Kerry Carpenter's injury is much worse than Tigers fans could have imagined

Just a few days ago, the Detroit Tigers were dealt a significant blow as one of their absolute best hitters this year in Kerry Carpenter went on the injured list with spinal inflammation. Anytime one's spine is described as "inflamed," it's definitely spooky, but fans could at least take some solace in the fact that Carpenter was only placed on the 10-day IL and that there wasn't anything more severe announced than inflammation.

Unfortunately, those hopes were swiftly crushed on Friday when the Tigers revealed a turn for the worse: Carpenter's injury is actually a lumbar spine stress fracture.

While we're not medical experts here, that sounds decidedly worse than "inflammation" on basically every level.

Tigers News: Kerry Carpenter's spinal injury is actually a stress fracture

Without getting too far into the weeds sans actual confirmation from the Tigers' or Carpenter's doctors, this is an brutal development. Inflammation can conceal stress fractures during scans sometimes, so it isn't crazy that the stress fracture was only just now identified.

If it was inflammation, there was a world where Carpenter returns after his 10 allotted days on the IL. With a stress fracture in his spine, the Tigers are going to be without Carpenter and his .914 OPS for quite a bit longer than that.

How much longer remains to be seen and will be determined by his rehab, but all the Tigers can do for the moment is hope that other spots in the lineup can pick the team up. They also need the guy Detroit called up to replace Carpenter on the roster, Akil Baddoo, to at least approach filling the void. Baddoo did hit his first MLB homer of the season on Thursday, which was at least a little promising, but it is safe to say that the Tigers and their fans are going to be fervently hoping that Carpenter can get healthy sooner rather than later.

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