Demeritte impressing with power display

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Ron Gardenhire’s singing ability will never be confused with that of former Tigers manager and noted crooner Jim Leyland, but he can belt out a tune -- even if his players have never heard of most of them. So when Gardenhire saw Travis Demeritte pursue a fly ball in right field, the manager came up with a nickname.

“I call him Dobie Gray,” Gardenhire said earlier this week.

Dobie Gray was a Texas-born singer and songwriter whose career spanned the 1960s and ‘70s. His highest-charting hit was a song called “Drift Away,” which topped out at No. 5 on pop charts in ‘73, 21 years before Demeritte was born.

“That's what I call [Demeritte] all the time: ‘Hey, Dobie Gray, how you doing?’ Because he seems to just chase a ball, travel with it, instead of getting back behind it,” Gardenhire continued. “I sing it to him all the time in the clubhouse, I really do. And he enjoys it. He had to go look up Dobie Gray.”

Demeritte, a converted second baseman who joined the Tigers from the Braves in the Shane Greene trade last July, has put in work in the outfield this spring. The way he’s hitting, he might need a new nickname from Gardenhire soon. Everything that connects with Demeritte’s bat seems to, with credit to Lenny Kravitz, “Fly Away.”

After a pair of two-homer games this week, Demeritte entered Saturday tied for the Grapefruit League lead in home runs. All four of Demeritte’s hits this spring are homers. While the return of Miguel Cabrera’s home-run swing has drawn more attention, Demeritte has emerged as the hot hitter of Tigers camp.

“I like what I'm seeing,” Gardenhire said. “I think he's come in here on a mission to try to make this ballclub. He had some rough times last year. He's going to strike out, because he does swing big, but he can hit a baseball. That's why we brought him over here in the first place.”

Demeritte already has more home runs in 13 Grapefruit League at-bats than he had in 48 games for the Tigers down the stretch last season, when Gardenhire gave him an extended look in right field to fill Nicholas Castellanos’ spot. Demeritte had a .291 average, .822 OPS, two homers and seven RBIs in his first 22 games, then batted just .167 from there with one home run and 36 strikeouts in 96 plate appearances.

“It was an exciting time for sure,” Demeritte said. “It was a lot to prepare for, some stuff I didn't realize that I needed to prepare for.”

Demeritte says he wasn’t tired, but he wasn’t consistent. His adjustment this offseason was more in his mental approach.

“Just working on getting to my power spot before contact,” he said, “and being able to do damage with pitches that I should do damage with.”

He’s doing that now, albeit on Spring Training pitches and with a 0-to-7 walk-to-strikeout ratio. He’s showing the power potential that made him a first-round pick by the Rangers in the 2013 MLB Draft.

“He's more aggressive in his swing,” Gardenhire said. “His swing plane's a little bit better. He's getting after it. Even with two strikes, he's taking healthy hacks.”

Whether it earns Demeritte a spot on the Tigers’ Opening Day roster remains to be seen. Cameron Maybin’s arrival a couple weeks early didn’t help Demeritte’s chances, as it added a veteran right-handed hitter to the mix. Christin Stewart provided a left-handed bat in left field, while Victor Reyes is a switch-hitter who can play all three outfield spots.

Still, Demeritte is making for a tough decision.

“The thing we said coming in: You have to win a job here. No one's going to give you one just because you were traded here or whatever,” Gardenhire said. “No one's going to give it to you, and I think he senses that, so he wants to be the best.”

Quick hits
• Lefty Tarik Skubal will get the start Monday against the Astros in West Palm Beach, continuing the showcase for MLB Pipeline’s fourth-ranked Tigers prospect. It would’ve been Iván Nova’s day to start, but Nova started Saturday’s game against the Twins in his native Dominican Republic.

• Michael Fulmer continues to long-toss at 120 feet in preparation for hopefully throwing off a mound later this month in his rehab from Tommy John surgery.