DETROIT -- Kirk Gibson called the triple as soon as Derek Hill’s gapper hit the ground in left-center and started rolling toward the fence. Gibson had seen those hits enough times to know.

In the end, Hill didn’t even need to slide. Turns out, he wasn’t even moving at full speed; the left knee he impacted on his diving catch Wednesday night was bothering him, and it eventually forced him out of Thursday’s intrasquad game.

“We noticed when he was running out there, and he told us his kneecap was a little sore,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “So we just got him out of there. It’s all from that dive that he made.”

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While the diving catches have been the highlight of Hill’s Summer Camp, the past few games have shown how his foot speed can play into his offensive game. He had a hustle double Wednesday night when he caught left fielder Christin Stewart by surprise by speeding around first base on what looked like a line-drive single.

Hill has the speed to be the kind of player Gardenhire utilized to an art form during his Twins tenure. But Hill has to get on base to take advantage.

“This kid can really run it down and is a really great athlete out there,” Gardenhire said. “And now it’s about finding his swing and finding some way offensively to be more productive to go along with that defensive skill set that he has. All young players are going through that.”

Hill, the Tigers’ first-round pick out of high school in the 2014 MLB Draft, owns a .243 batting average and a .662 OPS over six seasons in Detroit's system. Part of those struggles came from injury-plagued seasons to begin his pro career, costing him critical at-bats to solidify a plate approach.

A healthy Hill showed improvement last season at Double-A Erie, where his 14 home runs were five more than his previous career total. Twenty-six of his 38 walks came over the final two months of the season when he was playing virtually every day and racking up at-bats. He carried that into the Arizona Fall League, batting .254 (15-for-59) with five walks and 21 strikeouts.

Hill has a pair of 35-steal seasons in his Minor League career, and he went 27-for-41 on stolen-base attempts last year between Erie and the AFL. He has not yet translated that speed into big numbers in doubles and triples.

While Hill’s catches have become a regularity in Tigers camp, so have his sessions with hitting coach Joe Vavra. He has been on the field for extra work following afternoon intrasquad games, and he has taken advantage of the opportunity to watch hitters like Miguel Cabrera and their approach.

It’s a continuation of what Hill tried to do in Spring Training.

“I definitely think it was a learning process for me,” Hill said. “I got to go back home and fine-tune and tweak things that I felt necessary. Throughout Spring Training, I picked up little stuff on what I needed to get better at, and definitely set a plan in the second offseason and stuck to it. And I feel great.”

While that work seems likely to continue at the Tigers' satellite camp at Triple-A Toledo once Detroit breaks camp and opens its season next week, Gardenhire has left options open on how Hill could fit on the Tigers' roster. Short-term, with JaCoby Jones and Travis Demeritte day to day with injuries, Hill could provide some appeal on a 30-man Opening Day roster as a defensive specialist and a late-inning pinch-runner.

“I think you all know when you start talking about situational baseball, putting a man on second base in extra innings, guys like [Hill] that can fly and run, they can be a valuable asset to your team in a lot of different ways,” Gardenhire said.

Long-term, the rise of all-around metrics and value placed on defense means Hill doesn’t have to tear it up at the plate to provide value to a club. Boston's Jackie Bradley Jr. has a 92 OPS+ in his Major League career -- 100 is league average -- yet he has been well above replacement value by WAR each season.

The Tigers tried to trade for Bradley years ago, before he established himself as an extra-base hitter to go with his American League Gold Glove Award defense in Boston. To compare Hill to that standard is unfair, but the offense-defense relationship could be similar.

“He’s playing good and making great plays, but he really works,” Gardenhire said. “He works hard, and that’s what you have to do to get here. He’s working on his offense, so let’s just let him keep going.”