The Indianapolis Indians activated Ji-hwan Bae from the Injured List today and he is in the starting lineup tonight in the DH spot. Bae has been out since July 24th with an oblique injury. This is very good news on his return date because the Pirates just recently said that they were hoping to get him back before the end of the season. While the lower level schedules all end within the next few weeks, the Triple-A schedule runs until September 28th, so he has plenty of time to see regular action.
Bae was hitting .297/.364/.450 at the time of the injury, though his .693 OPS in July was his lowest mark of the first four months. He was still trending towards his big league debut at that point, so it will be interesting to see if his return now is treated more like a rehab situation and once he’s playing full games in the field on back-to-back days, then we could see him in Pittsburgh. I think the worst case now, unless his hitting is poor over the next two weeks, is that we see him when the big league roster expands by two spots in September.
