Ever since the Tigers traded Leonys Martin at last year’s trade deadline, they have not had a traditional lead-off hitter. That is until they signed second baseman Josh Harrison on February 23, right before their first spring training game. Before the Harrison signing, it was assumed Jeimer Candelario would be the lead-off hitter for the 2019 Tigers, a role he served in the final two months of 2018. In his experiment of being the lead-off hitter, Candelario hit .224/.314/.354 with 30 runs scored, one steal, and a 10.5 percent walk rate in 220 plate appearances.
Josh Harrison has spent the majority of his playing time batting lead-off (1191 out of 3012 career plate appearances), producing a .