS north of 1.000 in his first 35 games. With the Tigers ailing -- lefty slugger Kerry Carpenter was the latest to land on the injured list Sunday -- Workman left them basically no choice but to call him up.

“He has crushed Triple-A pitching pretty much all season,” Hinch told reporters in Kansas City before Sunday’s game, “and has earned his right to be on a call-up list whenever the opportunity came open.”

Carpenter's injury created the opportunity on the roster. The opportunity in Sunday night's game arose when the Royals lifted their left-handed starter after the fourth inning and turned to a couple right-handed relievers. Once a switch-hitter, Workman gave that up in 2024 in favor of batting strictly from the left side.

The result is two-fold: He generally gets worked by lefties, but can do significant damage against righties. Workman's OPS against right-handed pitchers in each of the last three seasons in the minors (starting in 2024): .889, .857, 1.077. Carpenter, of course, cuts a similar profile. His OPS against right-handed pitchers each of the last three seasons: .994, .812, .786.

The nickname Tater was passed down to Workman from his grandfather. It's what his wife calls him. It's what many of his teammates in Toledo call him. And it's what they might start calling him in Detroit. With the score tied at three in the sixth Sunday night, Workman pinch-hit for Zack Short with a runner on first against righty Nick Mears and drilled a down-and-in slider into the right-field seats.

"Off the bat, I was like, 'Yeah, I think I got him,'" Workman said. "I didn't even know who it was off of, honestly. I was just trying to go up there and do the job."

Job done.

After his first trip around the bases in the majors, Workman was welcomed to home plate with a big hug from Torkelson, his draft mate and former teammate at Arizona State. He stayed in the game as the third baseman and started a swift double play against Bobby Witt Jr. to end the seventh.

Despite an uninspiring start, the Tigers are far from done. Their lifeline is their moribund division, where they trail the .500 Guardians by just 1.5 games. But they need to start their own run to end an extended slide. It could come in the form of a few big swings, and a couple well-timed taters.