Akil Baddoo — the Tigers’ Rule 5 sensation — was made for this moment

By Cody Stavenhagen via the Athletic

Let’s go back to something Akil Baddoo’s mother said Sunday on the Tigers’ TV broadcast, moments after her son hit an opposite-field home run on the first pitch of his major-league career.

She was talking about the moment the Tigers selected Baddoo in the Rule 5 draft this winter. Baddoo and his father were listening to a live stream when they found out. It must have felt like the first bit of good news regarding Baddoo’s career in some time. He missed a year with Tommy John surgery, then sat out a pandemic season with no minor league games.

“If you think about it, he’s gone through so much,” Akilah Baddoo said. “And then this opportunity came and it was like, ‘This can’t be a joke. There’s a plan for you. You got to know that.’”

If Baddoo’s torrid spring training felt fateful, if his home run Sunday felt predestined, consider what has happened since. Monday, in the ninth inning of a blowout loss, Baddoo hit another opposite-field home run, this one a grand slam. Fans in Detroit have started bellowing Baddoo’s name from the stands. The sound of BADDOOO reminds of the days of Lou Whitaker, when fans would chant LOUUUU and Whitaker initially thought he was getting booed.

To the dismay of Tigers fans, Baddoo was not in the lineup Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, the same organization that did not place Baddoo on the 40-man roster to protect him in the Rule 5 draft. Baddoo hits left-handed, and the Twins were starting lefty J.A. Happ.