4:30pm: Petzold tweets that the upward mobility clause dates are March 26, June 1 and August 1.
4:10pm: The Tigers announced today that they have reassigned right-hander Trey Wingenter, left-hander Andrew Vasquez, catcher Anthony Bemboom, infielder Keston Hiura and outfielders Bligh Madris and Ryan Vilade to minor league camp, indicating that no one in that group will make the club’s Opening Day roster.
Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press takes a look at the moves and notes that the organization plans to have Hiura serve as the primary first baseman for Triple-A Toledo. However, the wrinkle in that plan is that his minor league deal has an upward mobility clause, also known as an assignment clause. There are multiple dates where the Tigers must ask the other 29 clubs if any is willing to give Hiura a roster spot. If any of them say yes, the Tigers either have to call him up themselves or trade him to the team that wants him.
That means that the Tigers can only keep him in Triple-A if the other teams all pass on the chance to take him. Petzold doesn’t provide specifics about the dates when the clause will be triggered, but he does note that one of them is next week.
The 27-year-old has had a feast-or-famine career thus far, as he has shown huge home run power but also a worrying penchant for strikeouts. He has 1,057 plate appearances at the major league level, all with the Brewers from 2019 to 2022. He struck out in 380 of them, a 36% rate which is well above par. The league-wide average was 22.7% in the majors last year, for reference. But Hiura did hit 50 home runs in that time.
Last year, Hiura was stuck in Triple-A. He hit 25 homers in 367 plate appearances at that level while keeping his strikeout rate to a more passable 24.5% clip. But he never got called back up to the big leagues and hit minor league free agency at season’s end, signing a minor league deal with the Tigers.
Here in the spring, he batted .323 for the Tigers with two homers in 34 plate appearances. He only struck out at a 23.5% rate but it’s a small sample size and spring stats are always to be taken with a grain of salt as opposing pitchers may not be major league caliber or may be experimenting as they get ready for the season.
Hiura doesn’t have a strong path to playing time in Detroit. He came up as a second baseman but was a poor defender there and spent more time at first base and left field last year. The Tigers have Spencer Torkelson entrenched at first for the foreseeable future. The designated hitter slot will likely be used to rotate their outfielders through, with Kerry Carpenter perhaps seeing the most time as a DH while Mark Canha, Parker Meadows and Riley Greene are on the grass. The bench will be taken up by backup catcher Carson Kelly and utility infielder/outfielders Andy Ibañez, Zach McKinstry and Matt Vierling.
The Tigers would surely like to keep Hiura around as depth but the other 29 clubs will have multiple opportunities to take a chance on him. The Rays just lost one player from their first base/designated hitter mix as it was reported today that Jonathan Aranda requires surgery for a broken finger. The Yankees may be without DJ LeMahieu to start the season after he fouled a ball of his foot. Hiura wouldn’t be able to step in as the everyday third baseman but could provide another bench bat while Oswaldo Cabrera covers the hot corner. The Angels have Nolan Schanuel as their first baseman despite the fact that he was just drafted last summer, and he’s also currently dealing with some back tightness.
There’s also the possibility for platooning, as Hiura has significant reverse splits in his career. He’s hit just .201/.283/.323 against southpaws for a 64 wRC+ but .253/.332/.508 against righties for a 122 wRC+, despite being a right-handed hitter. For any club that feels they are weak against righties, Hiura will be there for the taking. His deal comes with a $2MM base salary if he’s in the majors.
Think he is safe from another team wanting him.
Was thinking the same.
I don’t know how much his contract was, but he’s young and hit over .300 in spring training.
I wouldn’t put much stock into his spring training statistics. He’s had over 1,000 MLB PA with a career K rate over 36% that’s actually gotten worse with more appearances.
Good to know, I didn’t know much about him
@Simm Have you seen some of the 1Bmen in the league? Hiura has the signal advantage of hitting well against RHP’ing, to the tune of an .840 OPS. He’ll significantly improve at least one MLB team.
Plenty of teams don’t project to get more than 1 WAR from 1B: COL, PITT, WAS,… Even MINN, HOU, CHI rate to struggle, and a MAJORITY of MLB teams don’t project to get as much as 2 fWAR fro 1B acc to fangraphs’ positional power rankings. The position is very, very weak right now.
Hiura has the added advantage of being 26—and he’s had a .966 OPS this Spring. Someone can use him. Several teams, in fact
I respect this opinion, but I’d argue that you’re putting a bit too much into Steamer or ZiPS projections (he’s only projected for 0.7, 0.5, and 0.5 fWAR over the next 3 seasons anyway) and possibly ignoring his major inconsistencies. There’s a reason he went unclaimed on a $2.2M salary and never reached the majors in 2023. Any team that picks him up this time around owes him $2M, not the league minimum, since he signed a split contract. That might be prohibitive to teams, too.
