Sometimes, when you are a Minor League baseball player, you just have to wait until an opportunity arises for you to be promoted to the next level. But sometimes, you play so well that you almost force your organization to bump you up. That’s exactly what just happened with Detroit Tigers prospect, Kerry Carpenter.
Carpenter, who is an outfielder, was originally selected by the Tigers in the 19th round of the 2019 MLB Draft.
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Detroit Tigers forced to promote power-hitting outfielder
On Saturday, according to MLive, the Tigers promoted Carpenter from Double-A Erie to Triple-A Toledo.
But Carpenter was not promoted just because the Toledo Mud Hens needed an extra bat. Instead, he forced the Tigers’ hand because he continues to hit bombs.
In fact, in just 240 at-bats this season (63 games) with the Erie SeaWolves, Carpenter has launched an astounding 22 home runs.
“I talk to the guys every day about how you can change your station in the game by going out and performing extremely well,” Tigers vice president of player development Ryan Garko said earlier this month. “That’s what Kerry’s done.”
“To Kerry’s credit, he worked really hard in the offseason and made some swing changes. He brought them to spring training and worked with our hitting guys,” Garko said.
“Power is not as easy to find as it was just three or four years ago with some of the changes to the ball and different things,” Garko said. “Kerry is dominating all the power numbers that teams value.”
It will be fun to keep an eye on Carpenter to see how he performs with the Mud Hens. Who knows, maybe he can end up forcing the Tigers’ hand a bit further before all is said and done.
If Carpenter does end up getting all the way to the Detroit Tigers, it would be very impressive and unexpected as he really was not considered a prospect until recently.
