This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Thursday is the one-year anniversary of Kerry Carpenter’s Major League debut. It marks not only the start of what has been a successful Major League career so far — he entered Tuesday with a .265 career average, 18 home runs, 47 RBIs and a 122 OPS+ in 100 games for the Tigers — but also the culmination of an incredible journey for Carpenter, a former 19th-round MLB Draft pick who was an unranked prospect in Detroit’s system until a swing change sent him on a hitting tear and a breakout season at Double-A Erie last year.
The story was so unique, so unbelievable, that it’s unfair to expect the Tigers to find another prospect like Carpenter. But with the way Justice Bigbie continues to hit, it’s difficult not to wonder if they have.
Like Carpenter, Bigbie was a 19th-round Draft pick out of college — in Bigbie’s case, Western Carolina. Like Carpenter, Bigbie began his pro career with a season that didn’t stand out, batting .269 with three home runs, 48 RBIs and a .727 OPS last year between Single-A Lakeland and High-A West Michigan.
And like Carpenter did last year, Bigbie is hitting up such a storm this season that people inside and outside the Tigers have had to take notice. Bigbie entered Tuesday batting .348 with 20 doubles, 14 homers, 56 RBIs and a .984 OPS between High-A West Michigan and Double-A Erie.
“Yeah, I think it is [fair],” SeaWolves manager Gabe Alvarez said of the comparison.
But unlike the lefty-hitting Carpenter, the 24-year-old Bigbie says there was no big overhaul involved with his right-handed swing.
“I don’t think it was a swing change at all,” Bigbie explained. “I think it’s just, you know, you get a lot of at-bats in a season, so the daily process, going about each game. Played in over 100 games last year, and now we’re getting close to 100 this year. I think just the daily process of figuring out what you need to do personally to make yourself better each day.”
While Carpenter’s breakout season centered on his power, leading the Minor Leagues in homers at the time of his callup, Bigbie’s emergence has been more as an overall hitter. He has more of an opposite-field swing, he said, comfortably working the ball to right when given the chance. He has had a jump in power, even compared to his college days, by getting more lift and a little more pull rather than focusing solely on pulling the ball.
“He’s made some swing adjustments,” Alvarez said. “All the credit goes to him, he’s the one doing it. But I think our hitting department has put in a lot of time with him, and they’ve done a great job. He’s always had good bat-to-ball skills, but they’ve gotten him to be able to elevate the ball, be able to drive the ball.
“He can go line to line, and with power.”
During last week’s homestand, the SeaWolves faced Harrisburg, a Nationals affiliate stocked with prospects, and the matchup provided a good glimpse at Bigbie’s full skill set.
He hit an opposite-field line drive that carried over the net beyond the right-field fence for a three-run homer on Wednesday. The next day, Bigbie advanced a runner in his first at-bat with a single through the right side. He hustled out an infield single two innings later. In his third at-bat, Bigbie brought in a run on a fielder’s choice, then he took second base on the rundown.
He capped off Thursday’s 3-for-5 performance by centering a line drive with an exit velocity of 102 mph for a single in the sixth.
Bigbie went 9-for-25 with three homers and 10 RBIs for the series, including a double and four RBIs on Saturday. He entered Tuesday batting .361 with eight homers, 29 RBIs and a 1.023 OPS in 38 games since his mid-June promotion to Erie. Those are Carpenter-type numbers, even if they’re coming from a different hitter, approach-wise.
Bigbie probably won’t get fast-tracked this year like Carpenter did. The Tigers have enough outfield prospects above him to sort out as is, with Justyn-Henry Malloy and Parker Meadows waiting at Triple-A Toledo. But the more he hits, the more he forces the club to include him in its plans, just like Carpenter did.
“He has the right mentality to survive in this game, where he’s not going to get too high or too low,” Alvarez said. “And that’s what it takes, right? Because everyone’s going to struggle at times, and you have to be able to withstand that and get out of that.”