Mudhen, again
My wife has also given me an upward mobility clause so I don’t have to sleep on the couch anymore. I just have to figure out the upward part.
That sounded a lot better in the head, but was terrible when written down and posted.
@13Morgs13
How do you know how it sounds like in his head?
@Old York You just flick his temple with a fingernail.
Now hitting, Manny, Manny, Manny, Mota, Mota, Mota…
Actually, it sounded pretty good, I’m just still trying to make sense of it.
I have that same clause as well.
Same wife, BrewTown?
It’s possible. I may need to ask her.
Just activate your Upward Mobility Clause first, seems foolproof.
Some things are tougher to activate as you get older.
Sometimes one needs some PEDs to get activated
“She’ll love it, too!” – Frank Thomas
They won’t make the opening day club assuming no one gets hurt
I get that some players break out and do perform well but given the 18% reduction in production from the minors to majors, I don’t see what all the excitement was about this guy.
AAA slash line: 0.303 / 0.398 / 0.585
Expected slash line in Majors: 0.248 / 0.326 / 0.480
Actual Majors slash line: 0.238 / 0.318 / 0.453
Pretty close to his expected line so if we think of him in this light, it’s a better understanding of who he is as a player in the majors.
@Old York Back up please, hoss. There are so very many variables feeding into that including a very SSS against LHP, strength of competition, parks…. that it simply doesn’t work.
Nor are you weighting anything at all. That’s so… back of the envelope it carries only a whisper of weight. Consider as well that by your interpretation of the 18% reduction no player could be projected to star in MLB. Even a 1.000 OPS in AAA, which in a decent sample size is far rarer than most think for a young player, only survives as an .820 OPS. That simply can’t be right. Even a .900 OPS in AAA, also very difficult to amass in say 500 PA, would only project to a mediocre .720 OPS in the majors. That simply cannot be right, either.
Brewers gave him every opportunity to succeed and he did not. Fans were willing to give him even more rope than that. The guy is defensively challenged, and he’s wildly inconsistent at the plate with too many Ks. He survives only because he does have some power, but if you’re gonna plug him into the lineup you’ll have to suffer through a lot of bad ABs between those occasional dingers. Deeply flawed player.
At this point I feel so bad for Keston…
Why? He’s making good money playing baseball lol
Brewers paid him $2.5m to hang out in Nashville for all of 2023. Don’t feel too bad for him.
That upward mobility clause: pretty pretty pretty shrewd!
He should stay.
The dodgers should sign him I hear they are looking for more bad fielding infielders.
Good one! Hope he doesn’t drop the pen!
Muncy is our only bad fielding infielder.
Betts, Lux, Freeman and Rojas are all above average defensive players at their positions.
JC, Ohtani seems to have dropped the ball lately, also.
A little early to say Betts is above average at SS after 2 games. RF absolutely.
So says expert STYMEEDONE. Maybe stick to what you’re good at. What was that again? Underwater basket weaving? It’s definitely not baseball knowledge!
Wingenter and Madris had good springs too. Hiura passed through waivers previously without being claimed I believe. I can’t see a decent spring changing too many people’s minds unless someone sees him as a short term injury replacement.
I like the upward mobility clause.
It’s a nice grace note in a contract.
As a Brewers fan I’m rooting for Keston. Crazy how hitters can be good one year and then drop off the map.
Scarcely any less extraordinary is how some guys can keep bringing it at the same level year after year after year, even if the results aren’t necessarily of the top rank. Amazing really.
Adam Dunn’s consistency across the middle seven years of his career was rare indeed, particularly with the… wildness of his approach, not to mention the admittedly fluky 40 HR every year from 2005-2008.
I won’t be surprised if Hiura gets picked up.
My only question is if another team wants him the Tigers are obligated to trade him. For what? Who decides what the Tigers get in return?
The best answer I have is if the Tigers aren’t satisfied enough with the offer to pull the trigger, they can always DFA someone in order to put Hiura on their 40-man if they’d prefer.
They could add him to the 40 man but that means he will be in the majors with the Tigers. Hiura can’t be on the 40 man and in the minors.
Does Torkelson have options left? The only reason they haven’t talked about his poor spring is because Javy is doing even less. I’m not worried about Tork. He’ll get his timing down. As to Javy, Kreidler has looked good at bat and in the field. The only reason I can see Javy not getting cut is the money. It may finally be realized that he’s a sunk cost, and its best to move on from him, however.
Why even bring up Torkelson and options STYMEEDONE? If only we could option YOU!
He is a pretty good player. Unfortunate low Ba, high SO. He can change that. The 2019 juice ball liked him.