Jace Jung is back in the big leagues, as the Tigers recalled the third base prospect from Triple-A Toledo. Detroit optioned Ryan Kreidler in a corresponding move.
It’s the second major league call for the 24-year-old Jung. Detroit selected his contract last August. The 2022 first-round pick got regular run at third base down the stretch. He reached base at an excellent .362 clip over his first 94 big league plate appearances. Jung struck out 29 times without hitting a home run, though. The Tigers made a run at Alex Bregman over the offseason, confirming they weren’t firmly committed to Jung as their starting third baseman going into this year.
Once Bregman signed with Boston, Jung projected as the starting third baseman entering camp. He didn’t perform during Spring Training, hitting .121 with one longball in 14 games. The Tigers optioned him midway through camp. With Matt Vierling on the injured list, they went with a nearly even playing time split between Andy Ibáñez, Javier Báez and Zach McKinstry. They’ve used McKinstry in right field over the past few days.
Báez seems likely to join him in the outfield. He’s starting in center field tonight against Padres righty Randy Vásquez. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News relays that Báez is likely to play regularly in center for the near future. That’d push Riley Greene back to left field while leaving third base to a Jung/Ibáñez platoon. Kreidler had started 14 games in center field this season, but he’s out to an untenable .105/.190/.105 start at the plate.
Jung brings a lot more offensive upside than Kreidler offers. He’s a .257/.379/.467 hitter over parts of four seasons in the minors. He put his underwhelming spring behind him and was off to a strong start to the year in Toledo. Jung has three homers with a .239/.409/.463 slash through 88 plate appearances. He has fanned 22 times while drawing 20 walks — the second-most of Triple-A hitters.
An outfield of Greene, Báez and McKinstry was certainly not Detroit’s plan entering Spring Training. They’ve needed to adapt with four outfield options (Vierling, Parker Meadows, Wenceel Pérez and Manuel Margot) on the injured list. It seemed Kerry Carpenter might join them after he departed yesterday’s game with right hamstring soreness. Carpenter is not playing tonight but was not immediately placed on the injured list, as he remains day-to-day.
Center field won’t fix Baez and I thought he was a good defender at shortstop
Baez is only 0.2 WAR behind Julio Rodriguez this year.
Amazing when Javy’s considered a substantial upgrade over another player
Baez is better than Kieth except walks.
He’s now nearing the Mendoza line. When we get healthy he may be moved.
Javy is untradeable. He’s not getting moved. He is playing better, but the Tigers are not paying down the contract. The younger Illitch is too cheap. He’s here for the duration.
Painful but accurate, stymee.
Timm, we’re stuck with Baez for the duration of his deal. I think that we should part ways with Maeda though. Considering this is his last year. He’s just hurting the team and someone like Guenther, Chafin, etc, since Foley is hurt, would be an improvement.
If you ignore his contract, Baez is proving to be a great bench option. I also think moving him around a lot might help him stay out of a paralyzing funk at the plate.
Good move. Kreidler is done and Jung gets his chance to shine.
Logical move. Jung’s earned the promotion with his bat. Tigers will need all they can get w/Carp out.
Ryan, has a good glove and arm he is well liked but he has shown he can’t hit major league pitching. Jace, has a better bat and walks a lot and it his time to move it up a notch to show he belongs. If you watch Jave you can see he is much more disciplined at the plate and showing some of what he can offer. Agree, you can’t trade him but if he can continue to contribute you won’t be interested in moving him.
Kreidler fell off as many expected. Those few months where people acted like he was a legit prospect were funny
I remember him!
If they had just held on to Workman…..
Shudda left Kriedler unprotected and kept Workman. It looks like Chicago might keep him on their roster all season.
In fairness, Workman is batting .273, but is only 3-for-11, which is a small sample size. Of his 11 ABs, he also has 5 Ks, which puts him on a similar 50% K trajectory as Kreidler. Not defending the decision to keep Kreidler and expose Workman to the Rule 5 draft – just saying. Not sure yet that the Cubs will keep him for the entire season, but certainly wish Workman well to make the most of his current MLB opportunity. Someone for sure had a desire to give Kreidler every chance to hit in the bigs with Detroit. Maybe he should dial up the guy who helped Tork retool this past off-season – or he may not see an MLB roster again.
Torque = 7 hrs
Soto = 3 hrs….
May not hit a lot but the guy gets on base quite a bit.