Where do the Tigers play him?
It’s the only concern, the only apparent reason, Justyn-Henry Malloy isn’t now in Detroit, helping the Tigers lineup and offering manager AJ Hinch a Vitamin-B shot to his batting order.
Malloy plays third base at Triple-A Toledo. More accurately, he is stationed there, which gets to the heart of issues about a right-handed batter, 23, who has been slamming pitches for the Mud Hens.
Consider those numbers and metrics, which are statistical knockout punches:
Ahead of Wednesday’s doubleheader against Indianapolis at Toledo, Malloy was batting .344 in 26 games. Excellent, but not as excellent as his .474 on-base average, which was helped by 21 walks. He had four home runs, five doubles, and a 1.001 OPS.
Malloy had struck out 25 times. That number is a few molecules above 21%, and is acceptable when his metrics there are typical of past years and are otherwise penthouse-grade.
He has a stunning wRC+ (weighted run creation) of 165 — 65% above the norm. His wOBA (weighted on-base average) heading into Wednesday was a monstrous .452.
He has an ISO (isolated power) of .183, which indeed is heavyweight-champ stuff. The secret there — turning so many of his hits into extra-base knocks — may well be that Malloy is a strike-zone student who will not chase and who prefers swinging at pitches he can, or should, expect to drive.
This also factors into a blessed BABIP average of .438, meaning nearly half of the pitches he’s mashing are finding their way into gaps and holes, or over and against fences.
That figure is bound to drop, although good hitting is good hitting, and Malloy — since his college days at Georgia Tech — has been a hitter. It was at the heart of Tigers front-office boss Scott Harris making Malloy a primary target in December’s trade that sent back-end relief whiz Joe Jimenez to the Braves.
“Just a very advanced approach for his age and relative lack of years as a professional, which is what’s been so impressive,” Ryan Garko, the Tigers player-development head, said during a Wednesday conversation.
“Pretty impressive the way he’s been able to conduct at-bats with such discipline and with such consistency. He controls the entire zone and hits the ball really hard, which is what we’re trying to do.”
Exit velocities, meanwhile, continue to tick upward.
“He’s done a nice job, above average — an easy 90,” Garko said. “They’re good and trending up. Better than they’ve been, historically.
“Those are the numbers we look at. Exit velocity is just a very good predictor.”
Handing the hot corner
Now, for the cold water.
Malloy has made three errors in 18 games at third, covering 157 innings. He had been involved in one double play.
No serious issues there. They suggest Malloy can handle what is hit his way.
But it’s a different story if Malloy gives ground on ground balls a more mainstream third baseman would be handling. And that’s what the metrics suggest is Malloy’s biggest issue.
His range-factor analytics run from 1.89-1.95, which is subpar and a long, long way from the 3.025 a daredevil of Brandon Inge’s ways long offered the Tigers.
Malloy need not be Inge or Nolan Arenado, but competency is a goal if not a mandate.
Left field? Ostensibly, it’s an option, one the Tigers employed on occasions during spring training. But the only place Malloy has been used at Toledo the past month, other than third base, has been at designated hitter.
Malloy seemingly would be a natural at DH. One problem, at least in 2023, is that a man named Miguel Cabrera remains pretty much tethered to Hinch’s basic right-handed options at DH.
For now, Malloy will be thought of as primarily a third baseman — at Toledo, and perhaps soon in Detroit.
“He’s been good, and he’s gotten better,” Garko said of Malloy’s defense. “That’s our job — to get them better.
“We’ve put an agility program in place for him and a couple of infielders. They get out and work together on some of their lateral movements, first-step quickness, that kind of thing.
“Right now, we’re focusing on making the routine play. Be prepared on every pitch with pre-pitch movement. We’re teaching all our young infielders to try — as a theme — to do simple, better.
“That’s where we are with Justyn — making those routine plays better.”
Consistent hitter
Which is the direction his hitting has trended. Malloy turned 23 three months ago and, no surprise, is showing that power is picking up precisely at the age it tends to escalate for hitters approaching the big-leagues’ front door.
This points also to reasons Malloy last autumn was considered the Braves’ top position prospect heading into 2023.
Two months later, he was Tigers property.
It’s worth reviewing his 2022 work on the Braves farm for clues as to why Harris insisted on Malloy in his December deal.
Malloy last year was an all-points farm bulletin as he moved from high-Single A, to Double A, to Triple A within a single minor-league season.
The reason for all the promotions had to do with a single constant: He hits.
He played 71 games at Rome (Single A) and batted .304, with an .888 OPS. He rose a rung to Mississippi and did much the same: .824 OPS and six homers in 54 games.
That earned him a late ride to Triple-A Gwinnett, where, of course, Malloy in eight games hit .280 (.864 OPS) with a homer.
On the year, he had a plus-.400 on-base percentage at every level.
He was transported in October to the Arizona Fall League where in 20 games he batted .306/.434/.444/.883, with a homer and five doubles.
A few weeks later he was ticketed for Detroit.
What’s new about Malloy in 2023 is essentially … nothing.
In fact, his bat has been as steady as his defense has been an issue since his college days, which, not coincidentally, span two Atlantic Coast Conference schools: Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech.
Malloy was born in New York City and grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He was a Vandy pledge until positioning became a potential problem, which spurred a transfer to Georgia Tech and to life with the Yellow Jackets. Anyone guessing that Malloy was a terrific hitter at Tech and not a single-position mainstay would be credited with a bullseye.
It also explained why he was no earlier than a sixth-round draft grab by the Braves.
The Tigers, though — meaning Harris — knew all about the defense and Malloy’s history. The potential for an offensive punch was obvious and perhaps more enticing as the Tigers consider post-Cabrera life at DH. Detroit could do worse in 2024 than have a high on-base hitter with rising power plugged into Hinch’s order.
DH figures to be in the offseason conversation when Malloy absolutely figures to be involved in next season’s offense.
That’s especially true when his splits, while wide, remain strong: .787 OPS and a .262 batting average against right-handed pitching in 130 games in 2022; 1.107 OPS (.504 on-base) and a .378 batting mark in 64 games against lefties.
He hit 11 homers against righties and six from the left side.
This year, with the usual caveat that the season is only five weeks old, his splits are nearly identical in terms of OPS: .999 and .996 ahead of Wednesday’s games.
It meshes with another point big with his bosses.
“He has driven balls to right field and to right-center this year, showing that he’s using the whole field right now,” Garko said, repeating a thought from his Mud Hens manager, Anthony Iapoce, a past big-league hitting coach with the Cubs and Rangers.
“Iapoce has been around a lot of good hitters,” Garko said, “and even he’s been impressed with Malloy’s approach and ability to go 0-and-2 to a walk — or get to 3-2 and get a single up the middle.
“Some impressive at-bats. And, no, he does not look his age. The term ‘professional hitter’ gets thrown out a lot. But he qualifies.”
A trend that ranks as more of a truism lives within the big-league personnel realm.
Often, very often, players who appear to be as close to Detroit as Malloy ranked Wednesday arrive even sooner than expected.
The Tigers’ clubhouse attendants, the men who prepare uniforms and lockers for big-league newcomers, are hereby on notice.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.