Detroit – The corner of the Tigers’ clubhouse where Jonathan Schoop typically held court, usually with his locker neighbor Miguel Cabrera, was completely cleared out by the time the media was admitted Saturday morning.
No name plate. No pants, jerseys or practice gear. No shoes, spikes or gloves. Four seasons of occupancy gone in a blink.
“That was a tough one for me,” center fielder Riley Greene said, when asked about the Tigers’ decision to designate Schoop for assignment. “He’s a great dude, to start. A really great dude. He really cared about his teammates. He was probably one of the best teammates I’ve played with so far.
“It sucks. It does. But it’s part of the business. I hate to see a guy like him go just because he meant so much to the team. It is what it is.”
More: Tigers to designate veteran Jonathan Schoop for assignment Saturday
Schoop was summoned into manager AJ Hinch’s office after the game Friday night. In what ended up being a long, emotional session. Hinch and president Scott Harris told him they were going to let him go.
“There are days this job is harder than others,” Hinch said. “Obviously it’s been a rough year for Jonathan, a rough stretch counting last year. But you never love having that conversation. But we made the decision to move on from him and give opportunity to other people.
“As we get healthier, we talked about how these decisions were going to get harder.”
Schoop, 31, and in his 11th big-league season, hit 22 home runs with 84 RBI in 2021. He signed a two-year $15 million contract extension late in that season but his production fell off significantly since. He was hitting .213 with no home runs in 55 games this season, reduced to a part-time role. Over the last two seasons, he hit .204 with a 60 OPS-plus.
“Performance-wise, he was not at his best,” Hinch said. “But attitude-wise, as a teammate and as a person, you could not ask for more out of him. He was given a tough situation that he’d never been in before as a bench player, as a platoon player. And we asked him to move positions (from second base to third base).
“And he handled it like a true pro.”
The Tigers, who will eat roughly $3.5 million of Schoop’s salary when he clears waivers, as is expected, had to clear a roster spot with the return of Greene off the injured list. They optioned Tyler Nevin to Toledo on Thursday to clear a spot for outfielder Akil Baddoo.
“There were different avenues,” Hinch said. “We could’ve done a couple of different things. But with Schoop, once our lineup got a little more balanced, the right-handed hitting part of his role was going to be challenged.”
In keeping right-handed hitting outfielder Jake Marisnick, the Tigers have four outfield-only players. That will necessitate left-handed hitting Zach McKinstry and right-handed hitting Andy Ibanez playing more on the infield.
Right-handed hitting outfielder Matt Vierling will also get more playing time on the infield after the All-Star break.
And down the road, maybe toward the end of August, infielder prospects Colt Keith and-or Justyn-Henry Malloy could play themselves into the big-league mix.
“We have some infield depth we are comfortable with,” Hinch said. “It comes down to choosing who you are going to give the opportunity to. And there are more decisions to come. This is not the end of the roster configuring as we move forward.
“It was time for us to move in a different direction and the organization made the decision for it to be today.”
Hinch was asked what he thought led to Schoop’s relatively sudden offensive downturn.
“When you look at his game, it’s a lot of power and there was some swing-and-miss and chase,” he said. “He worked really hard to control the strike zone and I think he might’ve had a career-high walk rate (8.6% this season). He started trending trend in that way but the power went away..”
The harder he tried to regain his ability to drive the baseball, the more he seemed to scuffle.
“As players evolve and change and have to do different things, the challenges mount,” Hinch said. “He had a hard time with the consistency part of it. Despite a little bit of growth in walk rate and zone control.
“He’s the type of player who needs a lot of at-bats in order to get the good and the bad. We didn’t have those at-bats. And the less at-bats we gave him, the more sporadic his performance became.”
The conversation Friday night lingered into the wee hours.
“Just because of the time we spent together, even pre-dating Scott,” Hinch said. “I got to tell a few stories and thank him for his time. And he thanked us for the opportunity. He wished it would’ve worked out better.
“Jonathan is a good person and he’s going to land on his feet. He will get an opportunity someplace else and he’ll probably be better for it.”
Twitter@cmccosky