Tigers prospect makes glorious barehanded over-the-shoulder catch

There have been some fantastic minor league catches lately, with dudes grabbing balls at the wall and flipping over fences to get the out. This minor league catch, from Detroit Tigers shortstop prospect Dixon Machado, doesn’t involve a wall or flipping over anything, but it’s still totally amazing.

Machado plays for the Toledo Mud Hens, the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate, and on Monday the Mud Hens were facing the Indianapolis Pirates (affiliated with — who else? — the Pittsburgh Pirates) and leading them by a score of 8-1. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Machado had to run down a tough pop-up to shallow left field from Pirates center fielder Danny Ortiz.

And did he ever run. Machado covered an insane amount of ground chasing this pop-up, beating the actual left fielder to the ball. As Machado came in, the ball was falling fast, and he went into a slide. But that’s not all he did.

He was at the perfect angle to grab the ball with his bare hand, so instead of chancing it with his glove, he reached out his hand and plucked the ball from mid-air. Out: made. Game: over.

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MLB’s Cut4 pointed out that Machado’s catch looks just like David Wright’s famous barehanded over-the-shoulder grab from 11 years ago.

If you’re going to unintentionally recreate a catch, why not go for one of the best?

As if that catch wasn’t enough, Machado also went 3-for-5. Now that is an amazing night for a ballplayer.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher