Parker Meadows Ruled Out For Opening Day

Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows won’t be ready by Opening Day, manager A.J. Hinch tells Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Meadows has been having issues with the musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm, which the club can’t seem to activate at the moment.

It seems to be a frustrating situation with little clarity. Hinch said earlier this week that they are trying to “wake it up,” referring to the nerve in Meadows’ arm. In the meantime, Meadows can do some things but can’t throw. He can take some swings, but with just one hand. Once his nerve is awoken, he’ll need to take some at-bats and get back into game shape.

With Matt Vierling set to start the season on the injured list due to a rotator cuff strain, the Tigers will be down two outfielders to start the year. Wenceel Pérez would be a logical fill-in with Meadows on the shelf but he has his own issue. Pérez has been dealing with some back tightness lately. The club announced today, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group, that Pérez received a cortisone injection to address his lingering discomfort. The club still believes Pérez will be ready by Opening Day, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News, but it’s clearly not ideal for so many injuries to be occurring simultaneously.

If Pérez is able to take over in center, he will be flanked by Riley Greene on one side. Kerry Carpenter could perhaps be in the other corner. Carpenter once projected as the regular designated hitter but him taking the outfield more regularly could perhaps open more playing time for Spencer Torkelson, who is having a great spring. The Tigers signed Gleyber Torres to man second base and then bumped Colt Keith to first, squeezing out Tork. But he’s hit four homers in 12 games and could perhaps find himself taking some of those DH at-bats.

Since Pérez is sort of a touch-and-go situation, the club will have to think about backup plans for center field. Greene could perhaps be an option there, with someone like Justyn-Henry Malloy stepping into a corner. They also have utility guys Zach McKinstry and Andy Ibáñez on the roster.

There’s also one other creative solution that is getting some consideration. Hinch tells Jason Beck of MLB.com that he is thinking about getting Javier Báez some action in center. “I’m flirting with the idea of putting Javy out there and getting him a few reps,” Hinch said, “just in case something happens during the season where we end up with that need.”

Báez has just 4 2/3 innings of outfield experience in his big league career, with all of that coming in the corners. He has primarily been a shortstop in his career but his offense has fallen off a cliff in three straight years. Trey Sweeney showed some potential at shortstop last year while Báez was out recovering from hip surgery. Perhaps there’s a scenario where Sweeney takes over the shortstop job for the long term and push Báez into something of a super utility role.

As mentioned, Báez has primarily been a shortstop in his career. But he also has over 2,000 innings at second base, more than 600 frames at third, and brief showings at first and in the outfield corners. Adding center field to his repertoire would make him capable of playing anywhere except the battery. The Tigers are surely hoping their outfield can get healthy enough that they don’t have to consider such a scenario, but there’s no real harm in having it available to them.

Petzold suggests an external addition could be considered if the injuries linger. There aren’t many notable free agents on the market right now but the end of spring always leads to a few players getting cut from other clubs. Players like Kevin Pillar, Trayce Thompson and Travis Jankowski are currently in camp with other clubs as non-roster invitees. A few such players will end up back on the market soon if they don’t get roster spots on their current minor league deals.