Tigers News: Parker Meadows to be called up from Triple-A Toledo

It took forever, but the Detroit Tigers are finally giving the kids a shot.

The team announced on Twitter Sunday night that they were calling up outfielder Parker Meadows from Triple-A Toledo. He will make his major league debut on Monday against the Cubs. As of this writing, a corresponding move has yet to be announced.

This call-up has been long overdue. After a somewhat slow start to the season, Meadows has been really solid since the start of June. He hit .318 that month, and has a .867 OPS since June 1.

Meadows was drafted in second round of the 2018 draft. He was seen as a project at the time he was drafted, and that has turned out to be true. He's always been toolsy and athletic, but being drafted as a high schooler, he had to grow, mature, and put it all together.

His first three years in the minors were not impressive whatsoever. He could hardly make contact in High-A. Most people wrote him off after the 2021 season. But in 2022, everything changed.

Meadows got off to a hot start in West Michigan before being promoted to Double-A Erie, where we finally started to see the potential he had. He hit 16 home runs with a 122 wRC+ in Erie last season.

He has played the entire season in Triple-A, where he has slashed .256/.337/.474 with 19 homers and a .218 ISO. Again, the power has really come on as of late, with 13 of his 19 homers coming in the last three months.

The strikeouts will always likely be an issue for him, but he's started walking more as of late in addition to the power He's also improved tremendously against left-handed pitching this season, which was a huge question mark coming into the season.

He actually has a higher OPS vs. LHP (.821) than he does against RHP (.818). This is all very promising stuff for the 23-year-old.

This is all in addition to his stellar defense in the outfield. At 6-foot-5, he takes long strides and covers a ton of ground. He can absolutely play centerfield at Comerica Park.

It's nice to see the Tigers finally give one of their prospects a chance. Hopefully we'll see a few more before the season is out.