The Tigers have placed outfielder Parker Meadows on the 10-day injured list with a concussion and a fractured radius in his left arm. He also received five stitches in his mouth, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Fellow outfielder Wenceel Pérez has been recalled in a corresponding move. Evan Woodbery of MLive reported the moves prior to the official club announcement.
The injury occurred in yesterday’s game against the Twins. Josh Bell hit a ball to left-center field, the perfect spot for the center fielder Meadows and left fielder Riley Greene to get there at the same time. As seen in this video from MLB.com, the two collided. Greene caught the ball and seemed unscathed but Meadows was down for a while and had blood coming out of his mouth. He seemed woozy when getting onto a cart, which took him off the field.
Given what transpired yesterday, it’s not especially surprising that he has suffered a concussion. He also revealed yesterday, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News, that he bit the inside of his mouth on impact. That explains the blood and the stitches. The broken bone in his arm, presumably suffered when he collided with the ground, may be the thing that keeps him out for longer. The Tigers haven’t provided an estimated timeline for his recovery but a broken arm will surely require him to miss weeks, if not months.
There will likely be more information provided in the near future. For now, the Tigers will sub Pérez into their outfield mix. He has been a solid player for them in recent years but he got squeezed off the Opening Day roster by Kevin McGonigle. Detroit decided to break camp with their top prospect and someone had to go. Pérez still has options and he also had a rough spring, slashing .190/.277/.333, so he got sent down.
In ten Triple-A games to start the year, Pérez has a .250/.353/.455 line. That’s a small sample size but is much closer to his big league line of .243/.304/.405, so it seems he has put his rough spring behind him.
Though it was a brief stint in the minors, it was just long enough to impact Pérez’s career. He came into this year with exactly two years of big league service time. There are now only 171 days remaining in the season and a player needs to be in the majors for 172 days to earn a full service year. Even if Pérez stays up for the rest of the season, he can’t get to the three-year line in 2026. That means his path to free agency has been pushed into the future by a year, though he could still qualify for arbitration after this season as a Super Two player.
Pérez will join an outfield mix that includes Greene as a staple in left. The other two spots will likely involve some rotation of Pérez, Kerry Carpenter, Matt Vierling, Zach McKinstry, Jahmai Jones and Javier Báez, with the designated hitter spot also fairly open for guys in that group to get more at-bats.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images
Thanks Riley Greene. Can’t hit the ball so you need to take out another outfielder who could.
It sure seemed to me that Parker had drifted a long ways into left field. Greene caught the ball facing the infield, where Meadows would have caught it looking in the stands.
Even before I saw the play, I automatically assumed it was on Greene because I knew Meadows was the CF. But, once I saw it and put it on repeat several times, I think if anyone were to be “blamed”, it would have to be Meadows.
It appeared as if they both to moved toward home plate to avoid the other in the last second before the collision. Greene’s shoulder hit Meadows’ jaw in a collision that Hacksaw Reynolds would have delivered in football.
But aren’t corner guys supposed to defer to the CF?
Hopefully Meadows recovers well from this.
I would agree. Problem is, from Little League on up, you are taught that if the CF calls for it, you let them have it, no matter if you are an infielder or corner outfielder. Most CF’s want to show off their range and make too many easy plays for other players into difficult ones for themselves. The good ones learn it’s a team game, but it seems the better the defensive CF, the greater the chance they try to do everything. It’s almost like … this is my calling card.
Not saying Meadows is that way at all, it’s just an unfortunate circumstance. Reality is, based on this training, Greene is the one at fault .. but I mean, it was a like jog for him compared to a full on sprint for Meadows. Hard for me to really fault Greene, no matter what the training says.
Just really sucks for Meadows. Hopefully he will come back even stronger.
Meadows was calling Greene off
Bell was hitting LH’d and fileted that ball into left. It was curving towards Greene and away from Meadows. There have been a couple instances in the last couple years where Meadows didn’t go after some clearly CF’er plays and balls fell between fielders for unnecessary hits.
Meadows has since just gone after everything. I honestly don’t know how loud guys are when they say “MINE MINE MINE….I GOT IT I GOT IT”
Greene seems sort of passive at times and maybe he didn’t yell loud enough or at all. It looked like they were both yelling, but who knows.
That sort of thing shouldn’t happen with highly paid, professional baseball players.
Say Max Clark’s name.
I feel you here and I am a big Max fan but Max requires a 40 man roster move and Wenceel does not. Give Max a few more weeks to stay hot and he will be up.
I never want to see Max Clark.
Why?
He has lots of defensive troubles and his hitting isn’t there yet, he needs a half season more in the minors
Never is different from eventually. I agree, it’s not quite time for Clark. It will be this year most likely.
Unfortunately. Speedy recovery.
I’m sorry Parker got hurt, and I hope he’ll be on the mend very soon. But this is a team, and this team will be much better with Perez.
Perez is average at best. Not sure how much better he is than meadows
Still not clear about how Jahmai Jones made the team…
Because hinch values platoon players over letting young players learn to hit against same handed pitchers. Him pinch hitting for Keith every time a lefty comes in is driving me nuts.
Yes. Colt has been hot as a pistol and in come Jones to pitch hit in the 5th or 6th inning. Jones, is not getting the job done and Colt has proven he has power against left handed pitchers.
He also hit lefties better than righties in his rookie season. Jones is a journeyman who shouldn’t be having multiple at bats because Hinch pinch hit Keith in the 5th.
Jones made the team because of his numbers last year. He was great off the bench and provided RH power. You don’t call up a young player to sit him on the bench. Again, judging any player on less than a dozen ABs is foolish.
My point wasn’t against Jones. It was more pro Colt Keith. Jones could be a 1 hit wonder. Perez is what he is, a 4th outfielder
I don’t like sitting Keith or Carp for Jones, either. I wanted the Tigers to trade for a real RF in the offseason, a player needing a new change of scenery, or a team having a fire sale: Luis Robert Jr or Byron Buxton.
I’m sure the Mets don’t miss the two pawns they gave up for Robert, and the Twins aren’t mad they didn’t include Buxton in their fire sale.
The Tigers are using a roster spot on an AAAA player who currently can’t do the one thing he can do.
Hinch is becoming the Dan Campbell of baseball coaches. Campbell eschews FG’s and goes on 4th down even in the 1st quarter. Hinch just can’t stop pinch hitting for solid major league hitters.
He made the team based on his power that he showed last year off the bench. Probably needs to be moved to another team and then bring up Max Clark.
Parker Meadows can lose
We all have it coming, kid.
Parker has no luck. He was playing decent. Only a matter of time before Perez came back up and Clark will come up too if he keeps hitting. Baez should play CF.
Agree. He was looking more like the ’24 PM than the ’25 PM, hitting the ball hard much more often and getting around the bases as only he can.
Baez – one of the few Tigers hitting and playing dependable defense – will get some time in CF, but IMO he’s still the team’s best defensive SS, and they need him at SS at least when Valdez pitches.
I don’t have a whole lot of faith in Perez to play CF. He’s gotten passable in RF (if HE doesn’t plow over teammates) so Vierling really needs to get it together.
But so does Jones & Riley & Tork & Carp & Zach, etc.
Yeah the offense has not helped but the starters have been inconsistent too. Hopefully it evens out soon. Seattle is going through the same thing right now. Both teams are too good to have that bad a record.
Watched the replay. It looked scary the sound of them colliding was cringy. Don’t watch if you’re faint at heart.
no max clark? wasn’t meadows blocking him?