Tigers With Lowest OPS with 100+ Plate Appearances

[Peter Welch]

Wenceel Perez has an OPS of .470 in 101 plate appearances this season.  

Perez is in some select company in stretches of futility.

That's the lowest OPS of any Tigers' player with 100 plate appearances or more since JaCoby Jones in 2021 who had a .460 OPS in 105 PA.

I went back 50 years and found the following other Tigers' players who were sub.-500 OPS in 100+ plate appearances:

In 2019, Josh Harrison had a .480 OPS in 147 PA.  Harrison was one Al Avila's players brought in while the Tigers were deliberately tanking.

In 2019 Jake Rogers had a .481 OPS in 128 PA.  Rogers was a rookie.

In 2012, Ryan Raburn had a .480 OPS in 222 PA.  Woof!  Leyland gave Raburn 222 PA to be that bad!  The Tigers gave up on Raburn after that but then he put up .900+ OPS for Cleveland the next year!

In 2003, Matt Walbeck had a .430 OPS in 144 PA.  Randy Smith traded for Walbeck and then a year later traded him along with Phil Nevin to the Angels for pitching non-prospect Nick Skuse.  Nevin later became a very good hitter for several years with the Padres.  

Spencer Torkelson reminds me a bit of Nevin.  Nevin was a #1 overall pick and a superstar college hitter but struggled for a few years in the majors before becoming a good hitter later in his 20s and early 30s.  Perhaps that will be Tork's path?

In 2002, Chris Truby had a .496 OPS in 292 PA.  Truby split time with Craig Paquette and Shane Halter at 3B that year.  Woof!

In 2001, Brandon Inge had a .453 OPS in 202 PA.  That was Inge's rookie year.  He was the back-up catcher to Rob Fick that year.  LOL!

In 1997, Jody Reed had a .492 OPS in 129 PA.  Reed was one of Randy Smith's San Diego imports.  Reed retired after 1997.

In 1991, John "T-Bone" Shelby had a .491 OPS in 153 PA.  The 1991 Tigers had a bunch of good hitters, but Shelby wasn't one of them.

In 1989, Torey Lovullo had a .405 OPS in 104 PA.  Sparky thought Lovullo was a future Hall of Famer.  LOL!

In 1984, Doug Baker had a .482 OPS in 118 PA.  Baker was a total scrub but I remember one good game he had in the magical 1984 season.

In 1977, Tom Veryzer had .485 OPS in 373 PA.  Oof, that's a lot of plate appearances given to a truly bad hitter.  No wonder they gave the SS job to 20-year-old Alan Trammell the next year.

I was surprised Neifi Perez wasn't on this list, but the Tigers never gave him 100 PA in any season.

Peter

[Tanvir Shaikh]

I haven't though about a lot of these guys on Peter's list in years, and had forgotten about some of them altogether.

On Tue, May 19, 2026 at 2:57 PM Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com> wrote: 

In 2019, Josh Harrison had a .480 OPS in 147 PA.  Harrison was one Al Avila's players brought in while the Tigers were deliberately tanking.

If I remember anything about Harrison, he was a 2B/3B with the Pirates.  I have no memory of him on the Tigers.

 

In 2012, Ryan Raburn had a .480 OPS in 222 PA.  Woof!  Leyland gave Raburn 222 PA to be that bad!  The Tigers gave up on Raburn after that but then he put up .900+ OPS for Cleveland the next year!

I don't remember Raburn being that bad.  I remember him mashing lefties, both during and after his Tigers tenure.

 

Spencer Torkelson reminds me a bit of Nevin.  Nevin was a #1 overall pick and a superstar college hitter but struggled for a few years in the majors before becoming a good hitter later in his 20s and early 30s.  Perhaps that will be Tork's path?

Nevin seems to be a good comparison.  I can picture Torkelson putting it together on another team.

 

In 2002, Chris Truby had a .496 OPS in 292 PA.  Truby split time with Craig Paquette and Shane Halter at 3B that year.  Woof!

I vaguely remember Truby on the Tigers.  He was a lefty bat playing 3B coming from the Astros, if I recall.

 

In 1997, Jody Reed had a .492 OPS in 129 PA.  Reed was one of Randy Smith's San Diego imports.  Reed retired after 1997.

I recall that Jody Reed had been on the Red Sox previously, and was decent in his early career.  I don't remember him on the Tigers.

 

In 1991, John "T-Bone" Shelby had a .491 OPS in 153 PA.  The 1991 Tigers had a bunch of good hitters, but Shelby wasn't one of them.

I recall that, on the Dodgers, Shelby walked ahead of Kirk Gibson's WS HR off of Dennis Eckersley in 1987.  I also don't remember him on the Tigers.

 

I was surprised Neifi Perez wasn't on this list, but the Tigers never gave him 100 PA in any season.

My recollection is that Neifi's value was inflated by playing in Coors Field in his early years.

Back to the original topic, Wenceel Perez was decent for us last year: slightly below average, but above replacement level.  If he was the worst player on the bench, I wouldn't complain.  While 101 PAs is still a small sample size, the error bars on a .470 OPS may not be big enough to give him much more rope.

-Tapu

[Peter Welch]

Avila signed Harrison as a FA at age 31 in February 2019.  He had declared free agency after being with the Pirates for 8 seasons.  He had a couple of decent seasons for Pittsburgh but was mostly a below-average hitter.

