The Tigers have activated Kerry Carpenter from the 10-day injured list, per Tony Paul of The Detroit News. He will bat fourth and serve as the DH today against the White Sox. Gage Workman has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding active roster move.

Carpenter has been on the shelf since May 10th with a left AC joint sprain. Recent reporting indicated that he and Gleyber Torres were set to begin rehab assignments. In Carpenter’s case, that ended up lasting just two games. He now returns to the Tigers having missed exactly three weeks.

Carpenter, now in his fifth season in the Majors, recorded 117 plate appearances before his injury. He batted .216/.299/.451 in that small sample, good for a 107 wRC+. Carpenter was walking 9.4% of the time, a big step up from last year’s 3.9% walk rate. However, he was also striking out at a 34.2% clip, which would be a career high over a full season. Going forward, the club will bank on Carpenter cutting the strikeouts back to the mid-20s and resuming his place as a middle-of-the-order bat.

Detroit can use all the help they can get on offense. The team ranks 24th in the Majors with a 93 wRC+ and is also fourth-worst with a .367 slugging percentage. Riley Greene, Kevin McGonigle, and Dillon Dingler are all in the 116-138 wRC+ range. Spencer Torkelson is right around league average despite a .208 average and a massive 32.3% strikeout rate. Six other Tigers hitters have taken at least 100 plate appearances. Aside from Carpenter and Torres, Colt Keith (92 wRC+) is the only one approaching respectability. Matt Vierling (77 wRC+), Wenceel Pérez (52), and Zach McKinstry (29) have been dreadful.

All in all, the Tigers have a 22-37 record entering today’s game. That puts them dead last in the weak AL Central and at an 11.0% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs. The return of Carpenter is not enough to solve their woes, which have been caused by rotation injuries in addition to the struggling offense. Adding Carpenter and his .502 career slugging percentage will certainly help, but even then, the club would need to play at a 92-win pace the rest of the way just to finish at .500.

The optioning of Workman to the minors is a neat reversal, as he was selected from Triple-A when Carpenter went down on May 10th. The 26-year-old Workman only made 38 plate appearances in those three weeks, and unfortunately, the results were ugly. Workman batted .158/.158/.395 with a 44 wRC+, striking out 16 times and failing to draw a walk. He’s faired much better in Triple-A this year, batting .358/.413/.590 with a 163 wRC+ in 150 plate appearances. That will give him more chances eventually, though he’ll obviously need to hit more if he wants to stick.

Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images