Guessing we will see Mr Carpenters bat make an appearance in Detroit this week and hoping Greene isn’t too far behind.
The best-case scenario would be the Tigers activate outfielder Kerry Carpenter off the injured list for the homestand starting Tuesday against the Mariners and, simultaneously, sending outfielder Riley Greene off with the Toledo Mud Hens to start a rehab assignment in Charlotte.
That scenario is possible, but not guaranteed.
“We are not going to be a day too early,” manager AJ Hinch said about the possible activation of Carpenter. “We can’t let where we’re at right now impact our decision-making with Kerry or Riley. Obviously on paper, it would be nice to write their names in the lineup.
“But we’ve done the work to get to this point. We have to take the extra time to make sure we get the benefits of the next six weeks.”
Carpenter, who has been out since the end of May [with a lumbar stress fracture], was expected to play close to a full game with the Mud Hens on Sunday in Toledo.
“It’s going to be Charlotte on Tuesday or Detroit on Tuesday,” Hinch said. “A lot will be determined by how he does, how he feels and where we are at.”
Greene, out with a hamstring strain since July 26, ran the bases Sunday and is scheduled to run them again either on the off-day Monday or early Tuesday. If he checks off that box, he could be ready to start his rehab assignment.
But, again, the error will be made on the side of caution.
“We don’t want this to turn into a feel-good story on Day One and then a re-injury on Day Three,” Hinch said. “That would be detrimental to finishing the season the way we want to and for those players to finish the season back in the competition.”
Series: Three games at Comerica Park, Detroit
