Parker Meadows (born November 2, 1999) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023.

Early life

Meadows attended

Grayson High School Grayson High School is located in Loganville, Georgia and has an enrollment of over 3,100 students. The school pulls students from many areas of southeastern Gwinnett County, mainly Grayson, Loganville, and Lawrenceville. History Construc ...

Loganville, Georgia Loganville is a city in Walton and Gwinnett counties, Georgia, United States. The population was 16,516 as of 2023. Loganville is located about east of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. History An early variant name was " ...

, the same school as his brother, fellow professional baseball player Austin Meadows.

Professional career

Detroit Tigers

The

selected Meadows in the second round, with the 44th overall selection, of the

2018 MLB Draft The 2018 Major League Baseball draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In addition, compensation pi ...

. Meadows signed with the Tigers organization and received a $2.5 million signing bonus, nearly a full $1 million above the slot value for the 44th overall pick. Meadows began his professional career with the rookie-level

Gulf Coast League Tigers The Florida Complex League Tigers are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast League Tigers. The team plays its home game ...

, where he hit .284 with an OBP of .376, to go with four

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s in just 22 games. He would get called up to the Low-A

Connecticut Tigers The Norwich Sea Unicorns are a baseball team located in Norwich, Connecticut. From 2010 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) as the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They play ...

to finish the rest of the 2018 campaign where he continued the strong start to his professional career, going 6-for-19 (.316 average) in his six games at that level. In the lead-up to, and following, the 2019 season, he would be listed within the top 12 Tigers prospects in the organization by various outlets, including a rating as high as ninth. In that 2019 season, Meadows spent the entire year with the Single-A

West Michigan Whitecaps The West Michigan Whitecaps are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Comstock Park, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, and play their home games at LMCU Ballpar ...

. Meadows saw a dip in productivity, falling to a .221 batting average and .296 OBP, however he also hit seven home runs and drove in 40 RBIs while stealing 14 bases. He walked 47 times over the course of the season, though he struck out 113 times as well. Meadows was not selected to be part of the Tigers alternate training squad for the shortened

2020 MLB season The 2020 Major League Baseball season began on July 23 and ended on September 27 with only 60 games amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The full 162-game regular season was planned to begin on March 26, but the pandemic caused Major League Baseball (M ...

, however, with the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season, Meadows continued to work out at his parents' residence in Loganville and Grayson High School. On September 3, Meadows was among four Tigers minor league players called up for the Tigers' alternate training site in Toledo. On November 15, 2022, the Tigers added Meadows to their

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, an ...

to protect him from the

Rule 5 draft The Rule 5 draft is a Major League Baseball (MLB) player draft that occurs each year in December, at the annual Winter Meeting of general managers. The Rule 5 draft aims to prevent teams from stockpiling too many young players on their minor lea ...

. Meadows was optioned to the Triple-A

Toledo Mud Hens The Toledo Mud Hens are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Toledo, Ohio, and play their home games at Fifth Third Field. A baseball team nicknamed the ...

to begin the 2023 season. Meadows' contract was selected by the Tigers on August 21, and he made his major league debut against the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

that evening. In his third at-bat, Meadows singled off Cubs starter

Javier Assad Javier Eduardo Assad Ramírez (born July 30, 1997) is a Mexican professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). Early life, family and education Assad was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. While playing Lit ...

for his first major league hit. His first MLB home run was a three-run walk-off to right field off

Ryan Pressly Thomas Ryan Pressly (born December 15, 1988) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros. He has also played for Team ...

on August 25 that ended a 4–1 home win over the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

. On May 8, 2024, following a poor start to the 2024 season (7-for-73, .096 BA), Meadows was again optioned to the Mud Hens. He was recalled on July 5, and hit .299 over the remainder of the season. Overall, he played 82 games for the Tigers, hitting .244 with 9 home runs and 27 RBI. On February 22, 2025, in the first

Grapefruit League Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring ...

game, he suffered an injury to the

musculocutaneous nerve The musculocutaneous nerve is a Mixed nerve, mixed branch of the lateral cord of the brachial plexus derived from cervical spinal nerves C5-C7. It arises opposite the lower border of the pectoralis minor. It provides motor innervation to the mus ...

in his upper right arm. He missed

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent year ...

after being placed on the 60-day injured list on March 24. On June 2, Meadows was activated from the injured list.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meadows, Parker 1999 births Living people Baseball players from Atlanta Connecticut Tigers players Detroit Tigers players Erie SeaWolves players Gulf Coast Tigers players Lakeland Flying Tigers players Major League Baseball outfielders Salt River Rafters players Toledo Mud Hens players West Michigan Whitecaps players