Amid the chaos of the 2026 Detroit Tigers season, we’ve also gotten a strong dose of the future. Kevin McGonigle is now the man in that dugout, and Max Clark is off to a nice start despite his youth. Eduardo Valencia, Ben Malgeri, and Brett Callahan have all shown some good things. The rookies are now occupying half the lineup most days, but the one who came up first during the season and has gotten the longest look is infielder Hao-Yu Lee. Has he done enough to lock up a job in 2027?
The 23-year-old
Lee has gotten a much more extensive look than any rookie other than Kevin McGonigle this season, appearing in 90 games in two separate call-ups, and amassing 258 plate appearances. His initial call-up came back on April 17 and lasted until he was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo on June 2. He struggled in that first look at the Show, but less than two weeks later he was back in Detroit as Gleyber Torres went back on the injured list for his oblique injuries.
In that first tour with the Tigers, things were not going well. Of course, he’s a 23-year-old rookie and a solid prospect but far from a blue-chip, top 100 type, so some struggles trying to settle in were to be expected. Lee hit just .205 with a little power, but a 27.6 percent strikeout rate and a very low 4.6 percent walk rate for a 59 wRC+ (100 wRC+ is average if you’re not familiar).
That return to the minors seemed to allow him to take a breath, get back to a better approach at the plate, and apply some of what he’d learned. When he got back to Detroit in mid-June, we saw a much more consistent and confident hitter in the batter’s box. Since that point, Lee has hit .301 with an .802 OPS and a wRC+ of 122. His strikeout rate dropped to 19.3 percent and his walk rate rose to 7.3 percent, much more in line with his work in the minor leagues. Lee’s mix of power, plate discipline, and intensity have all been on display as he rarely gives at at-bat away and has started using the whole field more like he did in the minors.
For the season, Lee is now exactly at 100 wRC+, but the trend has been decidedly positive. The somewhat heavily left-handed hitting Tigers have seen Lee combine with Dillon Dingler and Spencer Torkelson to give them a lot better balance in their lineup, despite the fact that those two have slumped badly in recent weeks.
Based on his work since returning to the Tigers, they have a pretty good young hitter here. He hasn’t quite tapped into his plus raw power as much as we hope to see in the future, but even with seven home runs in essentially a half season of major league plate appearances, Lee has produced roughly average power and again, he’s trending much better since getting demoted in early June for a two week reset.
Based on the bat, Lee feels like a lock to be on the 2027 Opening Day roster. Certainly we’ll have to see how he finishes in September, and he’ll have to prove himself a bit again in spring training next year, assuming we get much of a Grapefruit League calendar after the lockout ends, but Lee does a lot of things well at the plate. He can hit behind a runner on first, he’ll pull balls down the line to left, and with 112+ mph in his bat, the power potential is plentiful if he can elevate a few more balls to the pull side. It’s nice to have a young, right-handed hitter with as balanced a spray chart as Lee does this season. He absolutely is using the whole field, and that can be a minor key to performing well with runners on base and being held there by a defender, opening up holes in the infield defense.
To improve further, Lee probably just needs to trim his chase rate. He didn’t chase that much in the minors, but at the major league level his outside the zone swing rate is up over 30 percent after posting a 22 percent mark at the Triple-A level. Hopefully this is just a matter of experience, as like all his numbers this season, he’s markedly improved across the board in his second stint with the Tigers. The final tantalizing piece of his offensive profile is that Lee has been much better against right-handed pitching than against southpaws. He crushed lefties in the minors, so it may just take time for things to balance out a little more, but the fact that he’s done so well as a right-handed hitter against right-handed pitching bodes well for his playing time and potential to become an everyday staple of the Tigers’ lineup.
The one big flaw here is obviously his defense. Lee is quite mobile for a barrel chested guy with pretty average speed, and he has solid arm strength as well. The problem is his glove, as way too many clear errors have been committed by him this season. In fairness, the Tigers haven’t made it too easy on him as he’s played a mix of second and third base. Lee has always had a tendency to be a little stone-handed particularly when he’s on the move, but it’s been worse in the major leagues so far.
He’s played the equivalent of roughly 55 games at second base, and 22 at third base. At second, he’s a -5 in Outs Above Average, and a -3 in Defensive Runs Saved. At third base, those marks are -4 and -1, respectively. He clearly has the ability to play close to average defense, but these big mistakes have got to be reduced and no doubt Lee is well aware of that fact.
Cleaning up his actions with the glove is the major task for Hao-Yu Lee this offseason. He’s shown enough to be pretty excited about his bat and his general major league future, but to play everyday and become a mainstay in the lineup, A.J. Hinch has to be able to trust him not to flub a play in a big spot, and right now it’s still a work in progress.
If we take a positive tack here, Lee’s intensity and work ethic are well known. We’ve mentioned this in his scouting reports each of the past three years since he came over from Philadelphia in a 2023 deadline deal that sent Michael Lorenzen to the Fightin’ Dombrowskis. He is a driven, high energy player and that extends to his practice as well. Some of his mistakes this season may simply be a result of an amped up young player trying to do too much in his first look at the big leagues.
Still, he’s clearly not going to be a plus defender either. As young as he is, by age 21 or 22 it’s generally pretty obvious if an infielder has good hands or not, and Lee just doesn’t have the high end glovework that could take him to plus defensive territory. That’s fine. He’s just got to put the work in this offseason and find ways to trim some of those big mistakes.
If Lee can just make some modest improvements in that regard, the Tigers are going to love what they have in his game. The bat is already fairly exciting. Getting to the point where they can play him at second and third without fear would make the whole proposition that much better.
Hao-Yu Lee has been a lot of fun to watch this season. He’s battled through the early rookie struggles, and appears to have come out the other side in a much better place, with much more consistent production over the last two and a half months. The confidence and intensity he plays with should serve him well, and he’s rarely looked intimidated or overwhelmed. He’s an easy player to root for with a team first attitude and ferocious drive to succeed. We jokingly had him ranked as “guy likely to be first out of the dugout if a fight breaks out,” last offseason, and that’s an attribute that endears a player to his teammates as well as to the fans.
The trade for Lee was already a nice win when it happened. Now he’s making good at the major league level. If he can clean up his defense and build back toward the better plate discipline he had at the Triple-A level, the Tigers will have a good everyday player here.
