Wenceel Pérez out with back inflammation, Parker Meadows to the 60-day IL

Well this just gets worse and worse, eh?

Things just keep getting worse in center field. On Monday evening, the Detroit Tigers placed outfielder Wenceel Pérez on the injured list with lower back inflammation. They moved Parker Meadows to the 60-day injured list, conceding that the nerve issue in his arm isn’t getting better anytime soon. And finally they recalled utilityman Ryan Kreidler from Triple-A Toledo, and he will start in center field against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night at Oracle Park.

Pretty bad news all around. Pérez has battled some back trouble in the past, and it’s plagued him throughout spring camp. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports than the Tigers expect the 25-year-old to miss at least a month to ensure that the lower back inflammation is entirely resolved before he goes out on a rehab assignment.

As for Meadows, the Tigers have tried to put the sunniest face possible on the nerve injury in his upper right arm, but as spring camp stretched on, it’s become obvious that he’s going to miss a lot of time. Injuries like his have taken the better part of six months to resolve in some cases, and even if the nerve re-activates by the end of May as hoped, Meadows is going to be in no condition to go right out on a rehab assignment either. He’s going to have to rebuild strength in the arm before he’s really in full playing condition, and only then can he get some ABs at the Triple-A level and try to ramp up for major league duty.

Moving Meadows to the 60-day injured list was mentioned in my article yesterday as a looming contingency, and here we are already. The need to open a 40-man roster spot may this one pretty certain. Meadows now won’t be eligible to return until May 27 at the earliest. He hasn’t played since the injury occurred on February 22.

The roster spot will go to veteran outfielder Manuel Margot. The right-handing hitting Margot is not the high end defender he was earlier in his career, but he still has the speed to play a fairly solid center field and is better in the corners. A bigger issue with him is his inability to hit right-handed pitching. The one year, $1.3M contract Margot signed has some incentives based on playing time, and the way things are going he may get a chance to hit those metrics.

So, the Tigers have no real center fielder, and they don’t even have someone who can play out there against right-handed pitching at all. Akil Baddoo is still recovering from a hook hamate fracture in his hand, and probably won’t be ready until mid-April at the earliest. Pérez was their last hope for a speedy outfielder who could hit right-handed pitching, despite his inexperience in center field.

Ryan Kreidler also does not hit right-handed pitching, and so far has shown little ability to hit major league pitching in any capacity in his three brief looks at the major league level. In his defense, he’s also had his hand or wrist broken repeatedly over those three years, and is perhaps the healthiest we’ve ever seen him at the game’s highest level. He’s had a nice spring with a 22.2 percent strikeout and walk rate each, with two homers and a 117 wRC+, but it’s hard to have any confidence in that. Just as much to the point is Kreidler’s very limited center field experience.

The Tigers have resorted to considering Javier Báez as a possible depth option in center field, the situation is that bad.

One idea they don’t seem interested in is the most obvious one. Riley Greene doesn’t have the speed to play a plus center field, but he’s overall a superb outfielder as well as the team’s best hitter. The Tigers have been concerned about Greene hurting himself, but the difference in risk between left field and center field is minimal, if any even exists. They might need to reconsider that sentiment, at least against right-handed starting pitchers.

The Tigers didn’t do much to upgrade their positional group this offseason, and that too is biting them hard here as they can’t fall back on their offense. Losing Meadows is a blow on both sides of the game, and they can’t be expected to have another ace center fielder up their sleeve, but they’re also going to be hard pressed to improve on their mediocre offensive production last year.

Hopefully hitters like Spencer Torkelson or Justyn-Henry Malloy can do some damage out of the designated hitter spot. That, at least, would take a little of the pressure off some of the rest of the roster. The return of Matt Vierling, who can handle center field and adds another dimension to the offense, will also help. He’s rehabbing his shoulder injury and currently expect to be back to action within a few weeks.