The Tigers have recalled second baseman Kody Clemens from Triple-A Toledo and placed outfielder Robbie Grossman on the 10-day IL with a neck strain, the team announced today. It’ll be the first taste of the big leagues for Clemens, the 26-year-old youngest son of long-dominant (and controversial) ace Roger Clemens.
Though the younger Clemens is primarily known for his bloodlines, he does come with at least a bit of prospect pedigree of his own, and the Tigers thought enough of him to place him on the 40-man roster in November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. A third-round pick by the Tigers in the 2018 amateur draft after posting a 1.170 OPS in his junior season, the University of Texas product commanded a $600K bonus and a promotion to Double-A Erie by the end of his first full professional season. His career minor league numbers (.252/.320/.444) are hardly eye-popping, but he has the positional versatility to contribute around the diamond and is off to a strong start (.283/.316/.527 with 8 home runs in 197 plate appearances) at Triple-A Toledo.
The same can’t be said for Grossman’s start to 2022, which has seen him struggle to a .199/.311/.241 triple-slash behind an elevated strikeout rate (30.5% in 2022, 21.8% for his career) and a sudden loss of power; after logging 23 homers last year and 12 in only 51 games in 2020, Grossman hasn’t yet gone deep 167 trips to the plate in 2022. He exited yesterday’s game after popping out in his first at-bat of what became a 2-1 win over the Guardians.
Whether the move is as much to give Grossman a bit of time away from his struggles as to recuperate an injury is unclear, but it does help manager AJ Hinch avoid entering Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Twins short-handed. Still, even with Clemens’ promotion, between Grossman’s injury, Austin Meadows’ continued vertigo-related absence, and Akil Baddoo’s recent demotion, Hinch is left with only two players (Daz Cameron and Derek Hill) on his active roster listed as outfielders, though utility-man Willi Castro has primarily played left field since Baddoo’s demotion and Harold Castro has major-league experience at all three outfield spots.
Primarily a second baseman, Clemens also has limited experience in the outfield, logging 167 minor-league innings between left and right. In the short term, that might be his quickest path to big-league playing time, though he could put pressure on Jonathan Schoop’s hold on the second base job should he prove productive. The 30-year-old Schoop, who’s consistently posted batting lines in the vicinity of his career .258/.297/.441 mark, has joined many of his Tigers teammates in getting off to a slow start to 2022, posting a mark of only a .173/.218/.286 through his first 179 trips to the plate.
This is exactly what we need. Bring up the kids and let them compete for some spots currently occupied by veterans who simply are not hitting.
I look down the lineup and see just about everyone hitting about .200. Time for some changes.
.200 is the new .300 in today’s baseball
It amazes me how hitters complain about the shift. Those who complain obviously can’t bunt or are too selfish to do so because they are trying to hit a home run. Pete Rose once said he would have hit .400 simply by bunting to vacated positions.
I’d bet on that!
and yet he didn’t
He didn’t have to.
JD, Devers and X beg to differ
Congratulations, Mr. Clemens!
That is an ADULT, FULLY GROWN MAN,not a kid.
That is the problem with our country….young people being coddled and not made to take adult responsibilities. Jr. High and High school people, USED TO BE EXPECTED to act like young adults…..
Not anymore….30ny.o. men get treated like children who, “made a mistake”.
YOU are an OLD MAN. Please be one of the elders in our culture instead of pretending the adult men are kids……
What brought that on?
There was a time the Jays were loaded up on bloodlines , Clemens, Griffin Conine, Grudzielanek, Dwight Smith Jr, Drabek , of course Biggio Bichette Guerrero Gurriel just of top of my head. Few others I’m sure
The Blue Jays actually had two of Roger Clemens’ kids in the minors at different times: Koby and Kacy. Took me a bit to realize that this Kody Clemens is yet a third different infielder Clemens son. I guess they all became infielders out of resentment about their stupidly confusing K names.
Oh wow. Thanks for that. I was always a bit confused how this Clemens was only 26. Yes ,it’s a different Clemens. Lol Roger loved those K’s.
Grossman is not even worthy of a roster spot the way he has been playing this season. Between his pathetic bat and his horrible defense, the Tigers could release him if he can’t get it together upon his return, whenever that might be.
His hitting has been bad, but I’ve noticed no decline in his solid defense. I believe he currently has the most consecutive errorless games by an OF.
Only kidding yourself about his defense and fooled by any allure manufactured by his errorless streak. He is constantly worth negative wins defensively. Between poor range and an inaccurate noodle arm, he is a below average MLB OF.
A little below average defensively, certainly not horrible.
Great job, bringing guys up to see what they’ve got ahead of making decision’s on next year. Kriedler’s injury made it possible as well. I like the look of today’s lineup. Fans needed some time off away from Grossman as well. Let’s go Kody, welcome to the big leagues now. I think the Tigers will do well, even with Miggy on the bench. I just hope like Baez’s injury it was not the fault of the game winning hit celebration’s, they need to adopt what the Yankee’s did years back, calm hand shakes.
Kendry Morales should be the poster child for subdued celebrations… he missed almost two years in his prime.
If this is Kody’s first taste of the bigs, was he really “recalled”?
I could be wrong, but I think when the guy is already on the 40-man roster it’s a “recall” even if he hasn’t ever been to the major leagues.
Khopper10: That’s correct. It’s more of a technicality than a function of the term.
He was sent away from spring training…..now be recalled.
If I recall correctly.
He was sent away from spring training…..now be recalled.
If I recall correctly.
He was sent away from spring training or signed and then assigned somewhere…..now be recalled.
If I recall correctly.
The terminology bothers me a lot as well. Should just be “called up” if it’s the 1st time.
ditto for me too. i’ve raised the point a few places. i think he’s been on the big league roster before, but didn’t get in a game
Clemens was never on a 26 man roster, until now.
How about “promoted” instead of “recalled”. The latter is misleading being that he’s not had time in the bigs.
Maybe Clemens can help jumpstart the Tigers’ offense…Well, we can hope.
Hopefully yesterday’s game is an indication of the 2022 future not an outlier. Schoop and Tork have been hitting better of late and if they get hot, the wins will come. Also, Harold Castro had a pretty nice week last week and Candelario homered to win the game in Sunday’s 2-1 win. Baez is bound to get hot at some point, if he can get the concept of plate discipline. Also, Riley Greene is back playing at Toledo. The promotion of Clemens is a bonus, as he can play multiple positions now that he’s learned the outfield. All this could make the Tigers fun to watch again. They are not a playoff team. I never thought they’d be. However, could they improve on 2021? IMO, yep. My bet is they finish.500 give or take a few games.
I meant to add about Greene is that I expect him to be promoted soon as well, now that it looks like his foot has completely healed.
It was nice to see Torkelson, Candelario and Schoop get a combined 8 hits in one game. And yes, I think the offense is finally starting to accelerate. I’ve been predicting 85 wins this year, and I’m sticking with it.
I hope Clemens does well. If he hits anywhere over .210 it would be a plus with Javy “swing-at-everything” Baez, Schoop, Grossman, Tork, Daz Cameron, and Candelaria all hitting less than .200
You can add Haase to that group, too.
you could have left out the dig on roger
They had their opportunity to hire the Superfife and didn’t.
Well, we’ll see what the spirit of Alexander has to say about that….Good luck.
Tigers.
I’m glad that Clemens is getting the opportunity, but it would have been better if they’d brought him up when he was hitting well. He was 0-11 in last 3 games, with 6 strikeouts.
Off topic, but Joey Wentz just pitched four dominant innings. And then he left the game with some sort of injury… It just never ends.