Harrison had the worst season of his career with the Tigers in 2019.  I think he had a bunch of injuries with the Tigers.  They released him in August 2019 and he later signed with the Phillies in December 2019.  The Phillies later released him and he signed with the Nationals.  He had a couple of decent seasons with the Nationals and then bounced around with 3 other teams until 2023.

Avila actually signed the Pirates DP combo of Harrison and Jordy Mercer for the 2019 season.  It didn't really work out.  Mercer wasn't horrible (.747 OPS) but he had no range at SS and the Tigers later tried Niko Goodrum and Willi Castro at SS that year.  As I said, the Tigers were trying to tank that year.

Raburn was a really up-and-down player.  He could be really good or terrible.  Very streaky.  He wasn't very good defensively anywhere.

Jody Reed had 5 decent seasons with the Red Sox at the start of his career but then started to decline by age 28.  He ended up with the Padres for a couple of years, and Randy Smith signed him at age 34 to play for the Tigers and he was terrible and retired after that.

Chris Truby was acquired by Dave Dombrowski (who had just taken over the GM job from Randy Smith) from the Expos for IF Jose Macias.  Truby started his career with the Astros.

Peter

---

From: Tanvir Shaikh <taput...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 9:20 AM
To: Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com>
Cc: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Tigers With Lowest OPS with 100+ Plate Appearances

 

[Cal Lord]

I have a feeling that you will be writing a similar tale five years from now about some of the current Tigers, Peter. We will be talking about Zach Short, Zach McKinstry, Jamai Jones,Wencel Perez, Parker Meadows, Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney.

Cal

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[Peter Welch]

Disappointed in Wenceel.  He wasn't that good the past 2 years, although he had a couple of hot streaks and came up with some clutch hits, but he's been ice cold this year.  His hitting woes started down the stretch last year when it seemed like he kept trying to swing for the fences after being more of a bat control type of hitter who could draw a few walks.  He was terrible in the playoffs last year and it's continued this year.

I don't know how much of an impact hitting coaches have on major league hitters, but the hitting coaches certainly haven't been able to help Perez.

Hinch keeps plugging him into the lineup, though.

Peter

---

From: Tanvir Shaikh <taput...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 9:20 AM
To: Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com>
Cc: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Tigers With Lowest OPS with 100+ Plate Appearances

 

[Peter Welch]

I know, several of these current Tigers seem like they'd fit right in with the 2019-2022 Tigers, or the Randy Smith-era Tigers.

Peter

---

From: Cal Lord <calst...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 11:39 AM

[Roger King]

I’m faintly remembering there was one postseason game last year where Hinch had Perez batting cleanup. Obviously some stupid matchup thing. 

At some point ownership and maybe even some sports writers perhaps are going to recognize that Hinch and his series of coaches actually haven’t done any wonders with anyone really. The team fundamentals are still often sloppy and none of the hitters are exceeding expectations. 

Greene and McGonigle just have great natural talent but you really can’t point to anyone else on the hitting side the last few years who is better than people thought or even achieving the level of their prospect status. Maybe Dingler falls into that category but can’t think of anyone else.

Obviously Fetter on the pitching side is the exception to all of this.

Roger King
El Presidente
PN Agency – www.pnagency.com
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(416) 515-7195

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[Sean Sweda]

> On May 19, 2026, at 8:57 AM, Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> In 2002, Chris Truby had a .496 OPS in 292 PA. Truby split time with Craig Paquette and Shane Halter at 3B that year. Woof!

For me, Chris Truby will always be linked to Albert Belle because of a random r.s.b USENET post.

[Peter Welch]

Wasn't there some running joke/meme on the old rec.sport.baseball about Truby being Satan or something like that?

Peter

---

From: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Sean Sweda <sw...@ibl.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 12:29 PM
To: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Tigers With Lowest OPS with 100+ Plate Appearances

> On May 19, 2026, at 8:57 AM, Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> In 2002, Chris Truby had a .496 OPS in 292 PA.  Truby split time with Craig Paquette and Shane Halter at 3B that year.  Woof!

For me, Chris Truby will always be linked to Albert Belle because of a random r.s.b USENET post.

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[Peter Welch]

The platooning seems very ineffective this year.   Last year you could at least platoon say, Baez, Tork or Jones vs. lefties since they mashed lefties.  Even Ibanez and Malloy were decent against lefties last year.  That's not been the case this year.  The righty side of the platooning has been weak especially.  

There's not much manipulating of L/R advantages that Hinch can do with this current lineup.  That's why I say to just let Keith (and Carpenter when he comes back) play full-time.  Just bat them low in the order vs. lefties.

Peter

---

From: Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 12:15 PM

[Sean Sweda]

Yeah that's the Truby/Belle thing. Somebody made a comment that Albert Belle was so unpopular that he would get lumped in with any general complaint about baseball, such that if Chris Truby were discovered to be a satan worshiper eventually someone would say "I'm sick of all these satan-worshiping baseball players like Chris Truby and Albert Belle". The Truby connection to the dark arts took off from there.

> On May 19, 2026, at 2:11 PM, Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wasn't there some running joke/meme on the old rec.sport.baseball about Truby being Satan or something like that?
>

> PeterFrom: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Sean Sweda <sw...@ibl.org>

> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 12:29 PM
> To: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: Tigers With Lowest OPS with 100+ Plate Appearances
>
> > On May 19, 2026, at 8:57 AM, Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > In 2002, Chris Truby had a .496 OPS in 292 PA. Truby split time with Craig Paquette and Shane Halter at 3B that year. Woof!
>
> For me, Chris Truby will always be linked to Albert Belle because of a random r.s.b USENET post.
>
>
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