Lakeland, Fla. — And he thought he’d been laboring in relative anonymity all those years.
Utility infielder Jack Lopez sat in the empty home dugout at Fenway Park last September. He’d just been called up to the big leagues, his first call-up after 10 seasons grinding through the minor leagues in three different systems.
As chronicled in an article in the Boston Globe, first Pedro Martinez sat down to his left. A few minutes later, David Ortiz — Big Papi himself — sat to his right. How’s that for a big-league welcome?
“It was surreal,” Lopez said Monday. “I’ve grown up around the game. My dad (Juan Lopez) coached for like 24 years (on Dusty Baker’s staffs for 16). People always say, ‘Oh, you should be used to it. You grew up in big-league ballparks.’ But it’s a totally different story seeing it as a kid and then living in it.
“For Pedro and Big Papi to sit down and talk to me like they’ve known me forever, knew where I came from and the things I had done — I was kind of shocked they knew that much about me. It was pretty special.”
The Tigers, specifically assistant general manager David Chadd, also have been keeping tabs on Lopez. Chadd reached out two weeks ago and offered the 29-year-old utility player a minor-league contract and an invitation to big-league camp.
“He said, looking at the scouting reports and the analytical numbers, he said I was the guy they were looking for,” Lopez said. “I fit their need, so I am excited. They seem to be pretty interested in me and I am interested in them. I think it will be a good fit.”
Lopez, who will be among the 62 players participating in the Tigers’ minor-league mini-camp later this week, will be battling Harold Castro, Willi Castro, Zack Short, Kody Clemens, Isaac Paredes and another non-roster invitee, Luis Carpio, for what might one or two utility spots this season.
Long odds are nothing new to him.
“I know what I can do,” Lopez said. “I’m a little older now. I’ve been around the game for a while and I know what I can bring to the table.”
What he brings is a winning pedigree.
The three organizations he’s played for (Royals, Braves and Red Sox) were playoff contenders while he was there. The last two Triple-A teams he played on (Gwinnett in 2019 and Worcester last year) had a combined record of 154-113. He helped Team USA win a silver medal in Tokyo in the 2020 Summer Olympics. He played in two Caribbean World Series for Puerto Rico.
Making his big-league debut in the middle of a pennant race for the Red Sox last season? He was far from overwhelmed.
“Being in those organizations and seeing how they go about their business and the way they work, I think that’s something that’s helped me,” Lopez said. “And people talked really well about the Detroit Tigers. When I was in Boston, a lot of players were saying a team to be careful of, a team to keep an eye on in the next couple of years is the Detroit Tigers.
“I’m pretty excited to be on their side now.”
Lopez, whose uncle Onix Concepcion played in the 1985 World Series with the Royals, grew up in Rio Piedras, just 12 miles from where new Tigers’ shortstop Javy Baez grew up (Bayamon). Up until last year, the two worked out at the same training facility. They were in the same draft class (2011) and competed in some of the same showcases. In 2014, they were teammates in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
“We haven’t stayed in touch much the last couple of years,” Lopez said. “He’s kind of gone and done his thing and I’ve done mine. But it’s exciting to be on the same team with him again.”
Lopez’s calling card is his glove. He is considered an elite-level defender who can play third, shortstop, second base and outfield.
“I’m known for my defense,” he said. “Not to seem cocky or anything, but I think I can be one of the best defenders wherever you put me on the field. That’s just something I take pride in. And the last five or six years, I think my offensive game has turned around.”
In 2016, playing for the Royals at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, Lopez hit just .187 with a .521 OPS. In 2017, same team, same level, different hitting coach, Lopez hit .281 with a .699 OPS. Guess who the new hitting coach was?
None other than former Bo Schembechler recruit, former Tiger, the man who replaced Al Kaline as the starting right fielder in Detroit, the pride of Vicksburg, Mich., Leon Roberts.
“He helped me turn my career around,” Lopez said. “Just an old-school guy, he preached that everybody has their own swing. Your swing is your swing. He’d tweak little things here and there, but he gave me confidence. He taught me how to trust myself.”
Lopez said Roberts sat him down before the 2017 season and convinced him that his swing mechanics, his hand speed and bat speed, his hand-eye coordination were all better than the numbers he was producing. He didn’t need any major overhaul.
He just needed to believe and trust that he could be a productive hitter. Roberts showed him how to do that.
“He would say, ‘We’re going to get you to .270,’” Lopez said. “And then once we got to .270 I went to him and said, ‘What else you got for me, Leon?’ And he’d show me things to work on to get to .280. He always had something for me to learn.
“Such an old-school guy like that, you just can’t help but sit there and listen.”
In 2019, when he was with Gwinnett, the Braves Triple-A team, he hit a career high 12 home runs and knocked in 57 runs. That came under the guidance of Bobby Magallanes, who is now the Braves assistant hitting coach.
At the time Alex Cora called him up last September, Lopez was hitting .274 with a .345 on-base average and a .731 OPS at Worcester. He went 2 for 13 in seven games with the Red Sox.
“I’ve kind of been through it all,” Lopez said. “Making my debut in the middle of the pennant race, that was pretty special. Playing for a gold medal in the Olympics. Playing in the Olympic Trials, trying to get Puerto Rico into the games, playing in the Caribbean World Series — it’s all been surreal.
“But I don’t think there can be any situation in this game that I won’t be ready for.”
The first day of pitcher-catcher workouts for the minor-league minicamp is Wednesday. Full-squad workouts begin Monday. Minor-league camp is not impacted by the Major League Baseball lockout.
More: Detroit News 2022 Top 50 Detroit Tigers prospects
Expected to participate in the camp are 13 of the club’s top 15 prospects as ranked by MLB Pipeline: 1B Spencer Torkelson (1), OF Riley Greene (2), RHP Jackson Jobe (3), C Dillon Dingler (4), RHP Ty Madden (5), IF Izaac Pacheco (6), RHP Dylan Smith (7), OF Roberto Campos (8), IF Cristian Santana (9), IF Ryan Kreidler (10), RHP Reese Olson (11), IF Colt Keith (12), IF Gage Workman (14).
Also expected in camp are pitchers Garrett Hill, Beau Brieske (27), infielder Andre Lipcius (22) and outfielders Daniel Cabrera (16), Parker Meadows (17) and Jose De La Cruz (29).
Among the veteran non-roster invitees are pitchers Gerson Moreno (re-signed by Tigers), Carlos Sanabria (former Astro), Luis Castillo (former Diamondbacks farmhand), catcher Chris Rabago (former Rockies farmhand), Carpio (former Mets farmhand) and Lopez.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky