The Tigers have called up infielder Dawel Lugo, per a club announcement. He’ll take the roster spot created when the team optioned out third baseman Jeimer Candelario.
In addition to stepping into Candelario’s roster spot, Lugo will evidently also take over as the team’s regular third baseman. Manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link), that the organization is “bringing [Lugo] up here to play, not to sit.”
The 24-year-old Lugo had a crack at the majors last year, but struggled to a .213/.267/.309 slash in 101 plate appearances. He also didn’t hit much at Triple-A last year, finishing the season with a marginal .269/.283/.350 batting line and just three long balls in 523 plate appearances.
That was a disappointing showing for a player who had finished the prior two campaigns with double-digit dinger tallies. The Tigers were obviously hoping for more when they acquired Lugo from the Diamondbacks as a significant part of the return for star slugger J.D. Martinez.
Lugo still opened the year rated as the 17th-best player on the Tigers’ farm. And he has ticked up quite a bit in the early going. Through 140 plate appearances at Triple-A Toledo, Lugo carries a .341/.393/.468 slash with a pair of long balls. He has walked at a 7.9% rate — hardly elite, but better than he has ever shown over a full season. Lugo is succeeding mostly by stinging the ball to the tune of a .402 batting average on balls in play. He won’t sustain that sort of level over a full season in the bigs. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can keep trending up in the walk department and make enough good contact to be a productive big-league hitter.
Lugo will, at best, be a utility IF. On this team, they already have too many of them. Doubtful he will provide any offense..
Yes, but with Goodrum hitting .208, Harrison at .168, and Jeimer under .200, the bar is pretty low for Lugo to help the team.
This year is tough. The Tigers have too many place holders on the roster.
I don’t think Jeff put much thought into this article. Remember how shocked people were that the Tigers didn’t get more than a couple mid-tier prospects for JD Martinez? To say that “the Tigers were obviously hoping for more” should really apply to the paltry return for JD rather than expecting Lugo would turn out to be a stud.
I think the point is that Lugo was the most MLB-ready of the prospects in the JD Martinez trade, and the Tigers would hope that he would be contributing to the major league team in some capacity at this point rather than just a cup of coffee. Not necessarily a “stud”, although I agree that he is not a blue chip prospect by any means.
Wait! Since when is hitting .269 bad?
633 OPS with a 289 OBP is the bad part
Interesting that Gordon Beckham’s still up. Also, Pete Kozma’s actually doing pretty well in Triple-A, so he should be considered to at least fill in a spot in case of an injury to the infield, although he’s not on the 40-man roster.
Lets just hope this time around with a logjam of young infielders they keep the right ones (Paredes, WPerez and Castro), as trading or cutting Eugenio Suarez, Willy Adames, Hernan Perez, Domingo Leyba, Javier Betancourt and keeping Dixon Machado. Ugh.
Wow Miggy has four years left at $30M+ per year. Just insane no wonder teams shy away from the multi year contract with players who are 30+ years of age. Hang in there Tiger fans next hope for contenting realistically will be 2024.
30 mil a year and he’s hitting better than Harper and Machado. Not too much to complain about. He’s paid for his MVP’s and triple crown
“Hitter better than…” What are you basing that on?
Certainly not their stat lines…..
.282 > .220
.282 > .265
Hitting – the act of making contact between a ball and a bat and the result being a base hit. It’s a baseball term, you might not understand.
Melchez > jorge78
Who cares about batting average. Miggy’s OPS+ is 89 well below average. Harpers is at 110 above average and Machado is 122 well above average. You have no idea what you are talking about. Great plan commit 20-30% of your payroll to a below average player who was once great and is going to get much worse.
What a shame Candelario is struggling like he has been… for a minute, I thought he was going to be a major component to the Tigers rebuild when they emerge with a more established team, but I can’t see it with him anymore.
Don’t give up on Candy just yet. I remember a pitcher that we had who sometimes looked good and then struggled. We sent him down to the minors. Eventually, he came back up and wasn’t too shabby. His name?? Max Scherzer.
Not too bad of a pitcher after all!! Lol