DETROIT -- For the second time in five weeks, the Tigers have Matt Vierling back from the injured list, adding another valuable, versatile bat to their already productive lineup. They’re optimistic they have a plan to keep his shoulder issues, which have stubbornly hampered his season since Spring Training, behind him.
“I'm so grateful to be back,” he said Saturday morning. “Going back on there again kinda took a toll on me for a couple weeks, so to be able to be back with the boys, I'm just so grateful to be here and realize how lucky we are.”
Detroit reinstated Vierling from the 10-day injured list Saturday morning after he missed about a month with right shoulder inflammation. He immediately contributed to the Tigers, playing center field and finishing 1-for-3 with a sacrifice fly during Detroit's 10-5 win over the Orioles at Comerica Park.
"I was just so happy to be out there and be with the team and give it my all," Vierling said. "Just trying to help the team as much as I could. And I really missed it."
Vierling missed the first 51 games of the season with a right rotator cuff muscle strain sustained in his lone Spring Training game on Feb. 23. He returned on May 23, but played in just four games before he felt soreness in the shoulder again, different from what he felt in the initial injury.
“I was terrified that it was something worse,” Vierling admitted. “I think that's the natural instinct when you start feeling it again. It wasn't the same as what I felt before. Throwing was pretty much fine, but just moving around didn't feel great.
“Yeah, I was concerned. I think that everybody was concerned. But to get the news from some good doctors that it wasn't anything more than inflammation and I just had to let it run its course and get some medicine in me, I'm really grateful that was the case and felt pretty lucky to hear that.”
Once that became clear, the Tigers and Vierling modified his rehab process to prepare him better for the daily grind as well as the more difficult plays he could encounter in games.
“Physically, I'd say I feel way better,” he said. “I felt pretty ready before after that first IL stint, but I think now I'm more in good shape to withstand more of a toll that the season takes. I think that I've made more high-intensity throws this past IL stint, built myself up even more to handle the throws that it takes. Plus, the pain, soreness and all that have been alleviated. It helps a lot.”
Vierling played seven games on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo over a two-week stretch, taking a break early for a throwing progression with the Tigers’ training staff before missing a few days last week with a stomach bug. After playing a couple of games in the outfield this week, he cleared his final hurdle Thursday when he played third base for the Mud Hens.
“We can measure a lot of different things, or we can watch and scout and observe, but the reality of it is the player who knows he has to make throws and his readiness to do that,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “In talking with him, this is the most confident I’ve heard him over the course of this injury. And he did demonstrate a few throws and got a ton of at-bats, so he was itching to get back, and we certainly want him back.”
Vierling will mix into the outfield and at third. While the Tigers watch his workload, Vierling will watch his shoulder maintenance.
Vierling’s return comes at the expense of Trey Sweeney, who was optioned to Triple-A Toledo to make room on the 26-man roster. Sweeney was Detroit’s near-everyday shortstop for the first two months of the season, having overtaken Javier Báez. But Báez became a Comeback Player of the Year candidate in center field, and once Parker Meadows returned from injury a few weeks ago, Báez shifted back to his natural position and supplanted Sweeney at shortstop.
“We’ve got to get Trey back on the field playing a little bit more,” Hinch said. “He was the odd man out.”