Detroit — The Tigers have never made it a point of emphasis, at least not until recently, to build their roster to fit the spacious confines of Comerica Park.
If a player’s skill set happened to be a good fit — gap power, speed — it was usually a happy accident.
Victor Reyes is one exception to that. When the Tigers selected him in the 2018 Rule 5 draft, a skinny outfielder with wiry strength who was spraying line drives gap to gap in the Southern League and at the Arizona Fall League, the first thought was that he might be an ideal hitter for Comerica Park’s dimensions.
He’s not skinny anymore.
At age 27, he’s got 220 pounds on his 6-foot-5 frame, but he’s made good on the Tigers’ projections.
Entering play Wednesday, Reyes’ career slash-line at Comerica Park is .282/.305/.411 with a .745 OPS. It’s been better this season — .317/.339/.452 with a .791 OPS.
“You play here more than any other ballpark,” Reyes shrugged, speaking through Tigers’ bilingual interpreter Carlos Guillen. “Of course, you know the field, the dimensions, where you can drive the ball and run. It makes me pretty comfortable to play here.”
Reyes, ever quietly, is cobbling together another solid season. It’s his fifth in Detroit and for the first time, he’s on track to get more than 300 plate appearances.
“I love the work he does,” manager AJ Hinch said. “He’s a very even-keeled man — doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. And the more he plays, the better he plays. His playing time has been sporadic. I feel like I can probably walk him into a bad stretch by not playing him.
“But when he’s in there, he really does put up good at-bats.”
It’s happened a couple of times this season. In trying to get Robbie Grossman going, or Akil Baddoo, or Daz Cameron, or clearing the decks for Riley Greene to play every day, or finding a spot for Willi Castro, Reyes has sometimes been the odd man out.
Of course, it didn’t help that he missed two months with back-to-back quad injuries, one in each leg, either.
But when he’s gotten consistent playing time, he’s produced. He extended his hitting streak to nine games Wednesday — and was hitting .367 with a .424 on-base average and an .891 OPS in that stretch before Wednesday’s game.
“I think he goes through a little bit of a swell and drought, but I always feel like good things are going to happen with him,” Hinch said. “He can move the ball forward. He puts it in play hard. He’s not really trying to lift the ball — I know that’s been a knock on him in the past.
“But he knows who he is and he generally stays around the strike zone, puts the ball in play and makes good things happen.”
Another thing Reyes does well that makes him a bit of an outlier on this team this year — he hits fastballs. His batting average on heaters is .318 with a .400 slugging percentage. He’s also been one of the Tigers’ best left-handed hitters, .292 with a .711 OPS.
Oddly, too, since over his career he’s been a better hitter right-handed. That hasn’t been the case this year. He’s hitting .230 with a .544 OPS against lefties, both career lows.
“It’s just a matter of seeing them,” Reyes said. “We’ve been facing more right-handed pitchers so I’ve been getting more at-bats left-handed. It happens. If you keep facing left-handed pitchers, you get used to it and you get better at it.”
Nobody had great swings against Giants’ lefty Carlos Rodon Tuesday night, but to Reyes’ point, he went 3-for-7 against Angels lefties Patrick Sandoval and Reid Detmers over the weekend.
Something else you might not be aware of with Reyes: he’s been one of the team’s best hitters in the clutch, hitting .317 with a .756 OPS with runners in scoring position. Even better with two outs and runners in scoring position — .409 with a .591 slug and 1.0 OPS.
Kind of a quiet assassin, wouldn’t you say?
Twitter: @cmccosky