It was April 18, 2017.
Matt Vierling jogged onto grass at Comerica Park for the first time in his baseball career, patrolling center field for Notre Dame against Central Michigan. He ripped an RBI single through the left side of the infield off right-hander Michael Brettell, now a farmhand in St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, as part of Notre Dame’s five-run third inning and 8-3 victory in the Clash at Comerica.
“I have one game under my belt there,” Vierling said.
Earlier this month, the Detroit Tigers acquired Vierling, Nick Maton and Donny Sands from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for closer Gregory Soto and utility player Kody Clemens. It’s all but guaranteed Vierling — one of six players with World Series experience on the current 40-man roster — will make his second appearance at Comerica Park on April 6 for the Tigers’ home opener against the Boston Red Sox.
“It probably took me half the day to come down from realizing what had happened,” Vierling, now 26, said. “And then I got the chance to talk with (manager) A.J. Hinch and (president of baseball operations) Scott Harris. I realized how good of an opportunity it was, and I’m really excited to get started.”
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The Tigers entered the offseason seeking position players under team control and have acquired three significant names so far by trading high-leverage relievers Soto (to the Phillies) and Joe Jiménez (to the Atlanta Braves). The additions of Vierling, Maton and Justyn-Henry Malloy — if one or two of them become everyday players — will help the Tigers as the organization works to reshape its offensive identity.
Vierling and Maton, though, are expected to contribute immediately, whereas Malloy will likely begin the 2023 season in Triple-A Toledo. Both players from the Phillies have World Series experience, along with Miguel Cabrera, Javier Báez, Austin Meadows and Eduardo Rodriguez.
“We know what that feels like,” Vierling said of Philadelphia’s postseason run last season, which ended in a World Series loss to the Houston Astros. “We know what that feels like on the field and off the field. I think we will bring some of that vibe over to the (Tigers’) clubhouse and help the team in that way. We know what it feels like, so we can try to steer toward that.”
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The Tigers aren’t expected to be 2023 World Series contenders. To get there, they’ll have to set the foundation on the field and in the clubhouse. The Tigers acquired Vierling in part because of his playoff experience, but more so for several on-field skills and the opportunity for further development in the big leagues.
“We want winning to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind every day in the clubhouse,” Harris said. “Getting two guys who were a part of that with the Phillies, that can only help us. They know what it looks like. They know what it feels like. They know what it sounds like.”
‘In Philly, I needed to be that guy’
Most importantly, the Tigers needed a right-handed hitting outfielder to handle left-handed pitchers. Before acquiring Vierling, the true outfield options were all left-handed hitters: Meadows, Riley Greene, Akil Baddoo and Kerry Carpenter. Even Maton, who will play more infield but knows the outfield, is a left-handed hitter.
There was a glaring hole from a matchup standpoint.
“Certainly, Vierling has demonstrated that he can crush left-handed pitching,” Hinch said on MLB Network Radio, “and I can play him virtually anywhere on the diamond. We’re going to have a lot of options on how to spread our at-bats around.”
Vierling played 117 games for the Phillies last season, hitting .246 with six home runs, 23 walks, 70 strikeouts and a .297 on-base percentage. He posted a below-average 6.2% walk rate and an above-average 19.6% strikeout rate.
He hit .295 in 135 plate appearances against lefties and .217 in 222 plate appearances against righties. Four of his six homers occurred when facing righties.
Experience at multiple positions benefits the Tigers’ roster construction, as Vierling has played six positions across 151 games in his two-year MLB career: center field (56 starts), right field (19 starts), left field (17 starts), first base (six starts), third base (five starts) and second base (two starts).
He took ground balls at shortstop in warmups last season in case of an emergency. That’s not surprising, though, because he played shortstop at Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis.
“In Philly, I needed to be that guy that could play multiple positions,” Vierling said. “I kind of worked on everything all the time. I’m used to that. At that point, I didn’t have the luxury to focus on one position. Being versatile and working at everything is how I’m going right now.”
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He also hits the ball hard. His average exit velocity — 91.2 mph — ranked 34th among 246 MLB hitters with at least 350 plate appearances last season. But his .105 isolated power ranked 213th among the same group of hitters, which means he failed to tap into his power despite hitting the ball hard.
That’s the biggest question: Why hasn’t his power potential translated to home runs?
“He’s a really good athlete,” Preston Mattingly, the Phillies’ director of player development and the son of baseball lifer Don Mattingly, told the Free Press. “I think he has power, and from an offensive standpoint, there’s some upside still there. He hits the ball on the ground a lot, so it’s about getting the ball on a line more. With his speed, if he hits the ball in the gaps, he could be a dynamic player.”
‘If he continues to evolve as a hitter’
Mattingly isn’t wrong.
Vierling possesses a powerful swing, but based on the data from last season, his power only showed up when he hit the ball on the ground and was significantly more prominent to his pull side (left field) than his opposite side (right field).
Too many hard-hit ground balls, and not enough hard-hit fly balls, has been the crux of Vierling’s power development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the former fifth-round draft pick worked on hitting more line drives and fly balls. He succeeded in doing so, which was a positive sign, but how hard he hits those balls remains a problem.
“Most importantly, trying to get the ball more out front,” Vierling said. “Trying to get my contact point out and just being more athletic in my swing. That seems to have helped me over the past couple years a lot.”
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His average exit velocities from last season compared to league averages: 92 mph on ground balls (85.7 mph), 94.7 mph on line drives (93.6 mph) and 89.5 mph on fly balls (91.9 mph). When Vierling hit the ball on the ground, his exit velocities were elite, but when he hit the ball in the air, where he could actually do damage, his power metrics were mediocre.
“If he continues to evolve as a hitter and learns to get the ball off the ground a little bit more,” Mattingly said, “especially in the park in Detroit, he could be a guy that hits a lot of balls in the gaps for doubles and triples. From a power standpoint, I think there’s a lot more in there than what we’ve seen so far.”
Last season, Vierling had a 56.4% hard-hit rate on pull-side ground balls (32.7% league average) and a 38.5% hard-hit rate on pull-side fly balls (58.8% league average). Another concern: Vierling’s limited power to this point has functioned to the pull side of the field. Of the 33 home runs in his entire professional career, two of them traveled to the opposite field.
There could be a number of reasons for these deficiencies. Keeping his hands tucked in as part of his load possibly diminishes his opposite-field power. A flat attack angle possibly causes his harder pull-side contact to be hit on the ground rather than in the air. In September, Vierling made a mechanical change by opening his stance.
But that’s for the Tigers’ new hitting department to figure out.
“I know (the Phillies) were working on him getting the ball on a line more,” Mattingly said.
If Vierling can increase his hard-hit rate on fly balls, he might grow into a regular for the Tigers. He generally avoids chasing pitches outside of the strike zone and rarely swings and misses, so he understands the strike zone.
Speed is another factor to consider. He is one of the fastest players in the big leagues — ranking in the 97th percentile last season — and would greatly benefit from driving more balls to the gaps. He should collect more steals, too, because of the pitch clock and larger bases this season.
Vierling isn’t a stranger to the deep gaps and spacious outfield at Comerica Park, considering the one game from his Notre Dame career, and he has all the tools to continue his development in a new organization and become a mainstay in the Tigers’ lineup for a long time.
“I want to be in there as a starter,” Vierling said, “but position-wise, it really doesn’t matter to me. As long as I’m out there getting at-bats and playing as much as I can, I don’t really have a position I’m too dead set on. … As long as I’m in there.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.