MINORS

Overall prospect in baseball...

2011: Baseball America (52), Baseball Prospectus (37)

Overall numbers: .267/.314/.324 with six HRs, 133 RBIs, 197 runs and 19 steals

MAJORS

2011: Two hits in 10 at-bats. 

2012: Hit .118 with a homer, two RBIs and one steal over 25 games.

2013: Hit .303 with 29 RBIs, 39 runs scored and five steals in 109 games.

2014: Didn't play a single big league game. Suffered a stress fracture in both of his shins, and missed the season as a result. 

2015 START: .583/.615/.667 through 13 plate appearances with three runs and two steals

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REVIEW

Jose Iglesias missed last year with shin issues (both of his shins were to blame). He then shows up to camp this season and was babied using spikes one day and then turf shoes the next. He progressed, slowly. He then hurt his shin March 6th when he hit the bag awkwardly on a slide. On March 8th he was hit on the shine during batting practice. Could you have worse luck I wonder? He eventually returned to action in time to start the season for the Tigers.

He's exploded offensively in the early going. Read the title of this article again. Don't believe the hype.

Newsflash... Iglesias is not much of a hitter. 

Jose hit .267 in the minors and that includes a .244 mark over 222 games at Triple-A. As a big leaguer Iglesias has hit .280. So things are much better now, right? Well... He has an elevated .332 BABIP that was pretty dang high at .356 in 2013. Hard to think he has any shot of repeating that mark moving forward. Jose owns a .278 BABIP mark over his last 925 plate appearances in the minors. Iglesias has a mere 17.4 percent line drive rate in the big leagues, a poor number. His line drive rate over his last 925 plate appearances in the minors was even worse at 15.4 percent. As a big leaguer he has a poor BB/K ratio of 0.26. As a minor leaguer the mark was 0.39 which is still nothing other than average. He doesn't walk, doesn't square the ball up and hit line drives enough, and he's had an artificially high BABIP as a big leaguer. 

He hit six home runs in 1,649 minor league at-bats. He has four home runs in 435 big league at-bats. Really don't need to say more here, do I?

He averaged an RBI every 11.3 at-bats as a minor leaguer. In the big leagues that mark is one every 14.0 at-bats. Yeah, not good and a pace that would make 45 RBIs look like a solid effort.

Runs scored for Iglesias will certainly be limited by his ability to get on base. Unfortunately, he's not very good at reaching safety. In 406 minor league games Iglesias had a .314 OBP. The mark was even lower at Triple-A where the mark was .296. Even with his "success" at the big league level the mark is just .331.  Given that I would assume that his BABIP will go down, and with it his batting average will fall, you have to worry about his ability to get on base at a run sustaining pace. It should also be noted that his first three starts of 2015 he occupied the 9th spot in the batting order. For his career he's hit 9th in the order 98 times and 8/9 125 times with only 15 games started in another spot. His teams knows he ain't really great with the bat in his hands.

Does he flash stolen base speed? Would you let him run even if he had the talent to given all his health issues of late? I wouldn't if I was the manager. His career best as a minor leaguer was 13 steals. He stole five bases in 2013. He's not a stolen base threat. 

CONCLUSION

Iglesias has little power and isn't likely to offer anything in the steals column. He's likely to spend most of the season at the bottom of the Tigers batting order which will hamper his runs batted in mark and likely make it difficult to pile up the runs. He's not a big OBP guy either, and everything in his professional career suggests that the .303 batting average he posted in 2013 was a mirage. Don't believe the hype. Jose is likely to be back on waivers by the end of the month in most mixed leagues.