![\"AJ](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2219058316-e1750351861390.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
AJ Hinch watching from the dugout during a game against the White Sox.<\/p>\n
The Detroit Tiger<\/a>s have gotten off to a solid start to the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 10-9, the Tigers are third in the American League Central, behind the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amid an injury to one of their key players, Detroit has called up a prized prospect.<\/p>\n According to the Tigers,<\/a> Detroit has called up infielder Hao-Yu Lee. In a corresponding move, the Tigers have placed utilityman Zach McKinstry on the 10-day IL with left hip\/abdominal inflammation retroactive to April 16.<\/p>\n McKinstry had been off to a poor start to the season. In 14 games, McKinstry has slashed .209\/.261\/.326 with one home run and five runs driven in.<\/p>\n Who Is Hao-Yu Lee of the Detroit Tigers?<\/p>\n Lee is the No. 6 prospect in Detroit\u2019s system, according to MLB<\/a> Pipeline.<\/p>\n The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> signed Lee as an 18-year-old out of Taiwan in 2021. The Phillies would trade Lee to the Tigers in exchange for pitcher Michael Lorenzen at the Trade Deadline.<\/p>\n Lee would break out in 2024 in Double-A, slashing .298\/.363\/.488 with 12 home runs and 16 stolen bases.<\/p>\n During the 2025 season in Triple-A, Lee would slash .243\/.342\/.406 with 14 home runs and 22 stolen bases.<\/p>\n While Lee hits the ball hard (90th percentile exit velocity), he posted a 44.7% groundball rate, creating a low batting average on balls in play.<\/p>\n According to his prospect profile, his contact rates and raw pop could lead to a player who could hit for a solid average with decent power in the bigs.<\/p>\n Lee also possesses above-average speed, and at times had a sprint speed of around 30 ft\/sec in Triple-A.<\/p>\n While Lee was a shortstop with the Phillies, he has moved between second and third base with Detroit. His athleticism and \u201caverage\u201d arm strength make him a better fit up the middle.<\/p>\n In nine games this season, Lee has hit just .194\/.231\/.278 with just one home run, making this promotion a surprising one, but necessary given the injuries Detroit has suffered.<\/p>\n Lee is in the lineup on April 17 for Detroit, playing third base.<\/p>\n How Does Lee Fit on the Roster?<\/p>\n Lee is likely to play third base while he\u2019s up in his age-23 season. According to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>, it\u2019s possible Lee was called up for his right-handed bat.<\/p>\n Since Detroit is facing a bunch of left-handed pitchers in the next few days, Lee could be of use. In 2025, Lee had a .299\/.395\/.523 slash line against left-handers.<\/p>\n Detroit will be facing left-handers, including Ranger Su\u00e1rez and Garrett Crochet, this weekend.<\/p>\n Left-hander Colt Keith may platoon with Lee at third base.<\/p>\n The Tigers have been utilizing normal second baseman, Gleyber Torres, in the designated hitter spot on days where Framber Valdez is pitching due to Torres\u2019 poor defense and Valdez\u2019s ground-ball style.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible the Tigers could put Lee at second base when Valdez is pitching, leaving third base and shortstop to be handled between Javier B\u00e1ez, Kevin McGonigle and Keith.<\/p>\n While McKinstry\u2019s loss is hard to manage, with him being an All-Star and Silver Slugger in 2025, the Tigers will hope for Lee to replicate McKinstry\u2019s production.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMatthew Singer<\/a> Matthew Singer is a sports reporter covering MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2025, and has two years of experience covering local professional, collegiate and high school sports, including writing for Cronkite News and Arizona PBS. More about Matthew Singer<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Tigers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty AJ Hinch watching from the dugout during a game against the White Sox. The Detroit Tigers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-677905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116422171205014607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}