Justyn-Henry Malloy, the newest prospect in the Detroit Tigers‘ organization, wishes he would have locked an important phone number into contact list before his phone started buzzing last week.
He received a phone call Wednesday night from an unknown number and declined the invitation to speak. Then came a text message from the same number, belonging to Atlanta Braves assistant general manager Ben Sestanovich. They had talked before, but Malloy didn’t have his number saved.
Malloy looked at his father, Henry Malloy, and guessed the reason for the unusually urgent situation. He knew the annual winter meetings — where trades always get completed — were coming to a close in San Diego, with the win-now Braves looking to improve their big-league roster.
“I think I just got traded,” Justyn-Henry said.
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“What makes you say that?” his father inquired.
“Watch,” Justyn-Henry said.
Malloy, who turns 23 in February, returned Sestanovich’s call and put him on speaker for his father to listen in. Indeed, the Braves had traded him (with left-handed reliever Jake Higginbotham) to the Tigers in exchange for right-handed reliever Joe Jiménez and cash considerations.
Not long after, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris — who tried to trade for Malloy as the San Francisco Giants’ general manager — called and personally welcomed him to the organization. Later on, Tigers vice president of player development Ryan Garko reached out to connect and set the groundwork for future conversations. Next up was Willie Horton, a longtime Tiger, 1968 World Series champion and current special assistant.
Malloy’s father, born in 1947, grew up in the era in which Horton starred.
“He was pumped,” Malloy said.
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A bittersweet feeling overcame Malloy upon learning about the trade. His emotions were all over the place, but he immediately received messages from friends, teammates, mentors and his agent. Joining the Tigers, he realized, would be another opportunity to thrive in a new setting, just like being a freshman in high school, a freshman in college and a first-year professional in the Braves’ farm system.
That’s when the excitement set in.
“It’s another club that showed interest in me,” Malloy said Monday in his introductory news conference. “Everything is positive. I was so excited and stoked to be a Tiger.”
‘The game inside the game’
Malloy, nicknamed J-Hen, is lauded for his offense.
His primary calling card is his control of the strike zone. It’s not that he doesn’t swing and miss, but he rarely chases pitches outside the strike zone and rarely misses mistakes inside the strike zone. He crushes left-handed pitchers while keeping up against righties. He often cranks home runs and extra-base hits to the left side of the field while flashing power potential to the right side.
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The Tigers, though, acquired Malloy for his innate ability to swing at strikes and hold off on balls. “Our main priority this offseason is to reshape our offensive identity,” Harris said Wednesday. “This is a step in that direction.” In the 2022 season, Malloy registered a 17.1% chase rate.
Controlling the strike zone has been the main ingredient to Malloy’s identity as a baseball player for as long as he can remember, even dating back to Little League. It always seemed so simple. Once he reached high school, coaches and scouts began praising him for his best attribute.
He started reading different situations and playing what he calls the game within the game. The concept allowed him to make adjustments to his approach in the middle of plate appearances.
“Knowing I can control the zone as well as I do, I’m able to not be a one-dimensional guy,” Malloy said. “Most hitters are like, ‘I’m going to be on the fastball, and then I’m going to adjust to the offspeed.’ That’s 90% of hitters. When I say I play the game inside the game, I can trust myself in knowing, if I want to sit on a slider in a 2-1 count, I can trust myself because I have good eyes.
“I wouldn’t consider myself a guess hitter, but if I do guess right, I’m able to do damage on a 2-1 slider where most guys are probably looking for that heater because they’re in a plus count. That’s my way of describing that game inside the game, and I feel like that’s able to take any hitter to another level.”
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Malloy, a sixth-round pick in 2021 out of Georgia Tech, produced a 16.4% walk rate and a 23.4% strikeout rate in 133 games across three levels last season. He hit .289 with 17 home runs, 97 walks and 138 strikeouts, posting a .408 on-base percentage and an .862 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
His chase rates: 16% at Triple-A Gwinnett (eight games), 15.8% in Double-A Mississippi (54 games) and 19.5% in High-A Rome (71 games). He added a 12.7% chase rate in 20 games in the Arizona Fall League.
That’s why the Tigers acquired him.
“I have power, obviously, but it’s a small part of the game that I think is getting some recognition with how nasty pitchers are and them wanting you to chase,” Malloy said. “Being able to control the strike zone, I take a ton of pride in that. To be able to hit homers, I truly believe you got to get yourself into leverage counts to where you’re able to do damage.”
Third base, left field… or first base?
The biggest question — for both the Tigers and Malloy — is defense.
Malloy played third base in the Braves’ organization until August 2022, when third baseman Austin Riley signed a 10-year, $212 million contract extension. Around that time, the Braves instructed him to learn the outfield. He served as a left fielder exclusively at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
“First few days, it felt like a completely different world,” Malloy said. “The first few weeks, it still felt like a completely different world. Slowly but surely, I felt like I was getting more comfortable going into the outfield, making plays and taking better routes.”
When Harris phoned Malloy, the possibility of playing third base returned. His defense is an area of concern for evaluations. Some project left field and first base as his only serviceable positions in the future. But the Tigers seemingly think he can handle the hot corner, at least early in his big-league career.
On Monday, Malloy took ground balls for the first time in six months.
“It felt like riding a bike,” Malloy said. “It didn’t feel like I skipped a beat. … Left field is an option, playing the outfield is an option, but I know I was told third base is back in play. I’m just getting myself back to playing third and being a baseball player.”
To call him a finished product, on offense or defense, would be doing a disservice to his potential, though he is on the cusp of becoming a big-league player. He is expected to start the 2023 season in Triple-A Toledo.
Soon, J-Hen will be a Mud Hen.
And then, most likely, Malloy will be a Tiger at Comerica Park in hopes of cementing a long-term role. His arrival could happen as soon as midway through the 2023 season, but he isn’t putting pressure on himself to meet a timeline.
“The goal in the grand scheme of things is to get to the big leagues,” Malloy said. “I’ve really taken an approach where, if I’m looking at that, I’m not really focused on where my feet are. Being in the big leagues is the main goal, of course, but it’s wherever you start. I just want to be where my feet are and play baseball.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.