Austin Meadows and Victor Reyes both made early exits from the Tigers’ 5-1 win over the Orioles today, and postgame, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jason Beck) that the two outfielders would be placed on the 10-day injured list.
Meadows missed three games last week due to a sinus infection, and he hadn’t played in Detroit’s previous two games due to what he described as dizziness or vertigo-like symptoms. Attempting to play today, Meadows managed only one inning before having to depart, with Hinch saying that Meadows felt nauseous and lightheaded in addition to continued dizziness. The skipper said that Meadows will meet with a doctor Monday in Florida when the Tigers travel to visit the Rays.
Reyes was only just activated from the IL earlier today after missing three weeks with a left quad strain. Unfortunately for Reyes, he suffered a strain of his right quad while running the bases after a double in his first at-bat. Reyes had to be immediately replaced by a pinch-runner.
The Tigers were going to call up Alex Faedo to start Monday’s game against Tampa Bay, so Faedo will take the roster place of one of the injured outfielders. It would seem like a position player would be the other callup in order to help bolster the bench, and this could provide an opening for the recently-demoted Akil Baddoo to return to the majors. However, Baddoo hasn’t hit much during his week in Triple-A, so the Tigers might want to give him more time to really get on track before calling him back up the Show.
Derek Hill and Willi Castro can fill in for Meadows and Reyes in the outfield, but losing more position players won’t help a Detroit team that has been collectively ice-cold the plate. Meadows is one of the only Tigers with above-average production to date, with a .270/.365/.350 slash line over his first 115 plate appearances.