The Tigers announced tonight that they have acquired an outfielder Austin Meadows from the Rays for the third baseman Isaac Paredes and a Competitive Balance Round B selection. Tampa Bay has reportedly been shopping at Meadows for the past few weeks, and he’s set to land in Detroit.
It’s a remarkable, largely unexpected strike for Detroit. There was no indication the Tigers were looking for any outfield help, as they appeared to have been content to open the year with one Robbie Grossman, Victor Reyes, Akil Baddoo group on the lawn. Top prospect in the outfield Riley Greene however, broke his foot over the weekend and is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks. Whether Greene’s injury has increased the urgency for general manager Al Avila and his staff to strengthen the outfield isn’t clear, but they will do so by bringing on board a player just a few seasons from an All-Star campaign is removed.
Meadows was part of the now famous loot of Rays from the Pirates at the close of trade in 2018 Chris Archer. A top contender during his time in Pittsburgh’s farm system, he banged through with a solid rookie performance before breaking through the following season. Meadows hit a massive .291/.364/.558 with 33 homers in 591 plate appearances in 2019 and seems to be establishing himself as one of the best young hitters in the sport.
He has not maintained this pace in the last two seasons. Left-hander Meadows stumbled over a .205/.296/.371 line during the abridged 2020 campaign and posted an alarming 32.9% clip. That was obviously an anomalous year, and the former 9th overall pick bounced back this past season — though nowhere near his 2019 levels. Meadows hit .234/.315/.458 in 591 plate appearances and matched his 27 homers with a mediocre batting average and a mediocre percentage on the base.
To his credit, the strike issues that plagued Meadows in 2020 have been rectified. He fueled just 20.6% of his trips to court last season. His 77.2% contact rate was right on the league mark, while his average exit speed, barrel rate and percentage of hard contact were slightly above average. Meadows was plagued by a career-low .249 batting average on balls in play last year.
It can’t all be blamed on bad luck as Meadows has become more and more flyball-oriented over the past few seasons. Out of 135 hitters with more than 500 plate appearances in 2021, none had a higher flyball rate than Meadow’s 53% clip. That’s a recipe for powerful hitting, but also for poor ball-in-play results since non-homer fly balls rarely become hits.
Whatever one might fear about Meadows’ battering profile, his attraction to the Tigers is still easy to see. For chunks of four big league seasons, he owns a .260/.333/.489 slash line — an offensive production that’s 22 percentage points above the league average as measured by wRC+. Despite not being at his best in two years, he was still an above-average hitter, and the aforementioned 2019 season offers an indication of the kind of offensive advantage he possesses if he can get his flyball rate back in this season 42.9%.
Meadows has fairly pronounced platoon splits. For his career, he’s a .271/.351/.525 hitter against right-handed pitching. He owns a more pedestrian .237/.295/.412 slash against southpaw. The Tigers’ outfield is already skewed a little to the left, with Greene and Baddoo hitting from that side of the bowl while Reyes and Grossman are switch-hitters. Meadows doesn’t have to be a strict draft player, however, and the rest of the Detroit lineup is heavily right-handed. Presumably, Meadows will slip into an everyday corner of the outfield for skipper AJ Hinch, who will have the freedom to drop him maybe a little down the order on days when the opposing team is rolling out a tough left starter.
It’s an instant upgrade for a Detroit team that’s also been added Javier Baez, Eduardo Rodriguez, Andrew Chafin and Michael Pineda this winter. Avila and his staff are clearly trying to pull back from their recent rebuild, and the expansion of Meadows should be a notable improvement on offense. It’s not an absolute win-now move, however, as the 26-year-old (27 next month) is arbitrable for three seasons. Meadows and the Rays had agreed on a $4 million salary for 2022, and he’s not scheduled to go free until after 2024.
That makes Meadows a fairly affordable pickup for Detroit, but he was part of a large arbitration class that may have weighed on Rays’ payroll. Even after deducting his $4 million salary from the books, Tampa Bay has a projected franchise record $83 million in player salaries, according to Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. The Rays reportedly ran Freddie Freeman Before he signed with the Dodgers, they were obviously willing to go beyond their typical comfort zone for the right player, but that surprising pursuit always seemed like a recognition of Freeman’s star status.
Aside from the payroll limitations that Erik Neander, President of Baseball Operations, and his staff may have faced, they clearly felt ready to act from a position of organizational depth. have the rays Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot available as outfield options. Great view Josh Lowemeanwhile, seems poised for a big league look after hitting .291/.381/.535 in 111 games with Triple-A Durham last season.
The Rays appear to believe Lowe is poised for a meaningful role in a win-now club. Ray’s pre-game broadcaster Neil Solondz tweets that the club are planning to recall the 24-year-old to break camp with the top division club. Given his status as a consensus top 50 prospect, Lowe will certainly be considered for regular at-bats. He, Margot and Kiermaier are each potential plus defenders at all three outfield points, giving manager Kevin Cash a chance to lead some excellent defensive groups on the pitch. (Arozarena is primarily a corner fielder but does well there himself).
There’s more to come.