The Tigers Start The Second Half With Some Roster Moves
This was absolutely necessary and it probably should’ve happened sooner. Both Castro and Mazara have been pitiful this season. In Willi Castro‘s case, I chalk it up to him being one of those instances where the organization saw something that wasn’t there. This is a guy who had a good season last year in a very small sample size, but he had some of the worst batted ball data of any hitter in the league. The guy had a .932 OPS and was in the 6th percentile in exit velocity. You figured something was going to give, and something gave this year. He just has a very poor feel for the strike zone. Hopefully he’ll be able to figure something out down in AAA. I don’t know who or what is responsible for sucking every ounce of baseball talent out of Nomar Mazara over the last several years, but he has been going through it for the better part of 2 seasons now. Now that he’s been DFA’d, I’m sure someone will take a flyer out on him, but I don’t know how you can fix him. Mazara is a power hitter with absolutely no power at this point. He’s close to a lost cause.
The Tigers called up Isaac Paredes and Derek Hill, 2 guys who have seen time in the major leagues before. Hill had a bit of promising short stint earlier this season before he got injured. I still see him as probably a career fourth outfielder, which is not a terrible place for him to be. At the very least, he’ll offer some much-needed elite defense to a well below average defensive outfield.
Isaac Paredes is a bit of a mystery to me. As a hitter, I think he has all the intangibles to be a solid major league player, but in the brief stints that he’s had at the major-league level so far, he hasn’t really been able to put it all together. He’s got quick hands and good bat to ball skills. He’s patient at the plate and doesn’t strike out a whole lot, yet he’s been remarkably unimpressive so far at the major league level. Hopefully he’s able to turn that around.
I think the Tigers made the right moves here. They stretched Willi Castro as long as they could, but he was just a black hole in that lineup. I’m all for the youth movement. We’re deep into this rebuild now, it’s time to see what the young guns can do. Whether they win or not, having these young guys on the roster makes this iteration of the Detroit Tigers a lot more interesting.