Wade Gaynor

College career

Gaynor was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to playing professionally, he attended Hancock County High School and then Western Kentucky University, where he hit .323/.396/.434 with six home runs and 30 RBI in 55 games as a freshman. The next year, he hit .347/.399/.598 with 13 home runs, 48 RBI and 11 stolen bases in 60 games, earning Second-Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors. He hit .371/.466/.781 with 25 home runs, 78 RBI and 21 stolen bases in 62 games his junior year to earn an All-Sun Belt Conference selection. He was also named a Baseball America Second-Team All-American. He hit .349 with a .617 slugging percentage in his college career.

Professional career

After his excellent collegiate performance in 2009, the Tigers drafted Gaynor in the third round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft, between pitcher Donnie Joseph and first baseman Ben Paulsen. He became the highest drafted player in Western Kentucky history. He signed for a bonus of $390,000 and the scout was Harold Zonder.

He hit only .192 in his professional debut with the Oneonta Tigers, while fielding .952 at third base. He led New York–Penn League third basemen in assists and fielding percentage. Despite the rough start, Baseball America rated him as Detroit's #24 prospect. In 2010, he hit .286 with 10 home runs, 80 RBI, 91 runs scored and 13 stolen bases in 131 games for the West Michigan Whitecaps to earn MiLB.com Organization All-Star honors. He was one of the team's best offensive performers and he led Tigers minor leaguers in runs and doubles. In 2011, he hit .213 in 129 games for the Lakeland Flying Tigers. He led Florida State League third basemen in fielding percentage but also led the league in strikeouts. In 2012, he hit .252 with 16 home runs, 74 RBI and 11 stolen bases in 118 games split between the Flying Tigers and Erie SeaWolves. In 2013 with Erie, he batted .226 with 31 doubles, 66 runs and 64 RBI while fanning 153 times and drawing 37 walks. Despite his low batting average, he was one of the team's top offensive performers at times during the season. He fielded .967 and led the Eastern League's third basemen in fielding percentage, putouts (95) and assists (227). He won a Rawlings Gold Glove as the top defensive third baseman in the minor leagues and was a MiLB.com Organization All-Star. In 2014, he split the year between the Double-A Erie SeaWolves and the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Between them, he hit .236 with 13 home runs, 50 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 111 games. In his first taste of Triple-A, he batted .221 in 84 games. He also earned an Eastern League Player of the Week honor that year.

Gaynor elected free agency on November 6, 2015.