CINCINNATI — The Detroit Tigers are a different team with Parker Meadows on the roster. The defense gains an elite center fielder, and the offense has more upside.

Meadows returned to the Tigers from Triple-A Toledo for Friday's game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, his first MLB appearance since the beginning of May. The 24-year-old already has three hits in eight trips to the plate, including two hits off fastballs.

"Parker is my brother," said Wenceel Pérez, who followed a key eighth-inning double from Meadows with a pinch-hit two-run home run in Saturday's 5-3 win over the Reds. "We've been playing together since a long time ago. It's great to have him here. I think he's a great player, but he's a better person."

Meadows, a left-handed hitter, also impacts the Tigers in other ways.

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The Tigers built their roster to weaponize replacements off the bench, especially pinch-hitters.

With Meadows, the roster inches closer to the way it was intended to function. Still, it remains incomplete while fellow left-handed hitter Kerry Carpenter sits on the injured list with a lumbar spine stress fracture.

The Tigers have used more than nine position players in 31 of 37 games (83.8%) with Meadows on the roster, but they used more than nine position players in just 31 of 53 games (58.5%) without Meadows on the roster.

"It's not the same team," manager A.J. Hinch said Wednesday, just two days before the Tigers recalled Meadows. "The at-bat on the bench has not necessarily been a strength. ... We certainly haven't been able to deploy that strategy a lot, and it's completely different. It is something that I'd like our guys to get back to."

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Facing right-handed starters, the Tigers typically will make a daily decision between Matt Vierling, Mark Canha, Justyn-Henry Malloy and Gio Urshela — start three, bench one — because Meadows is a lock to play center field, while leaving Andy Ibáñez on the bench for left-handed relievers. If all four of them play, then the switch-hitting Pérez will be on the bench awaiting a left-handed reliever.

Canha, Malloy and Urshela will be impacted the most from a playing time standpoint, but in theory, the bench gets deeper for late-game situations when a pinch-hitter is needed.

"Plenty of at-bats to go around," Hinch said before Friday's game. "I would say that in the last couple of weeks we've had to run these guys into the ground a little bit too much, and days off here and there will be good for them."

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As for positioning, the return of Meadows pushes Vierling from the outfield to the infield again. Vierling received most of the playing time in center field while Meadows was finding his timing at the plate with the Mud Hens, followed by Riley Greene.

Vierling has earned everyday playing time as a multi-positional player because of his production on offense. If the Tigers need Urshela at third base for his above-average defense against a lineup full of right-handed hitters, then Vierling will play a corner outfield position next to Meadows.

Another thing: Vierling is going to play first base soon.

"Whatever I can do to be in the lineup," said Vierling, hitting .246 with 11 home runs in 79 games. "I feel like being able to third base and other infield positions and all the outfield positions, I give myself a good chance to crack the lineup every day. Whatever I can do to be in the lineup every day. I'll do whatever they need me to do."

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Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Parker Meadows return to Detroit Tigers adds to strategic plan