After being hit in the head by a ball during batting practice on Friday, Detroit Tigers pitcher Al Alburquerque was taken to the hospital. He is set to remain there overnight for observation after doctors determined he has a concussion.
Because Alburquerque's injury is a concussion, he is headed to the seven-day disabled list, which is new for this year. Rather than force players with concussions to be on the disabled list for 15 days, the new seven-day DL gives players like Alburquerque a week to recover. This also gives teams roster flexibility and doesn't force them to be down a man if a concussion isn't severe enough to require a trip to the 15-day DL.
Of course, this early on there's no telling how long Alburquerque might be out. The hope is he will be fine in a week and not need to spend any time on the DL beyond that, but it's not clear if that will be the case or not. Concussions can keep a player out for a day or two or even up to a year. It all depends on how Alburquerque recovers.
With Alburquerque set to miss the next week at the least, the Tigers have decided to call up Ryan Perry from Triple-A Toledo.