LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers reassigned six players to minor-league camp Tuesday, including a pair of infield prospects, with roughly three weeks until Opening Day on March 30.
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The Tigers sent down pitchers Elvis Alvarado and Adam Wolf, catchers Dillon Dingler and Julio E. Rodriguez and infielders Justyn-Henry Malloy and Colt Keith. Dingler, Malloy and Keith are considered top-tier prospects within the organization. All six players will return for games at some point, though they won’t make the Opening Day roster.
There are 59 players remaining in MLB spring training.
“It is important to thin out the room a little bit,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s great to have these guys in camp, but it’s also important that the players left in camp that are trying to make our team know the dial is turned up a little bit more every time you make moves like this.”
Keith, the youngest player in camp, looks like the best prospect in the farm system. He is hitting .375 (3-for-8) with one walk and three strikeouts in seven games this spring.
The 21-year-old also hit .301 with nine home runs in 48 games for High-A West Michigan last season, then .344 with three homers in 19 games for the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League.
“He can hit,” Hinch said. “We’ve got to get him as comfortable on the dirt as he is in the batter’s box.”
Keith, a former fifth-round draft pick, is expected to play third base and second base in the minor leagues, but his defense is the primary area of concern. He worked closely with assistant coaches Alfredo Amézaga and Gary Jones to improve his infield defense, but he still has a long way to go before he’s big-league ready at the hot corner.
“There are so many fine details when you’re developing a young infielder,” Hinch said. “Getting little tips on how to get better hops, how to cut the distance at third base so his throw is easier, the positioning stuff. Those are things that we don’t often cloud our players with at the lower levels. He realizes all the responsibility you have in the upper level.”
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Malloy, a 23-year-old third baseman, is 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in five games this spring, with zero walks and three strikeouts. He has reached safely twice, both on hit-by-pitches.
The Tigers instructed Malloy to play third base, but it’s unclear if he will be able to stay at the hot corner as he progresses in his development. The Atlanta Braves moved him to left field before the Tigers acquired him in the Joe Jiménez trade this past offseason.
“Eventually, we’re not going to rule out moving him around a little bit,” Hinch said. “I told him the reason we wanted to keep him at third base only here was just so that he got his feet wet in a brand-new organization. … We’ll make more determinations later as it fits into our bigger puzzle. But we sent him out with the idea that he’s going to go get a better first step, better angles at third and make accurate throws that we know he can make and see where it takes him.”
In 2022, Malloy hit .289 with 17 home runs, 97 walks and 138 strikeouts in 133 games for High-A Rome (71 games), Double-A Mississippi (54 games) and Triple-A Gwinnett (eight games), his first full year of pro ball. He combined for a 16.4% walk rate and 23.4% strikeout rate at all three levels.
“It was a meteoric rise through the minors,” Hinch said. “His youthfulness was a reminder that these kids need time. We wanted him to settle into a new organization and not have the responsibility of moving around the field. … If we spread that out, and his bat is playing in a different position, then so be it. Right now, let’s just let the kid be a kid.”
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Dingler, a 24-year-old catcher, hasn’t advanced the way the Tigers’ previous regime expected. The former second-round draft pick is 0-for-4 with one walk and two strikeouts in four games this spring.
Last season, Dingler hit .238 with 14 home runs, 45 walks and 143 strikeouts over 107 games in Double-A Erie. He has swing-and-miss issues, both inside and outside the strike zone, and hasn’t controlled the strike zone through his first two seasons in the minor leagues.
“His message was to continue to challenge himself regardless of whatever level he’s going to be at and hold himself to a high bar,” Hinch said. “He sees some of his peers that he’s come through the minors with get pushed a little bit faster. As a catcher, he just has so much more responsibility that we’re going to expect him to be better at for him to continue to get pushed.”
Entering Year 3, the Tigers expect an improvement from Dingler at the plate and behind the plate. Making improvements and finding consistency in several areas should lead to playing time in Triple-A Toledo.
It’s time for him to take the next step.
“We’re hoping that he becomes obsessed with some of the small things,” Hinch said, “whether it’s a tick of the swing adjustment to make sure that the in-zone miss isn’t the same, or whether it’s some of the framing stuff and things that he does naturally well behind the plate, the game planning. The list is long because of the position he plays and the responsibility that’s bestowed on him. There are aways for him to improve, and we’re going to continue to lean on him harder to do it.”
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The Tigers have three infielders competing in the World Baseball Classic: third baseman Andy Ibáñez, second baseman Jonathan Schoop and shortstop Javier Báez. All three players aren’t in spring training anymore.
Those departures will open the door for more in-game opportunities for infielders Ryan Kreidler, Zack Short, Tyler Nevin and Andre Lipcius. Nevin, who can play the corner positions in the infield and outfield, has four hits (two home runs) in seven games this spring.
“We have three weeks left to put more pressure on guys, get more evaluation and put them in different situations and see how they respond,” Hinch said. “The manager will never complain about having too many options with too many good players. We hope that they make it really tough on us.”
Early results promising
Among all MLB teams, the Tigers rank first with 22 home runs, 21st with 34 walks and 28th with 111 strikeouts through 11 games in spring training. They’re still struggling with strikeouts.
“We’re getting decent pitches to hit, and we’re doing damage with them,” Hinch said. “We still have to be better at controlling the strike zone. We’re striking out a lot. We are not drawing enough walks. We’re hitting a lot of homers, but it has to come with better strike-zone judgment as we face better pitches more often.
“The plan we’ve had going up to the plate has been sharper at this point in spring than it has been in previous years, dating back to my previous team, too. Our overall plan of attack has been pretty strong.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.