Baltimore – Akil Baddoo, albeit only in glimpses so far in his young career, shows how disruptive he can be.
In the ninth inning Friday, with the Tigers down 1-0 and facing flame-throwing right-hander Felix Bautista, Baddoo led off with a pinch-hit single and then fearlessly stole second base on Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman.
He ended up scoring the tying run on a two-out single by Javier Báez.
“He can do a lot of things when you talk about applying pressure on the opponent,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “When he gets on base, they have to pay attention to him, which they did. And he still stole second base on arguably the best throwing catcher in baseball.
“To me, when Akil controls the zone and gets on base, he creates a little bit of havoc.”
The problem continues to be, he doesn’t get on base enough. Before the pinch-hit single, he’d been in a 2-for-18 rut.
“There are things he can do to impact the opponent and the at-bat after him,” Hinch said, meaning his threat to steal could lead to the hitter behind him getting more fastballs to hit. “It’s not just about the pitches he sees, it’s about the pitches the hitter behind him sees.
“That at-bat Friday was proof positive of the type of player he can be on any given at-bat.”
Encouraging, too, is that through just 34 plate appearances, Baddoo has the highest walk rate of his career (11.8%) and the lowest strikeout rate (17.7%).
Baddoo is 25 and still raw, coming to the Tigers as a Rule 5 draft pick out of High-A in 2021 after missing most of 2019 and all of 2020. And still, in three seasons, he’s stolen 29 bases in 39 attempts.
“We ask so much out of him and he’s learned so much,” Hinch said. “It’s not just a speed exercise. It’s reads that you see, the leads that you get, the patience you show to go in good counts, off-speed counts. … There’s a lot to read into situations that he is learning and growing through.
“But now with the disengagement rules (pitchers have two step-offs or throwovers per at-bat) and guys getting hopping leads and attacking stolen bases even more, Akil is pretty thirsty to get going.”