| The Detroit News
It is the only news to have seriously blemished Tigers Instructional Camp, which wraps up its five-week run Saturday at the TigerTown complex, in Lakeland, Florida.
Wilkel Hernandez, a 21-year-old, right-handed starter from La Carlota, Venezuela, and a man whose 6-foot-3 frame and high-rpm repertoire was hinting at down-the-road help for the Tigers’ rotation, has been lost for 2021 with Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
Hernandez came to the Tigers in December 2017 as part of a trade package that sent second baseman Ian Kinsler to the Angels. He was ranked 18th within the 2020 Detroit News Tigers Top 50 Prospects.
In an early game against Blue Jays prospects last month at Marchant Stadium, Hernandez was firing his fastball at 97 mph and mixing in a nifty slider and change-up. It was his first serious game exposure since 2019 when he rolled up nice numbers at Single A West Michigan: 3.73 ERA in 21 starts, with a 1.21 WHIP, with 97 hits, 90 strikeouts, and 26 walks in 101 innings.
“It’s part of why we were being overly cautious, keeping the reins in on guys, ahead of camp,” said Dave Littlefield, who heads the Tigers’ player development.
“It’s been an odd year, with starts and stops, and in some ways, it’s just been a hard thing to predict,” Littlefield said, explaining, as he did ahead of camp, that workloads were going to be treated gently after prospects lost their 2020 minor-league seasons to coronavirus.
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But it wasn’t overwork or undue stress that was tied to Hernandez’s surgery last week, Littlefield said. It was an elbow ligament fraying and giving way, a process of indefinite time that has become reality for countless pitchers, professional and amateur.
Hernandez is expected to rehab during all of 2021 and, if normal recovery timelines follow, should be ready to pitch regularly in 2022.
Hernandez is the only significant injury from Instructional Camp, said Littlefield, who, because of HIPAA confidentiality, cannot discuss any players who might have been lost to COVID-19.
The Tigers have played six inter-squad games with the Pirates and Blue Jays, including two last week against Toronto.
Among noteworthy performers:
►Riley Greene, center field: He walked five times in five at-bats in the two games. Three of those walks, all on 3-2 pitches, came in Wednesday’s duel at Lakeland against the Blue Jays.
“He’s an advanced hitter,” Littlefield said of a 20-year-old, left-handed slasher who was the fifth-overall draft pick in 2019. “A ballplayer – just the whole package is impressive. After watching him for a year and-a-half, there’s not a lot that surprises. The bar is high for a guy with his maturity and work habits.”
►Spencer Torkelson, third base: He was 1-for-2, with a hard single to left, in Monday’s game, then added a walk and a deep fly-out to right-center field Wednesday against the Pirates at Lakeland.
“Just improving, offensively, with a lot of physical skills,” Littlefield said. “Strong guy who gets good pitches to hit and uses the whole field.
“Defensively, he’s getting better and better at third. He’s more comfortable. We’re excited about him continuing at third base.”
►Ryan Kreidler, shortstop: He had a grand-slam homer Wednesday at Lakeland as part of a five-RBI day. Kreidler was a fourth-round Tigers pick out of UCLA in 2019 and another example of how the Tigers, with analytics’ influence, have gone for size and athleticism in picking position players. Kreidler, who turns 23 on Nov. 12, is 6-4, 208 pounds, and hits right-handed.
Littlefield’s take on Kreidler: “He’s an excellent-looking defender, and a big-bodied shortstop, which is unusual. But people feel confident in him there. He’s got the arm, and his bat appears to be coming and improving. Smart, and advanced as a player. As we know, it’s hard to hit at the big-league level, but he’s showing some signs.”
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►Gage Workman, shortstop: He, of course, has been a headliner in Instructional Camp’s position-shifts after the Tigers moved Torkelson, the draft’s first-overall pick, from first base to third. That meant Workman, who was Torkelson’s shipmate at Arizona State, was taking his 6-4, 205-pound mass to shortstop.
Workman had a RBI-single in Wednesday’s game.
“Suddenly, we have kind of an interesting group of young infielders,” Littlefield said, reeling off the names of Workman, Kreidler, Trei Cruz, Andre Lipcius, and Nick Quintana. “Everything was bolstered by this last draft. Workman fits in.”
►Jose De La Cruz, outfield: The Tigers paid him heavy money, $1.85 million, to sign as a 16-year-old out of Fantino, Dominican Republic, and haven’t worried about throwing away the receipt. He’s a keeper. De La Cruz, who is all of 18, had two hits in Monday’s game and continues to look like a player with the body and presence of a prospect in his 20s. He bats right-handed and supposedly is 6-1, 185. But there’s 200 pounds, anyway, on that frame – and it isn’t lard.
►Bryant Packard, first base and outfield: He hits so well that the Tigers are bent on finding a spot for him, somewhere. He was playing first base early on but has also been working in left field. Wednesday, at Lakeland, he made a Cirque de Soleil catch at Publix Field’s wall to rob young De La Cruz of a home run.
Packard swings a left-handed stick and was a fifth-round pick in 2019 out of East Carolina.
►Kerry Carpenter, first base: He had a two-run homer in last week’s first game against the Blue Jays, at Dunedin, which doesn’t hurt a prospect’s stock when last year you were Gulf Coast League Player of the Year. Never mind that Carpenter was a 19th-round pick in 2019 from Virginia Tech who had a few years on most of the GCL kids, the Tigers like his left-handed swing and his size: 6-2, 220.
►Catchers: Sam McMillan, a fifth-rounder in 2017, hasn’t been quite the talent the Tigers thought they were pulling from his Florida State scholarship. But he might have had the best first four weeks of Instructional Camp of any Tigers catching prospect. Good, overall grades from his bosses, who also like Cooper Johnson’s defense, and, given his age, 21-year-old switch-hitter Eliezer Alfonzo.
►Pitchers: Elvin Rodriguez, a 6-3, 180-pound, right-handed starter who could weave his way into future Comerica Park scenarios, had two strong innings Monday, while minor-league free agent Ruben Garcia was also tough, with a 97-mph fastball that was generally observing the strike zone.
Jason Foley and Will Vest continued, Wednesday, throwing a brand of high-90s stuff, not at all friendly to Blue Jays hitters, that they showed early in camp.
The Tigers are working to groom a second wave of starters that can double as support or replacements for the Tigers’ young rotation stable: Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Alex Faedo, Joey Wentz, etc.
Those names include Rodriguez, as well as Hernandez, once he presumably returns from his 2021 recovery. Also in the picture, as Littlefield details a short list: Franklin Perez, who has continued to rehab minus setback following two years of assorted issues; Paul Richan, who arrived from the Cubs as part of the 2019 Nick Castellanos trade; Logan Shore, who came by way of a 2018 trade with the A’s for Mike Fiers; and two younger pitchers, Keider Montero, and Marco Jimenez.
Montero, 20, was signed as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela, and has been high on any list from Tigers farm-system bird dogs. He is a right-hander, as is Jimenez, who also is 20 and who is from San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic.
“Montero’s got a nice mix,” Littlefield said, adding that Jimenez’s assets include a “real good arm” that can appear “effortless, with a good breaking ball.”
The Tigers will not play inter-league games during the final days of Instructional Camp. They’ll instead conclude with a “Greenes vs. Torkelsons World Series” – an intra-squad tournament between teams named after the Tigers’ top two position talents, which the team has not for a moment suggested is coincidence.