The Detroit Tigers spent much of the summer hoping Wenceel Pérez could work his way back from one of the strangest injuries of their season.

They are running out of season before his vision returns to normal.

Pérez is “most likely” done for the year, A.J. Hinch said Friday, according to reporting from Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. Pérez has been sidelined since June after an exercise band snapped back during a postgame arm-care routine and struck him near his left eye, resulting in an orbital fracture and blurred vision.

The fracture itself was scary enough. The lingering vision problems have turned what initially looked like an unusual injury with an encouraging prognosis into something much more stubborn.

And at this point, getting Pérez completely healthy matters considerably more than squeezing a few September at-bats out of him.

Pérez’s Rehab Attempt Never Really Got Going

There was legitimate optimism earlier in the summer.

When Pérez was initially placed on the injured list in June, Detroit indicated that his eyesight was not expected to suffer long-term damage. The Tigers later sent him on rehab assignments to Lakeland and Triple-A Toledo, with MLB’s official transaction log showing his move to Toledo on Aug. 6.

Then the comeback stopped.

Pérez was pulled from his rehab assignment in August because his vision had not returned to normal. He had gone 0-for-12 during the rehab stint with six strikeouts, numbers that become fairly meaningless once you know the player was still trying to hit while dealing with compromised vision.

There is no useful baseball evaluation to make from that.

If a hitter cannot see the ball properly, the rest of the conversation can wait.

Detroit Lost More Than Pérez’s Bat

Pérez’s 2026 offensive numbers were not good before the injury.

He hit .180 with seven home runs, 17 RBI and a .594 OPS across 53 games. If this were simply an evaluation of production, Detroit would already have plenty of reasons to rethink his role heading into 2027.

His value has never been tied entirely to his slash line.

Pérez is a switch-hitter who can move around the outfield, and Hinch has repeatedly valued players who allow him to reshape a lineup without completely reshaping the roster. Earlier this season, Pérez was the “clear option” when Detroit needed an experienced outfielder rather than accelerating Max Clark’s development timeline.

That roster has changed dramatically since then.

Clark is now in Detroit. Ben Malgeri and Brett Callahan have received opportunities. Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling have dealt with their own injury issues. The Tigers have spent September learning far more about their 2027 outfield than they probably expected to learn in June.

Pérez has not been able to participate in any of it.

The 2027 Question Can Wait

There will eventually be a baseball discussion about where Pérez fits.

Detroit has more young outfield options than it did when the season began, and Pérez will enter next year needing to reestablish himself after a season in which both performance and injury worked against him.

That is not Friday’s most important development.

The Tigers once believed Pérez could get back onto a baseball field this season. His rehab assignment represented real progress toward that goal. Two months later, his vision still has not recovered enough for Detroit to comfortably put him back in a Major League batter’s box.

That makes Hinch’s update disappointing, but not difficult to understand.

September plate appearances are replaceable.

Normal vision is not.