BIOGRAPHY
Kody Clemens was born May 15, 1996, in Houston, Texas. He is an infielder in the MLB.
Clemens attended Memorial High School in Houston, Texas. Playing for the school's baseball team, he batted .553 during his senior season. He was named first-team all-district selection in 2013 and was a Perfect Game Honorable Mention for high school in 2013 and 2014. He committed to the University of Texas at Austin to play college baseball for the Texas Longhorns.
As a freshman in 2016, batted with a .242 batting average and five home runs. As a sophomore in 2017, Clemens underwent Tommy John surgery. However, Clemens did play as the team's designated hitter. Clemens had a breakout junior season batting .352 with 23 home runs. These stats even earned him Big 12 player of the week. On June 7, 2018, Clemens was named a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.
The Detroit Tigers selected Clemens with the 79th overall pick in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft. He received a $600,000 signing bonus and made his professional debut with the West Michigan Whitecaps of the Class A Midwest League. He was promoted to the Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League in August. In 52 total games between the two clubs, Clemens slashed .288/.365/.450 with five home runs and 20 RBIs.
Clemens began 2019 with Lakeland before being promoted to the Erie SeaWolves at the end of the season. Over 128 games between both teams, he batted .231/.310/.397 with 12 home runs and 63 RBIs.
On May 30, 2022, the Tigers promoted Clemens to the major leagues when Robbie Grossman was placed on the injured list. On June 13, 2022, Clemens got his first hit of his career, a single off of Lance Lynn of the Chicago White Sox. On June 15, Clemens made his major league pitching debut and gave up one run in one inning of work. On June 25, 2022, Clemens hit a three-run, go-ahead home run off of Joe Mantiply of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was his first home run in his career. Clemens was optioned back down to Toledo on July 12 but recalled on July 21. Clemens recorded his first MLB career strikeout on September 6, 2022 against the 2021 American League MVP Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels.
On January 7, 2023, the Tigers traded Clemens and pitcher Gregory Soto to the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Matt Vierling, infielder Nick Maton, and catcher Donny Sands. Clemens was optioned to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs to begin the 2023 season.
