The Tigers have placed injured outfielder and slugger Brennan Boesch on the disabled list after he underwent thumb surgery earlier in the week.
The move allows the Tigers to have more flexibility in the playoffs, allowing them to call up a player that was otherwise ineligible. The guidelines for playoff rosters are as follows:
To be eligible to play in the playoffs, a player must have been on his team’s active roster, the disabled list, the bereavement list, the paternity list or the suspended list as of midnight Aug. 31.
But players who have served their time on the disabled list and are still on the disabled list when the regular season ends can be replaced with other players in the organization when a team puts together its playoff roster.
The Tigers already have two players on the disabled list, pitchers Brad Thomas and Joel Zumaya. Chris Iott from MLive speculates that the most likely replacement candidate is outfielder Andy Dirks.
Boesch originally suffered the injury to his right thumb on Aug. 9 against the Indians. He played sporadically over the next few weeks as he tried to gut it out, but it was eventually discovered that he had a torn ligament and needed surgery.