TOLEDO, Ohio — It was top of the ninth inning Sunday. The weather was freezing, and it was the end of a seven-game road series in Columbus.
The Toledo Mud Hens were losing, 10-3, to the Columbus Clippers — in short, it was a time when some players might lose focus. Or just want to get on the dang bus, warm up and get home.
Up came Justyn-Henry Malloy, the most exciting player in the Detroit Tigers‘ minor-league system not named Colt Keith.
Malloy fell behind 0-2, but he didn’t lose focus. Didn’t give up. And refused to give up a single at-bat.
Malloy laced a line drive up the middle.
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That’s what makes him so special.
“That’s what you notice as a former hitting coach — you see those at-bats and the focus from pitch to pitch, that’s the impressive part to me,” said Mud Hens manager Anthony Iapoce, who worked for the past decade as a hitting instructor for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers. “The numbers are the numbers, but the focus on his craft is enjoyable from my perspective.”
Actually, the numbers are ridiculous.
Through his first 22 games with Toledo (including Wednesday’s doubleheader split at Syracuse), Malloy was hitting .364 with a gaudy .505 on-base percentage.
Malloy is not only hitting the ball hard — he has seven extra-base hits — but he had 20 walks compared to 21 strikeouts.
In short, he epitomizes what Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris has been preaching: Control the strike zone, swing only at strikes, take walks, don’t strike out — and crush the ball when you get the opportunity.
“I don’t even ask him how he does it because I don’t even want him to talk about it,” Iapoce said. “You know what I mean? Some hitters have a way of knowing their zone and then just kind of persevering with two strikes, that’s what I’ve seen. The good hitters like him are able to walk and still hit the ball hard.”
Malloy is an offensive unicorn, somebody who has patience at the plate while doing damage in any situation.
“It’s just clarity,” he said. “If I want to dive deeper into it, I’m on the fastball, and everything else is kind of just flowing.”
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Tigers have a fantastic dilemma
Malloy’s offensive production presents a challenge for the Tigers.
They have the worst offense in baseball, and here is a guy in Toledo who is absolutely raking.
So, what should they do with him?
Actually, I’m torn.
I want to preach patience. I want to say definitely, with no hesitation, that Malloy needs more seasoning in the minor leagues. I want to endorse prudence and point out that this is a small sample size — just 30 games above Double-A in his entire life. I want to slam my fist on the table and say he can still develop in Toledo. I want to argue that he is too valuable, his talent too rare, to risk. And I’m tempted to point out a long list of players who went up to the majors too soon; pro baseball, not to mention our society in general, is always rush-rush-rush, and that the risk is not worth the reward.
But man, at a time when the Tigers are struggling to score runs, it’s getting harder and harder not to wonder if he could help them sooner rather than later.
“He’s doing great,” Iapoce said. “It’s nice to write his name in the lineup every day.”
I have a feeling Tigers manager A.J. Hinch would say the same thing.
Better than advertised
When the Tigers traded Joe Jiménez to the Atlanta Braves for a package including Malloy, there were glowing reports about him.
“Malloy is the type of hitter that can help us reshape our offensive identity,” Harris told reporters in December. “He embodies a lot of the things that we really value in hitters. He controls the strike zone. He has plus bat-to-ball skills. He does damage to all fields.”
That quote sounds like someone too good to be true — and here’s the crazy thing: Malloy has been better than advertised.
“Everything’s been going way better than I could even have imagined,” Malloy said.
Malloy quickly changed the subject to his Triple-A squad that’s second in its division at 15-7: “We’ve really all jelled together as a team and I think that’s the reason why we’ve been doing so well.”
Better umps
There might be another reason why Malloy has adjusted so fast: Triple-A umps are better than their colleagues from lower levels.
“One thing that I have benefited from greatly has been the umpires that I’ve seen here have been so good, in my own opinion,” he said.
He wanted to stress he wasn’t bashing umps from lower levels — he is far too polite for that.
But there is a difference in the umpire quality the closer you get to the big leagues.
“Every week, I’m impressed with how many close pitches I’m able to see and take, and I’m able to trust them to make the calls,” he said. “That changes counts, that changes games.”
Yes, that’s how advanced this kid is.
Malloy has been playing third base and he has improved defensively, according to lapoce.
“He’s making great strides,” the Mud Hens’ manager said. “He’s made some diving plays, some jump throws, so we’ll just kind of see where it goes from there.”
Malloy is young.
But he’s not that young.
He turned 23 on Feb. 19, which actually puts him right between 22-year-old Riley Greene (born in September 2000) and just a little younger than 23-year-old Spencer Torkelson (born in August 1999) and 23-year-old Mason Englert (born in November 1999).
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Preaching patience is hard
There is a long list of Tigers who were great in Toledo and then struggled in Detroit.
Just this season, Tyler Nevin hit .518 in nine Triple-A games, with 18 hits and eight RBIs with a 1.324 OPS. He’s still looking for his second hit with the Tigers, despite 19 at-bats.
You don’t want Malloy to go up to the big leagues and struggle.
I understand why the Tigers are in no rush to rush him. I understand why they want him to keep gaining confidence. You don’t want him to be pressured to be the savior of a big-league offense.
But he is dominating at Triple-A; in all, he has had nearly 1,500 at bats in college and the minors.
So another part of me is screaming: I’d rather see him in Detroit now, developing under Hinch and learning how to handle big-league success and struggles. I’d rather he struggle this year in Detroit, if that happens, grow from it, and then make some adjustments and soar next year. I’d rather he spend time around Miguel Cabrera, soaking in that knowledge, instead of piling up meaningless hits in Toledo.
And in my mind — even though it might be crazy and against the norms — that thought is louder right now than the voice of patience.
If he was on the verge of the big leagues when he arrived to this organization, he should be even closer now.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.
To read Seidel’s recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.