He hit a home run June 9 against Bowie, then another on June 10, which was the same night Colt Keith dived for a ball and — oh-oh — aggravated that right shoulder he hurt a year ago that cost him the final four months of the 2023 season.
No big deal, it seems.
Keith took a five-day break, then returned as designated hitter Thursday in Double-A Erie’s game at Harrisburg, where, of course, he hit another home run, all before he slammed another Friday at Harrisburg to give the Tigers’ top prospect four bombs in four games.
This is what can happen when a left-handed hitter, all of 21, in 55 games for the SeaWolves is batting .325, with a .395 on-base average and .991 OPS, including 14 home runs.
All of Tigers World naturally is screaming for Keith to be shipped to Triple-A Toledo ahead of a planned migration to Comerica Park in Detroit — the sooner the better.
And the Tigers, as is their habit under new front-office chief Scott Harris, are being secretive about any plans or processes designed to maximize Keith’s skills while a possibly elite big-league hitter ferments on the farm.
As for that sore back-of-the-shoulder:
It’s fine and hasn’t kept him from working at DH. Keith and his bosses expect him back in the field quickly, either at third base or second base — he’ll continue to get work at both spots — all in keeping with how the Tigers now are grooming him.
As all Keith scholars know, there is the issue: Where does he play? Infield, where things haven’t always gone gracefully? Or, eventually, outfield?
Keith has his answer: third base.
“I’m going to obsess over third base until I figure it out,” he said during a Saturday phone conversation, just before Erie’s team bus boarded for that evening’s game against Harrisburg at FNB Field.
“My demeanor, my confidence, my mechanics have changed, and, to be honest, I think I can stick at third base. I’ve been making big strides that don’t often show up in the box score. But I’m going to have the athleticism to stick there, and I think I have it in me to be a high-caliber third baseman.
“With how I obsess over things, I think I’ll eventually figure it out.”
Some back-tracking is essential here even as Keith’s bat pleads for the Tigers to promote him.
Keith three years ago had barely cleaned out his locker at Biloxi (Mississippi) High when the Tigers pounced with their fifth-round turn in the 2020 MLB Draft. They subsequently talked him out of his Arizona State commitment, aided by a $500,000 signing bonus.
Keith grew and prospered and was sizzling early last June at high-A West Michigan when he dived into the first-base bag on a pickoff attempt and separated his shoulder. He did not play again until the Arizona Fall League schedule arrived in October, where in 19 games he resumed his old, slashing ways (.344/.463/541/1.004).
He was delivered this spring to Erie and fireworks followed. So thoroughly, and consistently, has been his hitting that his splits against left-handed pitchers (.350/.423/.583/1.006) are even better than his numbers against right-handers (.317/.385/.610/.996).
He has been doing this not only against both-sides pitching, but, importantly, against teams that now have seen him during multiple six-game series, which is how in 2023 scheduling goes on the farm.
Harrisburg, for example, decided last week after earlier conkings from Keith that he was getting no more fastballs. He promptly clobbered off-speed pitches for his Thursday and Friday home runs.
A mid-spring swing change helped in this past month’s burst. He has worked to be “taller” in his set-up and throughout his swing.
“I can stay back the whole time and see the ball longer,” Keith said. “I don’t cut off the ball against lefties and can use the whole field. Now, 95 (mph) looks like 90, and it (the ‘taller’ stance) has helped me adjust to off-speeds.”
Of course, he realizes it’s slower-velocity “junk” that often becomes the seminar at Triple A, where he could be headed in a week or more. He has been talking with his buddies at Toledo, beginning with outfielder Parker Meadows, all of whom have vouched that Triple A is indeed a classroom for curveballs and change-ups and the like.
It means, he says, that he must first master this Erie curriculum.
“In Double A, guys have stuff, they throw hard, they have off-speed, and where they locate it is definitely better than high A,” Keith said. “But they’re not perfect. They make mistakes.
“And I’m getting a lot of curveballs and change-ups that they’re locating well, but I’m happy with how I’m adjusting to it and sticking with my approach.
“Talking with Parker Meadows, when you go to Triple A, there are a lot of veterans up there and they pitch to your weaknesses. They’re better at sequencing and locating.
“I’m just excited for that challenge to see if my approach holds up there.”
He says, genuinely, he isn’t in a rush for Toledo, or for Detroit. Not when there is so much yet to absorb. He has had abundant conversations with Harris, with development chief Ryan Garko, with Tigers manager AJ Hinch — and daily with his Erie manager, Gabe Alvarez, and with SeaWolves coaches as well as with the Tigers’ roving instructors.
“Obviously, Scott Harris was with the Giants (Harris’ former big-league team), and Garko played a long time in the big leagues, and I trust in what their process is and in what they’re doing,” Keith said, conceding that one known Harris tenet — that it can pay dividends to have a player stick with one team for a healthy duration — is valid.
“I believe in the team aspect,” Keith said. “I’ve made some really good friends here. I’m more comfortable in games, more comfortable at the plate, more comfortable in the clubhouse, which only creates an environment to get better.
“If you move somebody too fast, it can keep people uncomfortable,” he said. “I don’t want to mess up and have my teammates laugh at me. I’m here. And here I can take ground balls without that kind of anxiety, in an environment where we’re all just trying to get better.”
He says two things about his infield work with the SeaWolves:
▶ 1. Alvarez, a one-time third baseman and outfielder with the Tigers, has been a daily godsend in working with Keith on his infield objectives, or, as he would term it, his “obsession.”
▶ 2. Keith also wishes, oh does he wish, that he would have paid more attention to taking grounders at Biloxi High.
As for Alvarez, Keith says his skipper has been “awesome” in pushing him through drills at third.
“I don’t mind staying here to take ground balls from him,” Keith said, adding that, yes, he wants Toledo and Detroit as rapidly as the Tigers see fit. “Physically, I can feel it — I can feel that I’m beginning to look the part of a big-league third baseman. I’m just content for now to have all of this stay in my head and stay down to earth.”
He also says a crystal ball might have been helpful during those prep days at Biloxi. If he had foreseen how much defense was going to be a chore, and even a semi-crisis, during his time in the bushes, well, he might have had a different approach.
“I was mostly focusing just on hitting,” Keith recalled. “I mean, we took infield and outfield (defensive practice), but in high school, guys are slower down the line (running to first base).
“I just never thought I’d have to get all that much better at defense.”
So, he’s waiting all of this out, quite patiently, maybe even admirably, given the damage he’s been doing to Double-A pitchers.
Keith, in that context, has taken on some serious self-discipline — an ultimate challenge, as it were, especially in 2023. It has to do with social media.
“I try and stay off Twitter,” he said, explaining with a chuckle that he has even asked his parents to take a Twitter break.
“I just mute the notifications,” he said, a sigh seeping into his voice as the bus loaded. “I get like a hundred a day.”
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.