Gleyber Torres reinstated from the injured list for Twins series

The second baseman has been out since March 28 with an oblique strain.

The Detroit Tigers have reinstated second baseman Gleyber Torres from the injured list prior to tonight’s series opener at Target Field against the Minnesota Twins . The infielder strained an oblique while hitting a home run in the Tigers’ March 28th loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers .

The Tigers optioned outfielder Brewer Hicklen back to Triple-A Toledo last night, so it was clear a move was coming. We speculated yesterday that the Tigers might decide to send Torres on a short rehab assignment to make sure he was 100 percent, but they decided it wasn’t necessary. As a result they now face some tricky decisions in the lineup.

Since Torres went down with the injury, Spencer Torkelson has been a force at the plate and is playing first base every day. Meanwhile Colt Keith has been slow to get going offensively, and his move back to second base to cover for Torres has not gone well at all. Multiple errors on fairly routine plays over the past two weeks have shown the second year 23-year-old to be in his own head on the field. Manager AJ Hinch described it as simply being too careful and playing defensively, with the result of letting the ball play him instead of the reverse on those plays in question.

Now Hinch faces some interesting decisions. He’s one who is perfectly happy to sit a good hitter in order to have a high end pinch-hitting option on the bench. However, Justyn-Henry Malloy has been productive out of the designated hitter slot as well. Both Malloy and Torkelson have played a little corner outfield, but clearly the Tigers don’t want to see that much in the regular season.

Torres is going to play second base just about everyday, presumably. Spencer Torkelson is simply too hot to sit. That leaves Keith and Malloy vying for time in the designated hitter spot. Probably Torres and Torkelson will get a little DH time over the next week to make sure Torres is 100 percent and also to keep Keith playing in the field at least a little. Whether they’re willing to put Riley Greene in center field and use Malloy or even Torkelson a bit in a corner spot remains to be seen. That would optimize the lineup, but at the expense of their defense. That’s not a tradeoff the Tigers will want to push too far.

Hinch is really good at communicating his decisions and their reasoning to players and seems to be able to get buy in on almost anything he and his staff decide to do. It will be interesting how they line things up with Torres back in the fold.

In other news, outfielder Manuel Margot was diagnosed with a strained patellar tendon after hitting the injured list with inflammation in his left knee.