GRAND RAPIDS — Colt Keith shrugged his shoulders and started to grin in an “Aw, shucks” sort of way.
All his home runs, all his talent, come wrapped in a humble personality.
“I didn’t expect this much power to come this fast,” he said.
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Keith, a 20-year-old third baseman, is the Detroit Tigers‘ No. 12 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. But he is mashing the ball at High-A West Michigan, cranking nine home runs in 42 games entering Thursday.
But it’s not just the number. It’s the sound. It’s the way the ball jumps off his bat. More than anything, it’s the distance those balls are traveling.
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“He’s having an impressive year for a 20-year-old,” Whitecaps manager Brayan Peña said. “I have had an opportunity and the blessing to play with great players, and I never seen anybody hit the ball harder than he does.”
“Wait,” I said. “Didn’t you play with Miguel Cabrera?”
Pena nodded. They were teammates in 2013.
“I played with Miggy,” Peña said. “I played with Joey Votto. I played with Salvador Perez. I played with a lot of great players, future Hall of Famers. Colt Keith is only 20, and he hitting the ball that hard.”
Peña paused and continued: “Just the sound that comes out of his bat is impressive.”
Peña sat in a seat at LMCU Ballpark, the home of the Whitecaps.
“You see that that Pepsi Stadium Club?” Pena said.
“Yeah,” I said, as Peña pointed beyond the fence in right-center.
“He hits it over the Miller Lite sign,” Peña said, ID’ing the beer sign that loomed above the area. “Clears it!”
“In batting practice?” I asked.
“In the game!” Peña said. “And not just one lucky shot. I mean, he does that in BP quite often. I mean, at 20! Two zero. I saw Miggy, but Miggy was a grown man. I saw Josh Hamilton. I saw Barry Bonds. You know, I saw those guys do that, but those guys are grown men.”
Pena’s voice was rising and he was becoming animated.
“This young man is only 20 and he’s doing that!” Peña said, in disbelief. “That’s why I get emotional and excited. Because there’s stuff that I’m witnessing, you know, it’s something that is very impressive, and we are seeing it on a daily basis.”
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‘I think I’m still growing’
The Tigers drafted Keith out of high school in the fifth round in 2020 — the draft during the height of COVID-19 pandeminc was cut to five rounds, making every selection seem to carry even more importance.
Keith was set to go to Arizona State, but the Tigers signed him with a $500,000 bonus.
Which already sounds like a steal.
Right now, Keith should be finishing his sophomore year of college; he isn’t old enough to buy a beer but he’s jacking home runs and hitting nearly .300 in a league with an average player age of 22.4.
“Give credit to the scouting department,” Peña said.
Keith started out slow at Low-A Lakeland in 2021, understandable after he missed a summer because of the pandemic. But he hit .356 in July and was called up to West Michigan for a taste of High-A ball: 18 games, .162 batting average, one homer.
Over the winter, he went through a rigorous strength and conditioning program, added about 25 pounds of muscle and tweaked his swing, working with C.J. Wamsley, the West Michigan hitting coach. Now he is getting more lift and fewer grounders.
“I made some swing changes with Wamsley, our hitting coach here,” Keith said. “My whole life, I’ve been struggling with staying on my backside and drifting forward. Last year, that’s what created the line drives and the ground ball percentages. I was out on my front foot, just swinging straight down into the ground. That’s why I had a lot of base hits through the infield last year. But this year, I’m just staying on my backside and turning.”
He is also using a heavier bat.
“He’s a very strong young man,” Peña said. “The hard work and the dedication are paying off and he’s doing a tremendous job with Wamsley. They are doing a tremendous job together, and he is understanding what type of hitter he needs to be. Understanding what he needs to do on a daily basis to be successful. At the same time, man, what a great kid, great human being. He’s very coachable, which is a great asset.”
Keith went to spring training standing 6 feet 3 and weighing 235 pounds.
“And I think I’m still growing,” he said.
A future at third base
When he was drafted, it wasn’t clear what position Keith would end up playing.
This season, Keith has played 26 games at third base and 13 at second. But it appears his future is at third base.
“We were just going back and forth and seeing which one was a better fit,” Keith said. “I can play both, but Billy Boyer, our infield coordinator, talked to me, and he said, ‘Third is the best fit for you in the big leagues because of your agility, your arm strength.”
Keith credits Boyer, a former instructor for the Minnesota Twins, for his improved play at third.
“I’m a completely different fielder than I was coming into this year,” Keith said. “That’s just working with Billy Boyer and the spring training work and just getting innings and reps at third base every day. I feel way more comfortable than I ever had before at third.”
Coming into the season, the Tigers gave him a goal of 15 homers and 25 doubles. “We’re ahead of schedule,” he said. “Everything’s on track, and I just gotta keep it going from here.”
As he spoke Wednesday afternoon, he had five homers in his previous 10 games, hitting .282 with a 1.109 OPS.
“This is not what I expected,” he said of his power surge. “But this is what I worked for in the offseason. I put in hours of work every day and it was the way I ate, the way I stretched, the way I worked out and it’s paying off.”
Power surge
Each of Keith’s homers seems to have an interesting story.
He hit a bomb on May 29 in a walk-off win over Dayton, and the 2020 Gatorade Player of the Year in Mississippi got a Gatorade bath from his teammates at home plate — “Let’s party in West Michigan!” announcer Dan Hasty said on the call.
On Tuesday, Keith got the green light on a 3-0 count and smashed a line drive that carried into a home run.
“I got all of it and it just felt like nothing coming off my bat,” Keith said. “It went farther than I thought it was gonna go off the bat and it’s just like, I can’t believe that got out.”
But his longest homer came against the Lake County Captains last week.
“That was the farthest home run I ever hit in my life,” he said with a laugh.
How far?
“We don’t have the measurements on that, but I would guess probably 480-plus feet,” he said. “I crushed it.”
He smiled, looking surprised.
Not so much at the success.
Just how dang far these balls keep going.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.