Hi @gtilden and welcome to Tulip Community! 
There is some interesting, very related discussion in this thread you may find interesting: Player Link: Does not open app if player is closed
Would using an app transition trigger work instead of the Player link in your apps for what you are looking to achieve?
The Player link was intended to allow users to share and reference apps outside of Tulip Apps, so the app transition trigger is a better option here if you want to call apps from within Tulip.