'It could've been worse': Greene (hamstring) lands on IL

DETROIT -- The last thing Riley Greene wanted this season was a return to the injured list. But the way his right hamstring was hobbling him, playing through it wasn’t working.

His swings were almost all arms, a shadow of the fluid form that made the Tigers outfielder an All-Star this month at age 23. His explosive movements were lacking and games at designated hitter were only masking the issue rather than fixing it.

“I knew I was getting into my legs, and that’s not me,” Greene said. “Didn’t feel too good [Thursday], even when I wasn’t hitting.”

Said manager A.J. Hinch: “He didn’t look right. You guys saw it. We saw it.”

Thursday’s 0-for-4, three-strikeout performance at Cleveland was an alarm that prompted Greene and the Tigers to get him checked out. Tests revealed what Greene and the Tigers called a mild strain of his hamstring, prompting the Tigers to place their star hitter on the 10-day injured list in hopes of avoiding a worse injury and longer absence.

“It could’ve been worse,” Greene said, “and I’m glad it’s not. There’s really no timeline behind it. It’s just based on how I’m feeling. And we’ll just go from there.”

It’s the third IL stint in two seasons for Greene, none of them for the same injury. He missed about five weeks last summer with a stress reaction in his left fibula, then saw his season end a month early after a right elbow injury on a diving catch led to Tommy John surgery. His MLB debut in 2022 was delayed until mid-June due to a fractured right foot on a foul ball he hit in the final days of Spring Training.

His latest injury isn’t nearly as severe or concerning. But the Tigers would rather knock it out now than risk suffering a more severe strain or suffer a different injury compensating for it.

“Despite him being able to do some things, we have to protect him,” Hinch said. “We’re going to see if some time off can mend this faster than trying to work through it.”

Unlike most hamstring injuries, Greene said he had no particular incident in which it pulled. Though he made a sliding catch on the turf at Globe Life Field during last week’s All-Star Game and played two games in center field on the artificial surface at Toronto’s Rogers Centre last weekend, Greene said he didn’t feel an injury until Monday in Cleveland, where he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and played in center field.

Beyond last week, though, Greene has carried a heavy workload all season as the main cog in a young Tigers lineup and outfield. He began the season in left field but has played center frequently this summer after Parker Meadows was optioned to Triple-A Toledo and later went on the injured list with a right hamstring strain.

Greene started 94 of Detroit’s 97 games before the break, entered two of the other three as a reserve and played the full game in 91 of them.

To fill Greene’s roster spot, the Tigers recalled Ryan Vilade, who went 6-for-18 with a solo homer in his latest Detroit stint before being optioned to Triple-A Toledo last Sunday for Bligh Madris. Vilade will likely see a healthy amount of left field in Greene’s place, while Matt Vierling will be Detroit’s primary center fielder.