Detroit Tigers prospect Parker Meadows has fallen off in recent years

The Detroit Tigers opted to select Parker Meadows in the second round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Player Draft out of Grayson High School in Georgia. Since then, the Tigers expected Meadows to take a similar route to his brother, Austin Meadows.

While Austin Meadows has established himself as a quality outfield option for the Tampa Bay Rays, the Tigers have not seen the same development from the younger Meadows. Parker is heading into his fourth season in the organization as 2022 comes into focus.

Even though the big leagues are paused, and far from getting back on the field, a mini-camp for the minor league players is underway down in Lakeland, Florida. Sidenote: Fans ARE welcome for those who can get down to Lakeland that are missing out on their Spring Training doses of Tigers baseball.

Meadows is still on the team’s top 20 prospects list, but his performance needs a boost to be still considered in that top tier of up and coming prospects. There’s still a chance, but he’s fallen off from the hype that he had around him early.

Detroit Tigers prospect Parker Meadows needs a breakout season.

In 2021, Meadows spent nearly all of his time with High-A West Michigan, logging 94 of his 97 games with them. In his 97 total games of A-ranked affiliated ball, Meadows hit .210/.292/.331 with eight home runs, 26 extra-base hits, and 45 RBI.

Meadows’s left-handed bat still has plenty of time to get things in order. But hoping to see him reach Double-A and keep progressing is a must during the 2022 season. The stat line is not the most exciting, but this is partially due to the downside with Meadows.

There are some worries about his swing-and-miss issues, which could wind up being problematic. His 102 strikeouts were not the worst a prospect could put up. But, this was a concern from the get-go, and some changes certainly need to be made.

Looking at the 2022 season, the Tigers have to be expecting Meadows to showcase some improvements and really be able to turn the corner on his development. While it’s not to say that Meadows need a big surge to get to the big leagues in 2022, he’s got to start climbing the ranks.

The crowded big league outfield can make this tough, but Meadows needs to prove he can excel and hit at the next level and so on, through the system. An increase in performance, even at the High-A level, is a start, but performing well enough to earn a promotion should be the goal.