{"id":688941,"date":"2026-05-03T03:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T03:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/688941\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T03:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T03:54:18","slug":"tigers-notes-torres-verlander-melton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/688941\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Notes: Torres, Verlander, Melton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres<\/a> left tonight\u2019s game with left side tightness, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News<\/a>. He had two singles in his first two plate appearances and was thrown out at home in the first, showing no obvious signs of injury. Although Torres remained in the game through the third inning, he was replaced by Hao-Yu Lee<\/a> at the keystone in the top of the fourth. Torres is undergoing further evaluation, according to McCosky.<\/p>\n

Pulling Torres may turn out to be a cautionary move. Two of Detroit\u2019s infielders \u2013 Zach McKinstry<\/a> and Javier B\u00e1ez<\/a> \u2013 landed on the injured list in April. The starting infielders have done well at the plate, particularly Kevin McGonigle<\/a>, but the injuries to McKinstry and B\u00e1ez still depleted the Tigers\u2019 infield depth. They called up Lee when McKinstry went down, and they also acquired<\/a> Zack Short<\/a> as depth yesterday. A Torres IL placement would be a more significant hit than McKinstry or B\u00e1ez, though, so it makes sense for the club to pull him from the game out of caution. The team will likely announce more in the next few days, pending the outcome of Torres\u2019 evaluations.<\/p>\n

On the pitching side, injured right-hander Justin Verlander<\/a> is set to throw a bullpen session this weekend, according to the team\u2019s injury report. Verlander landed on the 15-day IL on April 4 due to left hip inflammation, with Keider Montero<\/a> being recalled in his place. The injury was described as minor and the IL placement precautionary<\/a>, though it was perhaps unsurprising given the injuries Verlander has experienced in his 40s. It\u2019s unclear if he will require a rehab assignment. It\u2019s possible the team will have a clearer timeline pending the outcome of the bullpen session.<\/p>\n

As with their infield, Detroit\u2019s rotation depth has been tested recently. Casey Mize<\/a> had a 2.90 ERA through 31 innings but was placed on the 15-day IL on Wednesday for a right adductor strain. Jack Flaherty<\/a> has a 5.90 ERA and has failed to complete five innings in five of his seven starts. Montero has filled in decently, but the lack of depth behind Tarik Skubal<\/a> and Framber Valdez<\/a> may be a point of concern going forward. A quick return for Verlander would go a long way to improving that, especially if he can repeat his serviceable back-end performance from 2025 with the Giants.<\/p>\n

Troy Melton<\/a> will also factor into the rotation depth.\u00a0He was placed on the 60-day IL in early March after being slowed in camp by elbow inflammation. According to the team\u2019s announcement, Melton is set to begin a rehab assignment with the Tigers\u2019 Low-A affiliate tomorrow. The righty had a 2.76 ERA in 45 2\/3 innings as a swingman last year and will continue to be built up as a starter<\/a>. He\u2019ll need a longer rehab assignment to build his pitch count, but he could vie for starts in a month or so if all goes well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres left tonight\u2019s game with left side tightness, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,95,388,33608],"class_list":{"0":"post-688941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-gleyber-torres","10":"tag-justin-verlander","11":"tag-troy-melton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116508627028659777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688941","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=688941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}