This has been, well, an unconventional year, this 2023 baseball season, for Tigers farmhand Wenceel Perez.
He began at Double A hoping to revive his prime-time prospect status as a second baseman after some back issues gouged 2022.
The back was cooperating fine as spring at Erie unfurled.
Another issue, though, cropped up: He had a cruel mental hitch that had begun in 2022 and carried into this year — the “yips” on throws from second base.
That prompted a sometimes-shift to the outfield for an athletic 23-year-old and switch-hitter.
And it has worked out, also, along with Perez’s hitting, which last month pushed the Tigers to make Perez a Triple-A Toledo Mud Hen.
Sound strategy, it would seem.
Perez in 22 games at Toledo is hitting .286/.423/.481/.903. He’s doing a pleasing job in center field and left field — and at second base.
“On defense, he’s good out there,” Mud Hens manager Anthony Iapoce said. “When he’s out there, he looks like an outfielder. Gets good jumps. Extremely fast, with a good arm.
“When you have him and Parker (Meadows, Toledo’s primary center fielder) out there, not a lot of stuff falls in.”
It’s a product, his manager says, of Perez’s speed.
“One of the things I’m most impressed by,” Iapoce said, “is the way he runs the bases. Going first to third — and on contact plays his jumps off third base have been tremendous.
“It helps our lineup. I’ve been batting him fifth and you usually don’t have guys with plus speed at that spot in the order — a guy who can score from first on an extra-base hit.”
Perez’s bat and overall skills were why the Tigers handed him an extra-heavy bonus ($550,000 — strong by international tradition) as a 16-year-old out of Azua, Dominican Republic.
His bat, for the most part, has held serve. From both sides — almost equally.
That’s why this season has been freaky: Perez has hit left-handed, where he has more power, on par with past years. It’s been his right-handed ways against lefty pitching that haven’t made sense: .196/.244/.271/.515. It hasn’t added up when, in previous years, Perez’s splits have been relatively equal, other than power.
“Mike Hessman (Toledo hitting coach) talked with him and in the last week or so he’s made great strides,” Iapoce said of a player 5-foot 11 and 203 pounds. “He was kind of opening-up on his front side, maybe trying to do too much.
“Over the last two weeks, his hard-hit rates (right-handed) have jumped.”
Iapoce has a tussle, for sure, trying to get a multi-position phalanx of Mud Hens regular work. Let’s see: There are Justyn-Henry Malloy and Tyler Nevin, who can play outfield or third base; Ryan Kreidler and newcomer Eddys Leonard, who can work at shortstop; Andre Lipcius or Colt Keith at third — or at second base. And then there’s Perez and Meadows and, you name him, who are outfielders — sometimes, anyway, with the exception of Meadows who is a full-timer there.
Perez overall has been fine, Iapoce said, on throws at second. That’s especially true on double-play pivots that happen in such a blur there’s little time for hitches.
The deployments continue as Iapoce and the Tigers work to make a player who yet holds such promise a possible adornment in Detroit.
Introducing: Eddys Leonard
It was a quiet deal, that Aug. 1 cash transaction with the Dodgers that brought shortstop Leonard to the Tigers, and to Toledo’s infield.
And in keeping with Scott Harris’ ways — perpetual waiver-wire hunting, shopping for fringe deals that could someday pay off for the Tigers’ front-office commander and his team — he might have found a bargain.
Leonard, 22, and a right-hander batter, in 12 games for the Mud Hens heading into Sunday was batting .348/.380/.565/.945, with a pair of home runs and four doubles. He had played seven games at short, with assorted shifts at second base, and one cameo at third.
“He plays in the middle and plays real good,” Iapoce said of a man from the Dominican Republic who goes 5-11, 195. “Just another, versatile player, who’s got some power, can use the whole field and hits a lot of line-drives.
“You look at his history and he’s pretty good across the board.”
Leonard’s five-season farm numbers: .274/.363/.456/.818, with 58 home runs.
Dingler on the move
The Tigers are busy these days building catching depth. And, as has been the case since Detroit drafted him three years ago, Dillon Dingler figures integrally.
He checked in last week with the Mud Hens after spending the past two seasons at Double-A Erie.
There have been knee and elbow and assorted issues along the way for the Tigers’ second pick in 2020. But after he reunited with Erie last month following a layoff (elbow), the Tigers had seen enough of Dingler with the SeaWolves, where his batting numbers in 51 games were .253/.372/.462/.833, spiced by nine home runs.
Dingler ahead of Sunday’s Mud Hens game was 3-for-11, with two doubles.
“He’s a worker, and a learner,” Iapoce said. “He’s got a whole new pitching staff here. You watch him go through the scouting reports, and he’s into it.
“And he hits the ball hard.”
When he hits it, of course. Strikeouts have been his enemy (63 in 51 games for Erie) through these early seasons.
But the grooming and coaching continues for a prospect the Tigers desperately need to reach big-league reliability.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.