Riley Greene's night against the Guardians started with him getting drilled in the leg on a 92-mph sinker and finished with him getting pulled from left field an inning later. He tried to play through it, scoring from first on a Spencer Torkelson double right after getting hit, but the hamstring tightened up on the trip around the bases and Detroit wasn't about to gamble with it.
That gamble officially got called off. The Tigers placed Greene on the 10-day injured list with the right hamstring strain, and while the club hasn't nailed down an exact return date, 10 days is the floor, not the ceiling, on these things.
Losing Greene right now stings more than usual. He's been Detroit's best everyday bat, hitting.273/.366/.450 with 16 home runs and a 129 wRC+, good for 2.6 WAR despite the strikeouts that come with his swing. He's not a role player the Tigers can shrug off — he's the guy in the middle of the order.
The timing makes it worse. Detroit is sitting within half a game of a Wild Card spot and just 2.5 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central, meaning every game the rest of August carries real weight. Playing meaningful baseball without your best outfielder for at least a week and a half is not the plan A.J. Hinch drew up.
To fill the roster spot, the Tigers selected the contract of 30-year-old outfielder Corey Julks, who signed a minor league deal over the winter and had crushed it at Triple-A. He's got the track record in the minors, but he's also struggled in his limited MLB looks — a downgrade in production the Tigers will just have to absorb for now. Right-hander Troy Watson was designated for assignment to open the 40-man spot.
The best-case scenario has Greene back around the minimum 10-day window with the hamstring calmed down. The worst case is a lingering issue that keeps nagging into September, right when Detroit needs its lineup at full strength. Either way, the Tigers are about to find out how deep this roster really is.