Tigers' untimely injury to Kerry Carpenter results in roster move fans will hate

The Tigers aren't the fastest team in baseball — not by a long shot — but they believe in taking extra bases whenever they can. They do so over a 50% clip, more than anyone in the game (by a lot), and run hard even if they don't run fast.

That's what Kerry Carpenter was trying to do on Sunday night, during ESPN's primetime spot and with Tarik Skubal on the bump. Carpenter had already hit a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the first, but he added another run with a triple (his second of the season) to score Colt Keith from first. It put the Tigers up by three as Skubal shut out the Twins, but Carpenter was pulled from the game and replaced by Wenceel Pérez as a pinch runner.

Carpenter has battled injuries before, and frequently — last year, he missed two and a half months with a lumbar issue — and he already had a minor scare with a hamstring issue earlier this year.

On Tuesday, the Tigers moved him to the 10-day IL in what AJ Hinch called "a very cautious decision" and recalled Trey Sweeney, who was just sent down last week.

Tigers place Kerry Carpenter on 10-day IL with hamstring strain, recall Trey Sweeney

Carpenter can be relied upon to hit bombs and trot around the bases at a leisurely pace, but shouldn't be relied upon to run hard. During the Tigers' series opener against the Reds in mid-July, Carpenter was thrown out at the plate after trying to make it from second to home on a single, which led a Reds announcer to ask, "Kerry Carpenter can't run a lick, can he?"

It's awful timing, as Carpenter was just starting to get hot after a worrying slump that had some fans (way too preemptively) turning against him. He batted .350 with a 1.300 OPS, three homers, and five RBI over his last seven games after a .048/.178 seven-game stretch right before.

Sweeney was just demoted on June 28 after batting .221 with a .594 OPS in 70 games and seeing his playing time dramatically decreased going into June. He's played in all of two games in Triple-A and has gotten a hit and a walk in five at-bats. AJ Hinch did say that Sweeney should be ready to come back up to the majors at a moment's notice, but nobody was expecting it to be this soon, and we can't say fans are excited about one of the most frustrating players this year returning to the bigs.