Injured Detroit Tigers Outfielder Will Return to Game Action Wednesday Afternoon
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The Detroit Tigers have had to battle through some injuries this spring, but each player is getting healthier.
The positional group that has been affected the most seems to be the outfielders.
Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling were expected to be impact players in the outfield, but both are dealing with injuries.
Meadows has an upper arm injury while Vierling strained his right shoulder. However, both players have had some positive updates recently despite the latter already being ruled out for Opening Day.
Wenceel Perez is the other outfielder who had to miss some time this spring.
He had lower back tightness that has kept him out for a little over a week.
Even Petzold of the Detroit Free Press shared a list of injury updates, with the most positive of the bunch featuring Perez, who will return to game action Wednesday afternoon when the Tigers take on the New York Yankees.
Perez is not having a great spring.
In 14 at-bats, he has collected just one hit while striking out five times. He has been perfect on all 11 of his fielding chances in the outfield, so that is one positive to take out his spring thus far.
In 2024, the 25-year-old had a decent rookie campaign when he slashed .242/.300/.383 with nine home runs, 37 RBI and 51 runs scored in 112 games played. Additionally, he ranked in the 71st percentile in whiff percentage, so he did a pretty good job not swinging and missing.
Defensively, the Dominican outfielder was in the in the 85th percentile in Outs Above Average while also having above average speed.
A majority of his innings came in right field, but he has the ability to play center and left field, as well.
Vierling will miss opening day and Detroit is playing the waiting game with Meadows.
With the possibility of both of these players being absent when the regular season opens up, Detroit needed some help in the outfield.
The news of Perez playing on Wednesday is just what the Tigers were hoping to hear in their injury updates.
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Cameron Zunkel is a sports writer from the western suburbs of Chicago. He played Division-II baseball at the University of Illinois at Springfield where he earned a masters degree in Communication. Cameron also played independent league baseball for the Joliet Slammers and Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League. He has been in journalism for the better part of two years now, and has a passion for baseball specifically. His other work includes writing sports betting articles for ClutchPoints. In his free time, you can catch Cam at the gym, on the golf course, or coaching the youth in the beautiful sport of baseball.