The Tigers have signed infielder/outfielder Jahmai Jones to a minor league deal, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The ACES client will receive an invite to major league spring training and will make a salary of $810K if he cracks the big league roster.
The 27-year-old Jones was once a notable prospect but he hasn’t yet had an extended big league opportunity, despite generally performing well in the minors. He spent most of 2024 with the Yankees, though in a fairly limited role. They claimed him off waivers from the Brewers in February, but he had exhausted his option years and needed to remain on the roster. The Yanks kept him around for over four months but only gave him 47 plate appearances in that time. He was outrighted off the roster in early August.
Jones now has a poor .198/.257/.278 batting line in his big league career, though in 137 plate appearances scattered across four different seasons. After being outrighted by the Yanks, he produced a robust line of .304/.390/.490 in 34 Triple-A games, leading to a 131 wRC+. This gives him a line of .276/.408/.471 over 564 Triple-A plate appearances in the past two years.
He hasn’t been able to bring that kind of production to the majors yet, but there’s no harm in a minor league deal and he’s a sensible guy to take a shot on. He was a second-round pick of the Angels in 2015 and got some top 100 prospect love in the years after that. Despite the many years that have transpired since then, he is still fairly young and has continued to put up good numbers on the farm.
He would be a fine fit for just about any club on a minor league deal but he could be an especially good fit for the Tigers, since he’s a right-handed hitter who has mostly played second base and the outfield in his career. The Tigers have a lefty swinger at the keystone in Colt Keith while their outfield mix includes lefties Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Akil Baddoo. They also have Jace Jung likely to be at third, Trey Sweeney at shortstop and Zach McKinstry in a utility role, each of those three also being left-handed.
Perhaps there’s a path for Jones to serve as a right-handed complement to that group in a multi-positional role. If he eventually cracks the roster, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained for future seasons as well.