LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers prospect Ryan Kreidler wasn’t expected to emerge the way he did last season.
The 24-year-old shortstop has relied on his defense for his baseball career, then he produced above-average results in the batter’s box for Triple-A Toledo in 2021.
The numbers, especially his 20-plus home runs between two levels, put Kreidler in a new category within the Tigers’ farm system. He proved he could become an everyday MLB player.
JEFF SEIDEL: Stunning revelation shows Tigers owner doesn’t care about baseball
MLB LOCKOUT: Tigers union rep Tucker Barnhart: Not trying to ‘make everybody pay every dollar’
“The hit tool will continue to grow,” said Doug Latta, Kreidler’s personal hitting coach. “He definitely hasn’t reached his peak. Players are always working at this game. They’re always refining and getting a little bit better. He is a very quick study. In the right hands, his base knowledge and movement is just going to continue to grow.”
Kreidler skyrocketed in 2021, hitting .270 with 23 doubles, 22 home runs in 129 games for Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo. For the Mud Hens, the right-handed hitter posted a .304 batting average and seven homers in 41 games.
He ranks as the Tigers’ No. 10 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
“There weren’t any surprises,” Latta said. “Kreids is going to be one of those gems. They’re going to be surprised about him, but he was a steal. You can’t undervalue just how good he is on the other side of the ball. That defense is legit.”
MORE ABOUT KREIDLER: What Tigers’ Ryan Kreidler thinks about shortstop market: ‘I’ll change my game’
TRADE TALKS: Tigers GM Al Avila says teams are asking about Ryan Kreidler
Kreidler, 6 feet 4, has long limbs but possesses natural athleticism and superb fundamentals as a defender, logging a .967 fielding percentage in the minors last season. Although he fits best as a shortstop, he can easily transition to second and third base.
His mechanics in the batter’s box, though, weren’t up to Latta’s standards during the 2019 season.
The Tigers picked Kreidler in the fourth round of the 2019 draft out of UCLA and shipped him to the now-extinct New York-Penn League. He hit .233 with two homers in 60 games.
“His lower half didn’t work well, which translated to the upper body,” Latta said. “He could run into balls and still had power, but it was random. What he found out once he got to pro ball is you need a lot more adjustability. His move, which created his swing, wasn’t giving him much adjustability at all.”
NEW BROMANCE: Tigers prospects Jackson Jobe and Izaac Pacheco have formed fast friendship
VETERAN’S CONFIDENCE: Ex-Red Sox in Tigers’ camp is banking on big things from Javier Baez, Cristian Santana
That’s when Kreidler went to visit Latta at the Ball Yard in Northridge, California. The facility is 400 miles south of Kreidler’s hometown and 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Latta works with Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, a two-time All-Star, and Tigers catcher Jake Rogers, among many other professionals.
Kreidler restarted from the ground up, simplifying his swing and maximizing his athleticism.
“Doug is a tool for me,” Kreidler said. “The same way the Tigers staff are tools for me. I can be selfish in that way. That’s the nature of baseball. Doug has been a great resource, but I credit the Tigers staff for allowing me to grow on my own. … I like it. I’m not married to it. But those are all tools for me to improve.”
Kreidler now has a more upright and less spread-out stance at the plate, eliminating unnecessary movements. His swing features a compact and direct bat path into the hitting zone.
He quickly implemented the foundation of Latta’s body awareness lessons after the 2019 season. Once his general mechanics became repeatable, Kreidler began changing the details of his approach.
In 2021, Kreidler put his tools into game action. He unleashed power — 22 home runs — but struck out 158 times (compared to 56 walks) in 550 plate appearances for a 28.7% strikeout rate. Kreidler had a 30.7% strikeout rate in Erie and a 24.1% strikeout rate in Toledo.
“It’s really just trial and error,” Kreidler said. “My first half was not my second half. Not being afraid to try new things but also knowing when to back off and just allowing it to happen.”
MORE LOCKOUT: How Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene feel about MLB lockout, canceled games
PITCHER TALKS: Once MLB returns, Matt Manning will show he has ‘all the tools’ to help Tigers
Kreidler credits Double-A hitting coach Adam Melhuse and minor-league hitting coordinators Jeff Branson and Joel McKeithan for teaching him new tricks while keeping him within the boundaries of Latta’s plan.
Entering the 2022 season, Melhuse is the Triple-A hitting coach. McKeithan is no longer with the Tigers, but Branson and Max Gordon — formerly a Driveline employee — are the organization’s hitting coordinators.
“He’s going to be even more adjustable this year than he was last year,” Latta said. “We got to be able to handle top-end velocity with movement, and then we got to be able to do damage on off-speed. The consistency now has gotten better. That just builds over time.”
Still, Kreidler will always be a defense-first player.
But his swing change, a product of countless hours in the batting cages with Latta and other coaches, allowed him to display his once-untapped power, with doubles and home runs.
“It’s full steam ahead, dude,” Kreidler said. “I want to do a lot of things and some of those things are private for me. But the end goal is to make it to the big leagues. The more I can do to put myself in a good spot there, that’s what I’m looking to do.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.