{"id":283102,"date":"2026-09-10T16:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283102\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:32:25","slug":"zyhir-hopes-chilly-start-is-old-news-at-erie-where-he-is-soaring-as-a-tigers-farm-partner-heads-for-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283102\/","title":{"rendered":"Zyhir Hope\u2019s chilly start is old news at Erie, where he is soaring as a Tigers farm partner heads for the playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Peyton Graham, along with snazzy new outfielder Zyhir Hope, and in company with handyman Woody Hadeen, are all candidates for Arizona Fall League elevation following their Eastern League playoff run. <\/p>\n

Maybe it was moving from Tulsa, Okla., to Erie, Pa., which was a definite shift in time zones, as well as cultures.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason for Zyhir Hope\u2019s early blackout at Double-A Erie after being traded to the Tigers on Aug. 1, the mystery is history.<\/p>\n

Hope, no surprise, is hitting: .400 in his past 12 games for the SeaWolves, with three home runs, a triple, and a double.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the kid is so talented,\u201d Erie manager Tony Cappuccilli said Wednesday as the SeaWolves bored into their final regular-season series of 2026 at Reading ahead of next week\u2019s Eastern League playoffs. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of him getting his work in, making adjustments. He\u2019s taking pressure off himself and having better results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope, who is 21 and a left-hand hitting corner outfielder, came to the Tigers in last month\u2019s deadline deal that sent Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

At the moment of a seismic MLB trade, Hope was coming off a final game at Double-A Tulsa in which he had three hits and two home runs. He was batting .293, with 23 homers, and an .899 OPS.<\/p>\n

He promptly got to Erie and began hitting as if he were on Mars.<\/p>\n

He went 2-for-35 with 13 strikeouts in his first nine games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got off to kind of a slow start, and I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s anything to make of it more than that \u2014 just a slow start,\u201d Cappuccilli said. \u201cBut what we\u2019ve seen the last few weeks \u2014 the guy is electric.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like we knew, he\u2019s got an ability to impact the game: on the bases, offensively and defensively, and in so many ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably from the outside people expected him to be 5-for-4 every game, with six homers,\u201d Cappuccilli cracked. \u201cThe expectations were set astronomically high. People thought he should have been doing more. But, to his credit, he just very steadily went to work, and stayed consistent with that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with his crazy early-August nosedive, Hope isn\u2019t far from his Tulsa numbers. He\u2019s batting .264 in 27 games at Erie, with an .808 OPS. A man 5-foot-10 and 193 pounds also has seven stolen bases. His on-base average, despite that chilly start, is .355. He has 15 walks in 27 games at Erie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peyton Graham, along with snazzy new outfielder Zyhir Hope, and in company with handyman Woody Hadeen, are all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-283102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}