Well, we had some good times in 2025. Lefty masher Jahmai Jones seized that role from Andy Ibáñez, hero of the 2024 AL Wild Card series win over the Houston Astros, last year and he ran with it. This year it just isn’t happening, and while it’s easy to give up on a bench bat too quickly when the sample size of plate appearances is still too small, we’re now into June, the Tigers are a desperate team, and Jones shows zero signs of getting hot. Game after game, Jones is entering to pinch-hit for Colt Keith, or Kerry Carpenter, or Zach McKinstry, failing to get it done, and then costing them another bench move as Jones can’t really be trusted to play much in the outfield. There has to be a better way.
One of the failures of Scott Harris’attempts to build a complete roster is the presence of limited players that continue to undercut their supposed philosophy of having a very flexible, versatile bench. They already rely on too many jack of all trades, master of none, types in the first place. Not only is Jones not getting it done against left-handed pitching this year, he can’t really do anything else other than pinch-run effectively. Having a player in such an extremely limited and specific role isn’t ideal even when he’s hitting well, but you can deal with it. When he isn’t hitting, the Tigers are playing with a 12-man position player roster.
In 2025, Jones hit seven homers and posted a 159 wRC+ in 150 plate appearances, mostly against left-handed hitters. This year he has two homers and a grisly 35 wRC+ in 86 plate appearances and it has to stop now.
Obviously 86 plate appearances is a small enough sample that it’s hard to make too much of it under normal circumstances. With the Tigers desperate for help, there just isn’t time to wait around for Jones to figure it out. They’ve been very patient with him already, but with a stacked injury list it didn’t really matter because they already had no way to replace all their vacant roster spots. Now that they’re getting healthy, that last roster spot becomes the real point of dispute.
For my money, the smart move here is to call up Trei Cruz. A switch-hitter with typically balanced splits, who is arguably the their best center fielder right now, Cruz would open up a lot more options on the Tigers roster. He’s also a decent shortstop who could make Zack Short a moot point as well. Cruz is unlikely to hit any more than Zach McKinstry does and he generally does his best work hitting left-handed against right-handed pitchers, so don’t expect too much from his bat. However, his defensive versatility, pesky, disciplined at-bats, and speed on the bases would be an asset and actually give the Tigers more of the flexible bench they want, while opening up other options on the roster at the same time.
Adding Cruz, who is already on the 40-man roster to the mix, would allow them to sit Wenceel Pérez and Matt Vierling more against right-handed starters, with Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter in the corners. Pérez is a significantly better hitter against left-handed pitching, and he could then fill Jones’ role, with the added benefit of being marginally more functional defensively. Cruz’s presence would also give AJ Hinch a second option at the shortstop position, allowing them to DFA Zack Short and bring up one of Hao-Yu Lee or Max Anderson to play some third base, while otherwise riding the bench waiting for lefty relievers to pinch-hit against.
The biggest flaw in the plan is that Cruz has only been back with the Toledo Mud Hens for seven games. He’s not exactly tearing it up even by Triple-A standards, but while you’d like to catch him on a hot stretch, this isn’t really about his bat so much as how he frees up the rest of the roster and injects some flexibility back into the mix. Letting them use Pérez, Vierling, and perhaps one of their young, right-handed hitting infielders to hit left-handers, is only one of the benefits.
The Tigers could also choose to replace Jones by adding right-handed hitting Triple-A outfielders like Ben Malgeri or Corey Julks to the 40-man roster in Jones’ place. Julks has major league experience as a replacement level corner outfielder, and he’s hit 11 homers and stolen 8 bases for the Hens across 211 plate appearances this season. Julks doesn hold a 1.076 OPS against left-handed pitching this year, though we’re only talking about 52 appearances. He didn’t hit at all in the major leagues against either left or right-handed pitching, however. He’s also 30 years old and it’s highly unlikely that he’s figured it out at this point.
Malgeri is a little more interesting as the 26-year-old homegrown outfielder is a good enough outfielder to play center field in a pinch. He has six homers and seven steals for the Mud Hens this year, with an OPS against left-handed pitching of 1.148 in 67 plate appearances. I wouldn’t get too excited, however, as Malgeri didn’t hit lefties at the Double-A level last year, and overall has the track record of a career minor leaguer.
If the Tigers can’t quite quit on Jones just yet, and want to give Cruz some time to get his bat going, another option is to simply DFA Zack Short and use Zach McKinstry to spell McGonigle at shortstop as needed. That would at least open up the option of calling Lee back up, or adding Max Anderson to the 40-man roster and bringing him up instead. Anderson’s lack of plate discipline is going to remain his undoing, as he swings at everything, but he does have the hands to make a good amount of contact anyway, and plenty of power against left-handed pitching.
Lee is the better prospect of the two in my book, as he’s a little more disciplined and a better defender due to an edge in his range over Anderson. On the other hand, Anderson is pretty steady, and doesn’t make as many mistakes. Pick your poison.
The final option is for Scott Harris to go trade for a part-time, right-handed hitting outfielder who is more versatile than Jones. At this point, any player like that who can at least hit for some average and be more useful defensively would be an upgrade. That’s probably not in the cards this time of the year, especially with Harris running the show.
Jahmai Jones was a force off the bench in 2025, but it just isn’t happening this year. The lack of production isn’t just hurting the Tigers in his plate appearances, it’s costing them at-bats from good left-handed hitters late in games as well, with no gains to offset that issue. As long as he’s on the bench, manager AJ Hinch has to try and get him going somehow, but they can’t keep doing this any longer without a big sign from Jones that he’s about to turn things around. Even if the Tigers do DFA Jones, there won’t be that much interest in a lefty mashing DH who isn’t hitting at all. He may end up accepting an assignment to Triple-A Toledo to try and get back on track.
I feel like a broken record, but the Tigers can’t keep holding non-prospect level players they aren’t even willing to use in a limited role on their 40-man roster. If Jace Jung can’t help you right now, and he cannot, when is that supposed to happen exactly? The same is true with Trei Cruz and first baseman Eduardo Valencia. The latter is unfortunately a pretty balanced splits type overall, and so not really a good fit to replace Jones, and he’s even less valuable defensively and on the basepaths. Cruz is the one who checks the boxes as a near average center fielder who can also play shortstop, switch-hit, steal bases, and generally be a pest to opposing pitchers. If the Tigers don’t trust him to handle center field and shortstop to an acceptable degree, there’s no reason he should have been on the 40-man roster to begin with.
The Tigers might prefer to give Cruz some more games to get back to full speed against Triple-A pitching before joining his father and grandfather as major league players, but it’s hard to think of a move that could open up more options for them and create the flexible, versatile sort of bench that Harris always says that he wants. The Tigers have been very patient with Jahmai Jones, but they really need to try to freshen up their bench. Trei Cruz won’t provide a lot of offense, but his defensive ability would at least give them options to get more out of their bench spots.
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