On Monday night, the Detroit Tigers announced via Twitter that they had confirmed a trade to receive the Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Austin Meadows in exchange for shortstop Isaac Parades and a draft pick in the 2022 draft.
Meadows, 26, first began his MLB career in 2018 with the Pittsburgh Pirates before being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays with pitcher Trevor Glasnow for Chris Archer in late-July (which ended up haunting the Pirates). In 2018, he played a total of 59 games, with 6 home runs and 17 RBIs.
In 2019, Meadows really began to shine. Meadows slashed .291/.315/.458 to cruise his way into the All-Star Game. Meadows also hit 33 bombs that lead the Rays in dingers that season.
Austin Meadows fills a need for Detroit Tigers
Last season, Meadows continued the success by hitting triple-digit RBIs (106) and making his second appearance in the All-Star Game. Furthermore, Meadows played a total of 143 games, a career high.
Although Meadows has had a respectable season so far, concerns did arise after Meadows left Sunday’s game early due to quad tightness. However, Ray’s manager Kevin Cash said that he wasn’t worried about it after an athletic trainer believed that it was from dehydration.
Meadows has been in the trade talks for the Rays all off-season, but the Rays could never negotiate a trade that they could accept. On Friday, the Chicago White Sox proposed a trade that included exchanging Meadows and reliever Craig Kimbrel, but the Rays declined due to Kimbrel’s $16 million contract.
Even though the Tigers have not officially announced if Meadows will serve as an outfielder or a DH, this trade could have been in effect because of the Riley Greene injury that happened last week. Greene, who is one of the Tigers’ top prospects, recently fractured his right foot, which will delay his MLB debut for a few weeks. Tigers’ manager A.J. Hinch didn’t say when Greene was supposed to return, but similar injuries tend to take six-to-eight weeks.
For Tampa, they will be receiving shortstop Isaac Parades, who has had some glimmers of hope in his MLB career. Parades, 23, first made his MLB debut in 2020 and has appeared in 57 games since then.