Al Avila (born August 2, 1958) is a Cuban-born baseball executive. He was the executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager of the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). (wikipedia)
His development has come along real well. He's made good strides defensively. His hitting, though, is what really has impressed us. It's good enough to where we feel he'll go to Triple-A and play a big role there.
If he continues to do what he's doing and continues to progress, there's no reason that midway in the season you couldn't call up a guy like him. He's close. He's close.
What the final product is going to be, I can't tell you. I can tell you he's hitting the ball well. His career with us has been pretty good. His bat is going to take him wherever he wants to go.
He's got room to fill out. He's a strong kid, he's just lean.
You do the best you can to make the transition as easy as possible. It doesn't guarantee that a kid is going to make it, but it gives you a better shot if you help him along.
He knows the strike zone, makes a lot of contact and doesn't swing at bad pitches. He has a lot of good things going for him.
