Detroit Tigers right-hander Reese Olson completed the third start of his rehab assignment Wednesday, June 25, with Triple-A Toledo, throwing four innings on 74 pitches. The 25-year-old is recovering from a right ring finger injury.
He seems ready for his MLB return.
The Tigers won’t make a decision about Olson’s next step until evaluating him in his upcoming bullpen session, but when asked directly, manager A.J. Hinch didn’t say Olson needed another rehab start.
“We won’t make a decision until we absolutely have to at the very last second,” Hinch said Wednesday afternoon. “He’s in a good spot. There’s no reason to talk about a week from now until a week from now.”
If cleared, Olson could start for the Tigers as early as Tuesday, July 1, against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. He hasn’t pitched for the Tigers since May 17.
He has missed more than one month with finger inflammation.
“The next step would be a bullpen in the next day or two,” Hinch said. “We’ll have an update when we can.”
The finger injury forced Olson to stop throwing his elite changeup, which he couldn’t implement into bullpen sessions until two weeks ago. He threw zero changeups in his first rehab start, seven changeups in his second rehab start and 14 changeups in his third rehab start.
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He threw his changeup 18.9% of the time in Wednesday’s rehab start, approaching the usage of his changeup in nine pre-injury starts, at 25.3%.
The increased usage is a good sign.
In Wednesday’s rehab start, Olson allowed two runs on three hits and one walk with five strikeouts in four innings, throwing 49 of 74 pitches for strikes. He generated 10 whiffs with two fastballs, two sinkers, two changeups, three sliders and one curveball.
HIs fastball averaged 94.5 mph.
“I know Reese got to his pitch count,” Hinch said. “Not quite to his innings count that we were hoping, but from what I was told — I haven’t talked to Reese directly — things checked out really, really well. He was happy with all of his pitches, and the fact that he got through it unscathed, in terms of health-wise, is a great step forward.”
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Dietrich Enns arrives
Left-hander Dietrich Enns will be selected by the Tigers from Triple-A Toledo for the game Thursday, June 26, against the Athletics. The 34-year-old reported to Comerica Park on Wednesday for an acclimation day, but he isn’t allowed to be in the dugout during the game.
To activate him, the Tigers need to create space on the 26-man and 40-man rosters.
“He can spend the day with us,” Hinch said. “He can get his prep work in. He can get all the hellos out of the way and watch the game. We plan on activating him.”
Joining the Tigers, Enns posted a 2.89 ERA with 15 walks and 71 strikeouts across 62⅓ innings in 14 starts for Triple-A Toledo. His only MLB experience entering Thursday’s game: two games with the Minnesota Twins in 2017 and nine games with the Tampa Bay Rays (including two wins in appearances against the Tigers) in 2021.
Riley Greene ‘on a heater’
Since June 8, left fielder Riley Greene is hitting .418 with four home runs, six walks and 15 strikeouts in 14 games, posting a 1.231 OPS. Before this stretch, the 24-year-old hit .272 with an .812 OPS in his first 64 games.
Hinch said Greene has been “on a heater” recently.
Greene ranks second among American League players with 45 RBIs since May 1, trailing only Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who leads the AL with 51 RBIs.
“It’s fun to watch him when he’s hitting to all fields, he’s hitting for power, he’s hitting in big spots,” Hinch added. “I love that he’s letting the game come to him a little bit more. Now that’s a little bit easier when you’re piling up the success that he’s piled up in the last few weeks, but it coincides with getting good pitches to hit and getting good counts and not trying to do too much. It’s amazing in this sport, for guys like him, not trying to do too much actually has you do a lot of things well. He’s an example of that.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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