AppleTV tonight
or the tv app
No Max Clark listed which makes sense.
# Solution to Tigers’ hitting woes might be in Toledo; it’s worth a shot
full article at link.
It’s time to shake things up. Send a shockwave through this roster. Make everybody realize you gotta produce to stay.
Everything should be considered. Because something has to change.
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the Tigers can’t just sit around waiting to catch that next wave.
“You have to create it,” the Tigers’ manager said. “Like, it’s a competition between you and the other side, and sometimes you have to do something a little bit different, or sometimes you have to dig your heels in a little bit.”
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Yes, the Tigers are still beat up. Yes, they have players coming back at some point. And I still think this team, when fully healthy, can fight for the playoffs.
But in the short term, the Tigers have faceplanted into a horrible hole. In dropping to 21-30 entering Friday, they’ve lost 14 of 16 games. Over that span, they’re averaging less than 2.4 runs a game (2.375, actually), They need offense desperately, especially from the bottom of their lineup. At the top of the order, Kevin McGonigle is still getting on base, even as his batting average has slipped. Riley Greene is on fire, hitting like crazy. And Dillon Dingler has jacked nine homers.
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Time to bring up somebody from Toledo
First thing I would do is send Wenceel Pérez back to Triple-A Toledo – he is hitting .162 in more than 100 big-league at-bats this year.
… They could bring up 26-year-old outfielder Ben Malgeri, who is hitting .291 and has a .387 on-base percentage. At one point this season, he reached base in 36 of 37 games, going on four separate hitting streaks of five games or more.
And he already has six homers. Considering he had seven in 2025, it’s a significant improvement.
Or they could bring up 30-year-old outfielder Corey Julks, who has hit .295 with seven homers at Toledo.
Or how about bringing up 27-year-old outfielder Tyler Gentry, who the Tigers signed after the Kansas City Royals gave up on him? At the time, it seemed like a depth move. But he has figured out his swing and is producing. He’s hitting .296 with three homers and a .415 OBP.
Don’t look at his old stats. Because he has fixed his swing.
“Once I started to slowly fixing everything, my natural swing, the one I had pretty much my whole life up until a couple years ago, just kind of slowly started coming back to me,” he said. “It started becoming easier and easier and more natural.”
Or how about Cal Stevenson, a 29-year-old who is hitting .292 with a .416 OBP?
“It’s just being consistent every day,” he said. “Just swinging at the right pitches, controlling the strike zone, and finding ways to get out of base if you’re not getting hits. You got to find a way to work the at bat and work your walks.”
Yes, getting on base sure would be a good thing right now.
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Another player they have to look at is Zack Short, …
And Short’s lack of production is one of the glaring weak spots in the batting order. Short enters Friday hitting .067, thanks to his first hit this seaso coming Thursday. To be fair, he does have a .300 OBP (buoyed by four walks) – but that’s still below average in the majors; MLB hitters have posted a .319 OBP this year.
The Tigers don’t have a lot of options to replace him. It would take a big, bold move. Like bringing up Max Anderson, who could play second. Then, you move McGonigle to short full-time (with a little Zach McKinstry).
I sure would rather see Anderson, even as a rookie breaking into the big leagues without a lot of experience at Toledo, striding to the plate rather than Short, in any situation.
Anderson, the Tigers’ 2023 second-round pick, is hitting .338 in Toledo after recovering from a quad injury.
Hinch says you have to string hits together to score runs.
Which is obvious.
But it seems crazy to think you are gonna do that if you don’t have guys who can actually, you know, get some hits.
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Track records vs. reality
There are several players with better track records than they have showed.
Like Jahmai Jones, who is scuffling along at .175 despite mostly having a platoon advantage vs. lefties.
Yes, I know he has produced in the past – the fact that he hit .287 in 2025 is the only thing saving him right now.
But at some point, he’s gotta produce to stay. …
Then, he added an important point: “That track record will take you only so far, and then you got to see results.”
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one of those “in case of emergency, break glass” moments.
And it’s not a forever situation. At some point, Kerry Carpenter will return. So will Báez and Gleyber Torres.
So, in the short term, making a few changes doesn’t sound so crazy to me. Just to try to change this.
Or … they could just keep doing what they have been doing.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Watch another game go down the drain.
Which sounds insane.
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Here’s the strategy for the series.
All players 3 bananas.
That’s pretty crazy considering from mid 2024 to mid 2025 they had one of the best records in baseball. Sure have regressed.
Sweeney was never the best option, nor is Short, you can say replace this guy or that. But I know what I would replace.
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