The whiplash from the surprise of the Justin Verlander signing, to the images of the franchise\u2019s greatest pitcher working out in his old haunts alongside Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Framber Valdez on Wednesday, made from some fine visual storytelling. Pitchers and catchers reported to the Detroit Tigers complex in Lakeland to kick off spring training on Wednesday. Along with the traditional first injury report, which held a few minor surprises, we got our first look at the refurbished 2026 starting rotation.<\/p>\n
There were a few features, as Framber Valdez had his press conference alongside Scott Harris and GM Jeff Greenberg. There was an interesting note as his full group of rotation mates, Tarik Skubal, Justin Verlander, Jack Flaherty, and Casey Mize all walked in as the presser was starting to support their teammate. You like to see them working on that unity within the group from the start.<\/p>\n
A.J. Hinch talked to reporters about recruiting Framber Valdez, whose nickname is La Grassa. It literally refers to grease, but can be taken as something like \u201cSlick\u201d and comes from his former catcher Martin Maldonado teasing Valdez about his cologne and hair products rather than his pitching motion.<\/p>\n
Hinch also announced the Skubal will be the Opening Day starter. It\u2019s a pretty good bet that Verlander will be lined up for the April 3 home opener against the Cardinals. It\u2019s also a pretty good bet that the crowd is going to be downright ravenous even compared to most home openers.<\/p>\n
We also got the first injury report of the spring, which always holds some surprises. Jackson Jobe and Jake Miller were throwing from 60 feet, which is particularly positive in Jobe\u2019s case as he\u2019s still only about eight months out from his Tommy John surgery. On the most optimistic timetable, he\u2019ll be ready for a rehab assignment in July. Miller, in my eyes the Tigers top pitching prospect right now, is recovering from hip labrum surgery and may require a little extended spring training time before returning to Double or Triple-A to begin his season.<\/p>\n
The only thing to really give any pause was the note that Dillon Dingler had his second elbow arthroscopy in two years. The procedure is generally very minor, used to clean up any scar tissue or bone spurs around the UCL. Still, while he\u2019s expected to be fully on schedule for Opening Day, it\u2019s worth keeping in mind. LHP Bailey Horn and RHP Troy Watson, both expected to provide minor league depth to the bullpen and rotation, also had the procedure but are on track. Beyond that it\u2019s the usual litany of minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Scott Harris was on hand, and spoke to reporters about how the Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez deals came together.<\/p>\n
Finally, Parker Meadows wasn\u2019t checking his phone over the past 24 hours and got a surprise when he arrived to find Justin Verlander in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The whiplash from the surprise of the Justin Verlander signing, to the images of the franchise\u2019s greatest pitcher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,3536,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-566933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroit-tigers-news","12":"tag-detroittigers","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116054175473533651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}