Brandon Inge returns from DL stint, Danny Worth optioned

Brandon Inge was activated from his stint on the disabled list after the fastest battle with mononucleosis that I've ever seen, and will return to his normal position. To make room, Worth was optioned to Triple-A Toledo.

Although I felt the team was a bit better while Inge was on the DL, I'm not going to write "all good things must come to an end" because Danny Worth and Don Kelly were only incrementally better than Inge, and the lineup didn't exactly go crazy with runs. So it's not like it makes a huge difference. It just felt like a refreshing change, I guess.

This season Worth is 4-for-17 (.235) with an OPS of .631 when he plays at the hot corner; Kelly 12-for-78 (.231) with a .581 OPS, and Inge 34-for-161 (.211) with a .565 OPS. Kelly seemed to play the best defense at third base of the trio. The only positive I can see there is that should the Tigers actually decide to upgrade the position it shouldn't be that hard to find a veteran player to trade for. (Not that I'm predicting a trade: They love Inge).

Inge batted .250 with the Mud Hens, finishing up the 7-game rehab stint with two home runs on Tuesday and a hit with two walks Wednesday.

While Inge was gone, Kelly took most of the starts at third, while Worth (and Alex Avila) filled in as necessary. Kelly mostly batted second in the lineup, though Brennan Boesch, Casper Wells and Ryan Raburn each batted there once as well.

So manager Jim Leyland could use this opportunity to make a bit of improvement to his lineup. Stop snickering. He could. Most likely we'll just see him put Raburn in the two hole, which you'll view as either a step up or step down depending on whether  Raburn has turned the corner in his struggles at the plate. (Yesterday didn't give a lot of confidence, admittedly.)

In the end, neither yesterday's nor today's moves are reason to have strong feelings either way.