Tigers Star Outfielder Opens Up About Frustrating Injury Struggles in 2025
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The 2025 MLB season wound up being one to forget for the Detroit Tigers, amidst a historic September collapse, and the same could be said on a personal level for one of the club's biggest stars.
Following a promising but injury-marred 2024 campaign, Kerry Carpenter held high hopes for 2025, but struggled while being hindered by hamstring strain issues. As it turned out, the 28-year-old right fielder actually pulled his hamstring on four separate occasions over the course of the season.
“That’s why it didn’t look like I was running that hard," recalls Carpenter, regarding the hamstring strains. "I couldn’t go that hard. I just kept pulling it.”
A Timeline of Carpenter's Hamstring Strains
In an interview with Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, Carpenter went into detail over the timeline of his numerous hamstring woes.
Carpenter revealed that he initially pulled his hamstring during an April 20 game against the Kansas City Royals while legging out an infield single. Attempting to play through the injury after a few days off, he ultimately re-aggravated it during a May game against the Boston Red Sox and again two weeks later during another series against the Royals.
After hamstring woes reared their ugly head once more in late June when the Tigers played the Minnesota Twins, Carpenter was finally placed on the injured list. Ultimately, the Eustis, Florida native saw action in 130 regular season games. While he hit a career-high 26 home runs, he saw his OPS drop from .932 to .788 and admitted to physical limitations, specifically related to his speed.
Carpenter Focused on Better Health in 2026
Fortunately for Carpenter, the 2025 season wasn't a complete loss. Although Detroit's postseason run ended with an American League Division Series loss to the Seattle Mariners, it did provide a healthy Carpenter with the opportunity to end the campaign on a positive note, producing two home runs, six RBI and a .910 OPS over eight games,
Early signs this spring are encouraging for Carpenter. With a renewed focus on his health, he seems to have benefited from a tweaked offseason training regime aimed at achieving more balance between strength, mobility and durability. According to Stavenhagen, he has looked stronger and leaner in the early days of camp.
The renewed optimism surrounding Carpenter mirrors many of the feelings around the team. For all the disappointment around both the Tigers' collapse and Carpenter's struggles in 2025, a stellar offseason for the franchise and a clean bill of health for their star outfielder brings new hope for the 2026 campaign.
Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.