Detroit Tigers: Brandon Snyder and Jose Tabata would be useful depth pieces

Detroit Tigers executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager Al Avila could do with more depth signings. Here are two fits in Brandon Snyder and Jose Tabata.

Detroit Tigers fans haven’t always seen the best minor league depth.

It can be incredibly useful over the course of a season, especially if the team’s prospects aren’t ready to contribute right away.

While Detroit’s minor league signings in years past haven’t always made much of an impact, Tigers fans saw firsthand how under-the-radar signings can add value to a team.

Alex Presley notched a 0.5 fWAR and a .354 on-base percentage in 264 plate appearances, while Jim Adduci collected 14 runs scored, 10 RBI and nine extra-base hits in just 93 plate appearances.

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Detroit has already added a number of young players on minor league pacts this offseason, including utility man Niko Goodrum (25) and pitchers Kevin Comer (25) and Mark Montgomery (27).

In a perfect world, one or more of these players will develop into contributors for the Tigers.

Still, more depth pieces could also prove to be useful.

Ideally some of these players could also become eventual trade chips for Detroit.

At worst, they’d be useful players to have available at Triple-A Toledo.

Once again, this is all speculative mind you, but here are two hypothetical depth adds for the Detroit Tigers.

Brandon Snyder

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The 13^th-overall pick by Baltimore in 2005, the 31-year-old Snyder has bounced around some since leaving the O’s in 2011.

The corner infielder has suited up for Texas, Boston and Atlanta since. He most recently appeared in the Majors with the National League East franchise in 2016.

During his 47 plate appearance cameo, Snyder mashed five doubles, four home runs and a triple, driving in nine runs in the process.

He continued to mash with the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate in 2017.

Last year, the minor league veteran accumulated 24 doubles and a career-best 23 home runs in 486 plate appearances.

To go along with all the extra base hits, Snyder also collected a 134 wRC+, a .372 wOBA, a 10.7% walk rate, a .227 ISO and an .846 OPS.

While he’s only registered 205 plate appearances in the Majors, the infielder has posted some strong, emphasize strong, numbers against left-handed pitching.

In 113 plate appearances against southpaws, Snyder owns a .336 batting average, a .354 on-base percentage, a .655 slugging percentage and a 1.009 OPS.

He also has tacked on 20 extra-base hits to go along with a 168 wRC+ against southpaws.

He’s worth a look as a platoon option to stash at Triple-A Toledo, where he’d provide valuable depth behind Miguel Cabrera and Jeimer Candelario.

Jose Tabata

You may remember Jose Tabata as part of Pittsburgh’s outfield troika towards the earlier part of the decade.

Alongside Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte, Tabata helped the Pirates back to the playoffs.

A lifetime .273 hitter with a career 101 wRC+, the former top prospect spent 2017 on the disabled list with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate.

Before that he turned in a .284 average and a .393 on-base percentage in 229 plate appearances for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2016.

Tabata’s on-base skills would make him an intriguing option to have in reserve with Toledo.

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It also doesn’t hurt that he owns a +14 DRS and a 5.0 UZR/150 in 2,015.2 innings in left field.