Detroit — Parker Meadows isn’t the first, nor will he be the last person to run afoul of the cell service at Fifth Third Field in Toledo.
He’d just gotten the news that he’s waited his entire life for. And it was delivered adorably, in chorus, by the children of Mud Hens manager Anthony Iapoce on Sunday night: “You’re going to the Show!”
“It was really cool, the way they set it up,” said Meadows, the Tigers’ No. 10-ranked prospect, who was in the lineup to make his big-league debut Monday against the Cubs.
The first thing he wanted to do was call his parents back in Georgia.
“I was scrambling all around the whole clubhouse, trying to find cell service,” he said. “My parents ended up finding out on Twitter before I could tell them.”
The bad cell service also cost Meadows a couple of calls from the man who is moving to right field to accommodate his presence in center.
“It’s so awesome,” Riley Greene said. “I called him twice last night. I just figured his phone was going nuts.”
Well, it was, in a manner of speaking.
“I finally got him and just told him, ‘Congrats,’” Greene said. “I also told him he could stay with me if he wanted. He said he’d see.”
Meadows also reached out to his older brother, Austin, a Tigers outfielder who is on the injured list as he continues his battle with an anxiety disorder.
“(Austin) was very happy for me,” Parker Meadows said. “He knows the long journey that I’ve had and he’s always been supportive of me. He was just really excited.”
As manager AJ Hinch pointed out, it seems like Parker Meadows has been here forever. He was a highly-publicized second-round pick in 2018. But, the reality is, he’s still only 23 and he missed a full year of development during the pandemic of 2020.
“He’s earned his way in pretty much every aspect of the game,” Hinch said. “His bat has come along nicely. His defense is plus and he’s run the bases well. With someone who’s been notably in the organization, it feels like he’s been around a long time. But, he’s still a really young guy with a lot to learn.”
His production at Triple-A Toledo left no doubt that his time had come. The lefty-swinger posted an .814 OPS (.821 against left-handed pitching), 27 doubles, seven triples, 19 homers, 65 RBI and 19 stolen bases in 21 attempts.
And the hitting was supposed to be his weakest link.
“My evaluation of Parker for most of his minor-league career was that the glove and legs were a little ahead of the bat,” Tigers president Scott Harris said. “That was still the case earlier this year. The first six weeks of the season, he got punched in the mouth at the plate in Triple A. He had a rough go of it for the first 160 or so plate appearances.”
On May 14, Meadows was grinding away, hitting .229 with a .698 OPS, three homers and 41 strikeouts in 168 plate appearances. He was still pulling himself out of that hole when Greene was injured at the end of May, which is why the Tigers went out and signed veteran center fielder Jake Marisnick.
“The important thing is Parker didn’t back down,” Harris said. “He faced that adversity head-on and made some good adjustments with the staff. If you look at his performance the last 350 plate appearances or so, the bat has answered a lot of those questions.”
Answered them with a fury. In the 350 plate appearances since May 14, he’s hit .271, slugged .529 and posted an OPS of .875. He hit 19 doubles, six triples and 16 homers in that span. But that adjustment pales in comparison to the one he made before the 2022 season that led to his 20-homer breakout year in Double A. He’d hit .209 in High-A the year before and fallen out of the club’s prospect rankings.
“It was just the preparation that I did in the offseason,” Meadows said. “I just stuck with my routine, with what I did in 2022. I carried it to spring training and then into this season.”
Meadows said he didn’t sleep much Sunday night and he couldn’t really find his appetite Monday morning. But, once he got to the clubhouse and was engulfed by his teammates, the easy smile was back in full force.
“Yeah, the minute I stepped into the clubhouse, they welcomed me with open arms,” he said. “They’ve made this whole process pretty easy for me. It’s pretty surreal, but I think once 6:40 comes (game time) I won’t even think about it. Just play.”
Hinch joked that he can’t wait to see Meadows on Tuesday and asked him what he remembers about his debut.
“It’s going to be hardly nothing,” Hinch said. “It’s going to be a blur for him. But he was in our camp for a long time this spring and he knows these guys. He’s getting a lot of attention today and he’s going to do a lot of things for the first time.
“I just told him to enjoy it.”
Twitter: @cmccosky