Something had to change. Parker Meadows knew it.
His numbers through those first years as a Tigers prospect, with all the import that comes with being a second-round draft pick, were flat-out sad, with 2021 a particularly graphic example of how far he had fallen.
Meadows had a .210 batting average in 97 games (94 at high-Single A West Michigan, three at low-A Lakeland), a .292 on-base percentage, and .623 OPS, all of it further sullied by 102 strikeouts in 420 plate-appearances.
Ouch.
So, he went to work. A new, and shorter, swing was installed during the offseason. He re-styled his mental approach, as well. The result, through Meadows’ first eight games with West Michigan in 2022: four home runs, a .297 batting average, .350 on-base and .784 slugging percentages, which accounts for your basic 1.134 OPS.
Meadows is looking more like the sassy, speedy, left-handed-batting outfield recruit the Tigers thought they were signing in 2018 as the first pick in the MLB Draft’s second round.
“I think the struggles are all part of the process,” Meadows was saying during a Sunday telephone conversation as the Whitecaps got ready to play an afternoon game against the Lugnuts at Lansing. “In the offseason, I made a few swing adjustments, and a few mental adjustments.”
His manager, Brayan Pena, mentions often the “player plan” that has been in place for Meadows, whose older brother, Austin, joined the Tigers two weeks ago after a surprise trade with Tampa Bay.
“Player plan” is the suddenly vogue term for how each Tigers minor-leaguer has a stylized, customized course crafted in detail by Ryan Garko, the team’s new vice president of player development, and his staff.
Fine-line details aren’t being offered. But it became clear to Meadows during last autumn’s instructional camp at Lakeland that his swing was about to undergo surgery. It was an issue discussed with Kenny Graham, who under Garko carries the title of player-development director.
“We worked on a shorter swing — a better direction to the ball,” said Meadows, who last November turned 22. “I sometimes would pull off balls the last couple of years. Now I feel comfortable hitting the ball to all parts of the field.
“And my timing: I’ve been starting a little earlier and have found some rhythm there. If your timing is late, mechanics don’t matter.”
As for that place hitting is sourced — the head — Meadows also did some refurbishing.
“I just kind of changed my mindset,” he said. “I said, ‘I really want this.’
“I’m going to work my butt off. A made a few swing adjustments, a few mental adjustments, and I felt good in spring training.
“I think confidence, too, has become one of the key things.”
Meadows is a 6-foot-5, 205-pounder who doubles as one of the fastest sprinters anywhere on the Tigers farm. Hence, it’s no surprise center field is his specialty at West Michigan.
Pena has more talent than West Michigan has been accustomed to seeing, with pitching especially strong. But in Meadows, along with Colt Keith — another left-handed swinger who could become a prize — the Whitecaps have more balance than the norm.
Especially with the way Meadows has been hammering the ball.
“I think we have to give him a lot of credit,” Pena said during a weekend conversation. “He’s continued to attack fastballs, he has good balance with his swing, and that’s given him some power.
“His contact has been very loud. He’s hunting good pitches to hit. He’s ready for the fastball, and that gives him the opportunity to do some damage against quality pitches.
“He looks nice and easy with his swings,” Pena said. “He looks fluid and more under control. His approach is very smooth. He’s reacting with more efficiency to pitches. I don’t want to say it’s a shorter swing, but it’s more compact. He’s swinging with good barrel-accuracy.”
This by no means implies Parker soon will be handed a cap, gown and diploma in which is enclosed a plane ticket to Double-A Erie. But with four doubles (that speed, again) and seven stikeouts against three walks in 40 plate appearances, numbers are on a nice arc.
“He’s trusting that player-plan,” Pena said, repeating words that are destined to be part of development dialogue throughout 2022. “It’s really paying off — it’s collective improvement.”
Pena mentioned that day’s game, also at Lansing.
“Great game for him, really,” Pena said. “He went 1-for-5, but he hit a triple. He’s hitting the ball hard — and he only had one strikeout.”
Ideally, for Meadows, for the Tigers, and for baseball’s romanticists, a young outfielder someday will join his brother in that Tigers outfield.
It has crossed some family member’s minds. As in the instant they all got the news, pretty much in unison, late on that evening of April 4. Word had arrived that Austin Meadows was headed for Detroit in a deal that sent Isaac Paredes to Tampa Bay, along with a low draft pick.
It happened that Parker got the call while sitting with his parents in their home, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. He had decided on a sleep-over en route from spring camp at Lakeland, Florida, to Grand Rapids, where the Whitecaps play in neighboring Comstock Park.
“We didn’t believe him at first,” Parker said, recalling that evening’s phone call and news-bulletin Austin personally delivered. “Honestly, we didn’t believe him. We were all kind of freaking out. We just didn’t believe it.”
Now, it’s settling in. Sort of. There are moments when Parker says the reality of seeing his brother, wearing those Tigers togs, is in his mind the definition of that vogue term for a blend of fact and fantasy.
“I’ll be coming into the clubhouse, watching him on TV, and it seems so surreal,” Parker said. “But we talk, almost every day. And sometimes not always about baseball. We know there’s more to life other than baseball.
“We just keep that brotherly bond going. It’s fun.”
Fun? You mean the game that for a couple of summers was more like torment? To him and to bosses watching and wondering if this Meadows project was going to work out?
You bet. For now, anyway. There are no illusions, Meadows says. This is baseball. It is all about occasional, at the very least, bouts of cruelty.
But that “player plan,” implemented as much by a prospect as by his tutors, could be paying off.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and former Detroit News sports reporter.