Tigers' Meadows placed on IL with anxiety

Detroit Tigers outfielder Austin Meadows has left the team due to anxiety, the team announced Saturday.

Meadows was placed on the 10-day injured list, and it's unclear when he'll return to the team. Outfielder Akil Baddoo was recalled from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move and took Meadows' place in left field for Saturday's game against the Boston Red Sox, according to Jason Beck of MLB.com.

"The Tigers fully support Austin's decision to step away from the team and prioritize his mental health," president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. "As an organization, we have taken many steps to provide and destigmatize mental health resources, and we will do more to help our players tackle the mental and physical challenges they face on a daily basis. We commend Austin for confronting these challenges head-on and ask our fans to join us in supporting him through every step of his journey back to the field."

Meadows missed the majority of the 2022 season because of mental health issues. Last September, he publicly opened up about his struggles in hopes that he could "touch at least one person who might be going through their own struggles and encourage them to reach out to someone to help."

The 27-year-old was an All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019 and also earned down-ballot MVP votes in 2021 before being traded to Detroit last April. After returning to the Tigers this spring, Meadows was named the team's Opening Day left fielder and went 5-for-21 at the plate in six games.