Make-Or-Break Year For Steven Moya

DETROIT—Steven Moya’s days as a minor leaguer for the Tigers almost certainly will come to an end by the time Opening Day rolls around.

Moya is out of minor league options, so chances are he will either head north as a member of the active roster or he will end up with another organizatio. It seems unlikely that a young outfielder with his power would clear waivers if the Tigers were to try to send him to the minors at the end of spring training.

“He does have tremendous power,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “You can’t teach that.”

Moya showed some of that power in limited action with the Tigers last season with five home runs in just 100 plate appearances. But he also struck out 38 times during a brief stint in the big leagues.

Despite those numbers, Moya made some strides in that area in 2016. He struck out 96 times in 409 at-bats last season for Triple-A Toledo. That means he struck out in 23.5 percent of his at-bats, a drastic improvement over the previous two seasons, when he struck out in almost one third of his at-bats at three levels in the minors.

“He is a good guy and a voracious worker,” Ausmus said. “He really wants to be good. He has been working his tail off to cut down on strikeouts. Cutting down strikeouts and improving defensively are the keys for him.”

The raw power has been apparent all along. He hit 35 home runs during a breakout 2014 season at Double-A Erie. That helped him become Baseball America’s top-rated Tigers prospect prior to the start of the 2015 season.

Moya might seem expendable based on the fact that the Tigers have a pair of outfielders with power—Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez —in the corner spots, but the team is trying to get the payroll under control.

Neither Upton nor Martinez are locked in with the Tigers beyond 2017, so letting Moya walk now might not be the best long-term plan.

TIGER TALES

• The Tigers have added plenty of minor league free agents this offseason, but they have signed just one free agent to a big league deal: catcher Alex Avila.

• Righthander Collin Balester is back with the Tigers on a minor league deal. The Tigers traded righthander Ryan Perry for Balester prior to the 2012 season.

— Chris Iott is a writer based in Michigan