The Tigers inked outfielder Óscar Mercado to a minor league contract, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He’s headed to Triple-A Toledo.
Mercado has spent the last few weeks in free agency. He opted out of a non-roster deal with the Padres at the start of August. Mercado wasn’t having a great season in Triple-A, hitting .226/.307/.425 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. That unsurprisingly wasn’t enough to convince San Diego to call him up.
A former second-round pick, Mercado appeared in the majors each season between 2019-23. He looked like a potential everyday center fielder as a rookie in Cleveland, though his production dropped off sharply from there. Since the start of 2020, he owns a .206/.262/.334 slash in nearly 500 big league plate appearances.
Mercado is still capable of playing all three outfield positions. He logged a decent amount of action in both center and right field this season. He’s an above-average runner who swiped 12 bases in 16 tries in the minors with San Diego. He’ll provide the Tigers glove-first depth for the season’s final few weeks. Detroit is operating without a traditional fourth outfielder behind Parker Meadows, Riley Greene and Matt Vierling. Kerry Carpenter is mostly a designated hitter who is limited to the corners if he plays the outfield, while the Tigers have rotated infielders Zach McKinstry and Andy Ibáñez on the grass.
Rather have him hit vs righties than torkelson
I hope he can get it together and stay on a ML roster. I enjoyed his rookie season in Cleveland
Me, too! But I’m betting he doesn’t…..just another dumpster dive by The Tigers that won’t make a difference.
Looks like Ocsar’s off the Mercado now.
Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. I get the impression that some members of the Tigers don’t like Petzold, either, the way he and Gorosh dismiss players and make pronouncements about things they don’t know. Skubal looks particularly annoyed when Petzold asks questions in post-game interviews. It’s also taking advantage of Tork’s good nature to question him after games right after ripping him on their podcast. That doesn’t seem fair.
At least Petzold goes back in the Tigers’ den. Gorosh just rips them from afar. Would he say the things he does if he had to go interact with them every day?