DETROIT -- The Tigers’ late-summer charge back into the American League playoff race has coincided with a healthy lineup after a barrage of injuries early in the season. But they’ll have to keep up their momentum without All-Star left fielder Riley Greene, who was placed on the 10-day injured list on Wednesday after exiting Tuesday’s 6-4 win over the Guardians with a right hamstring strain.
Veteran outfielder Corey Julks was selected from Triple-A Toledo to fill his spot.
Greene left Tuesday’s game after scoring from first base on a Spencer Torkelson double. Greene reached base after Tanner Bibee’s 92.1 mph sinker hit him just below his right knee in the second inning, but the hit-by-pitch had no apparent relationship with the injury to follow. He shooed away manager A.J. Hinch and head athletic trainer Ryne Eubanks, and he even ran to first base to demonstrate he was fine.
Greene showed no limitation rounding the bases. According to Hinch, the injury occurred as he was slowing up heading into home plate.
“You know when you see the guy who grabs his hamstring and then hobbles for [the rest of the way]? He never hobbled,” Hinch said. “I’m hopeful that’s a very good sign, as opposed to the sort of massive grab and hop because you don’t want to put any pressure on it. He never really winced until he got back in the dugout.”
Ensuing examinations indicated Greene would be out for at least the next few days, which left Hinch and the Tigers with a decision.
“I don't think it was necessarily a close decision,” Hinch said. “It was just a thorough examination and getting multiple people to weigh in about it. So when you look at these, what I've learned in the consistency is everybody wants to fight through it, they feel like they can do a little bit more than they really can. And then you look up and you're not playing for a period of time, whether that is a short period, meaning this series, whether it's next series.
“Playing with a short roster, albeit with a limping Riley Greene, looks better on paper than it does how it functions.”
Greene was plagued by injuries over the first few seasons of his career, from a fractured right foot that delayed his big league debut in 2022, to a stress fracture in his left fibula that sidelined him for just over a month in 2023, to an elbow injury on a diving catch that led to season-ending Tommy John surgery that September. He hasn’t missed extensive time since a right hamstring strain in July 2024, a tribute to an offseason training, nutrition and sleep regimen he put in to keep his body healthy.
Greene’s durability has helped make him a key cog in the Tigers' lineup. His 16 home runs and 54 RBIs trail only Dillon Dingler and Spencer Torkelson on the team, and his 129 wRC+ trails only Dingler and Kevin McGonigle among Tigers regulars. Greene has batted third, fourth or fifth for all but four of his 117 games played this season.
Any absence is a tough spot for a Detroit team that has picked up offensively over the past couple months but is thin in the outfield with injuries to Kerry Carpenter (plantar fasciitis), Matt Vierling (left adductor strain), Wenceel Pérez (left orbital fracture) and Parker Meadows (broken left arm).
“We'll see how long it takes,” Hinch said. “I'm done with timelines and questions. Myself, I'm not even going to ask questions. Let me know when he's moving around a little bit. We think it's mild. That's the one thing I'll give you. But you know, he wasn't going to play in this series or the next, and that's an impossible thing to ask out of your team.”
Julks gives the Tigers a veteran hitter and right-handed bat to counter a potential run of left-handed pitchers coming up. The former Astros and White Sox hitter has 165 big league games since 2023, slashing .234/.288/.337 in 525 career plate appearances. The 30-year-old made an impression in Spring Training as a non-roster invite, then batted .273/.347/.453 with 15 homers and 54 RBIs in 86 games for Toledo.