Kerry Carpenter’s place in the Tigers’ future is still up for debate, but AJ Hinch’s latest comments made one thing clear: Detroit isn’t closing the door on him as an everyday player.
Carpenter has had a strange season by his standards. He was a force in June, right when the Tigers were starting to wake up, then fell off badly in July before landing on the IL with plantar fasciitis. Around the same time, Detroit moved on from Jahmai Jones, and even with the season ending in disappointment, those two absences helped spark a cleaner approach from Hinch.
For the last two months, Hinch has been much less eager to reach into his bench for pinch-hit matchups. The rookies’ ability to hit to all fields has played a role in that shift, though there are still exceptions. Carpenter and Jones, though, had been the two most obvious examples of the old style.
Jones wore out his welcome with fans by the end of his Tigers run, and the club eventually let him go. He has since found a similar role with the Red Sox. Carpenter has been a tougher read.
The question is simple enough: is he an everyday guy, or more of a platoon bat? Detroit’s actions have suggested the latter, but Hinch’s latest message leaves room for a bigger role if Carpenter earns it.
“I think his development is still climbing, I think he has room to grow,” he said. “But that constant push is to figure out what we can get out of him, both on the field as an outfielder but also as a DH, is going to continue to be something that I look at to see what can we do to get more time out of him.”
Hinch has said versions of that before, and the defensive side of the equation matters here. Carpenter has often been shaky in right field, while Ben Malgeri gives Detroit a much stronger option defensively.
The outfield picture could get tighter next season, too, with Parker Meadows and Wenceel Perez set to return. Both are better defenders, and that only adds to the pressure on Carpenter to offer more than a bat.
That bat still carries real value. Carpenter has been one of the Tigers’ most clutch hitters, but even the DH lane may not be as open as it once looked, with Eduardo Valencia also emerging as a possible semi-permanent option there.
Detroit’s broader direction is obvious enough: the old pinch-hitting habits are fading, even if Colt Keith and Spencer Torkelson still sometimes get caught in them. The Tigers want more complete players, and Carpenter’s challenge is to become one of them.
He can lock down his spot by adapting to that shift, or he can get left behind.
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