DETROIT — Kody Clemens, the 26-year-old son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, was brought up by the Detroit Tigers on Monday for a possible major league debut.
Roger Clemens planned to be at Comerica Park on Tuesday, when his son could make his debut.
“He’s scrambling and trying to figure out when he’s going to fly here,” Kody Clemens said after Detroit’s 7-5 win on Monday. “He loved it. He was like ‘You’re a big leaguer, kid.'”
Clemens was assigned No. 21, which his father wore with Boston from 1984 to 1996 and with Toronto for the following two seasons before switching to No. 22 with the New York Yankees and Houston.
“Obviously, I’m trying to create my own career path here, but to wear his number is awesome,” Kody Clemens said. “Luckily, we always say that I’m glad I’m a hitter, not a pitcher, so I don’t have to live up to what he did. Half a career as his is unbelievable.”
Detroit recalled the infielder/outfielder from Triple-A Toledo of the International League and put outfielder Robbie Grossman on the 10-day injured list because of a strained neck.
Clemens is expected to start in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against Minnesota, when right-hander Cole Sands is slated to be on the mound for the Twins.
A third-round pick in the 2018 amateur draft, Clemens was hitting .283 at Toledo with eight homers and 31 RBIs in 45 games. Drafted as a second baseman, he has played first, second, third and left this season.
“As soon as we got A.J. (Hinch) a couple years back, he took me into his office and just said, ‘Hey, do you play anywhere else?'” Clemens said. “I was like, I really played a lot of third in college. I’ll play third base, outfield, wherever you want.”
Detroit needed depth because of Grossman’s injury and Miguel Cabrera‘s bad back.
Roger Clemens was an 11-time All-Star who won 354 games in a major league career from 1984 to 2007 and struck out 4,672, third behind Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.
Among the players implicated in the 2007 Mitchell report, Roger Clemens denied using performance-enhancing drugs. In 2012, he was acquitted of charges he lied to Congress when he denied allegations of PED use.