When Mike Gerber was rising through the Detroit Tigers’ minor league ranks, there were questions about how good a defender he is. While he was expected to play above-average defense, his fourth outfield profile took a hit from some who didn’t think he could play a capable center field.
Consider this Exhibit A to the contrary.
Not only does Gerber run down the ball deep in the left-center gap, he also survived a collision with the very enthusiastic (if not entirely coordinated) Victor Reyes. While this doesn’t mean Gerber is an elite defender — he still had a catch probability of 72 percent on that play, according to Statcast — he certainly looks like he can hack it when JaCoby Jones needs a night off.