Five days ago, Matt Vierling returned to the Tigers. Now he's back on the shelf.
The Tigers have placed Vierling on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation after he missed most of spring training and the first two months of the season with a strained rotator cuff in the same shoulder.
"We need to obviously take care of this, given the injury that he just went through," A.J. Hinch said Tuesday before the Tigers' second of three games against the Giants.
Hinch said that Vierling complained of general soreness in his shoulder after the Tigers' 3-1 win over the Giants on Monday in which he entered the game in the sixth, picked up a hit in his lone at-bat and played the final four innings in center field. But "there wasn't a singular event or episode" that led to the injury," said Hinch.
"I just talked to him -- nothing. Not a throw, not a swing. He got a hit off the bench yesterday, he didn't slide awkwardly. It's just this soreness that he reported after the game yesterday that raised the alarm," he said.
The Tigers sent Vierling for more tests, which are still ongoing, "but we can't mess with this coming off the most recent shoulder issue that he's had," said Hinch. "It created a decision point for us."
Their decision included some good news: the Tigers have activated fellow outfielder Wenceel Perez from the 60-day IL after he completed his rehab assignment from lumbar spine inflammation that he suffered late in spring training. Perez will make his season debut Wednesday night, playing center field and batting sixth. Hinch said that Perez is "full-go."
"It's great to see Wenceel. We should not steal any joy away from getting Wenceel back. This guy is so fun to be around. He's energetic, big smile, bounces around the clubhouse. A really important part of our team when he's played and will continue to play all three outfield positions, provides a switch-hit at-bat. Just a fun and impactful player to have back on this team, so that's a definite good thing. We're not going to have the circumstances sour any of that, because he's a really valuable player for us to keep in the mix," Hinch said.
Perez made his MLB debut for the Tigers last season and hit .242 with nine homers and a .683 OPS in 112 games. Eight of those homers came from the left side of the plate, where he slugged .406 -- more than 100 points higher than he did from the right side. He can give the AL-leading Tigers another spark.
The Tigers planned to use Vierling at third base in addition to the outfield, but will have to keep pressing on without him. Javy Baez is playing third Tuesday night; Zach McKinstry and Andy Ibañez will continue to factor in there as well.
As for his level of concern for Vierling, Hinch said that he doesn't "really have levels. We put him on the IL, which should tell you that we don't think he can play, and he knows he can't play right now."
"We'll get more info as we get more tests and the doctors need to weigh in, but anything that any of us (say) right now would be premature, because I don't know," he said.
