Detroit’s Omar Infante Placed on 15-Day DL
By Brad Rowland
In a mostly procedural move, the Detroit Tigers placed starting 2nd baseman (and ultra utility guy) Omar Infante on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday. Infante suffered an ankle injury on Wednesday, July 3rd after being smashed into by Toronto OF Colby Rasmus on a slide, and as a result, he hasn’t appeared in a game since then.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they did not attempt to bring him back in a defensive and/or pinch-hitting role and the DL stint will be applied retroactively to July 4th. This will allow Infante to rest and recover through the All-Star break and be eligible to return to action as early as July 19th.
During the 2013 season, Infante has exceed expectations in a fairly significant fashion. He’s posted a .309 batting average (.340 on-base percentage) over 309 plate appearances, and while he’ll never produce big-time power (6 home runs this year), he puts the ball in play and plays solid defense at multiple positions. Detroit recalled IF Hernan Perez in Infante’s place, and it appears as if they will play him the majority of the time until Infante returns.
Detroit enters Tuesday night with a 3-game division lead and, provided the DL stint isn’t terribly long, this should be nothing more than a small setback in their march to the AL Central crown.