{"id":693953,"date":"2026-05-09T00:27:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/693953\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:27:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:27:30","slug":"tigers-rotation-chaos-continues-as-a-j-hinch-wont-commit-to-ty-madden-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/693953\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Rotation Chaos Continues as A.J. Hinch Won\u2019t Commit to Ty Madden Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

What looked like the biggest strength of the Detroit Tigers<\/a> entering the 2026 season has quickly become the organization\u2019s biggest question mark.<\/p>\n

With Tarik Skubal<\/a>, Justin Verlander<\/a>, and Casey Mize<\/a> all on the injured list, plus Framber Valdez<\/a> serving a suspension, Detroit is suddenly scrambling just to cover innings. That uncertainty continued Friday when manager A.J. Hinch refused to officially confirm whether Ty Madden<\/a> will actually start Saturday against the Kansas City Royals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ty<\/p>\n

Ty Madden Tigers<\/p>\n

Tigers Still Undecided on Ty Madden<\/p>\n

Ty Madden appeared as Detroit\u2019s probable starter for Saturday\u2019s game, but Hinch made it clear nothing is finalized yet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Hinch said Friday via the Detroit Free Press<\/a> when asked whether Madden would get the start.<\/p>\n

That answer perfectly captures where the Tigers currently stand.<\/p>\n

Detroit<\/a> is operating almost entirely day-to-day with its pitching staff, adjusting based on workload, bullpen availability, and who survives each game healthy.<\/p>\n

Ty Madden Earned Another Opportunity<\/p>\n

Even if Hinch remains noncommittal, Madden certainly made a strong case for more innings.<\/p>\n

The right-hander was recalled earlier this week after Tarik Skubal underwent elbow surgery, and he immediately impressed in Monday\u2019s loss to the Boston Red Sox<\/a>. Madden threw five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts while serving as Detroit\u2019s bulk reliever.<\/p>\n

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Now, the Tigers are considering stretching him into a more traditional starting role.<\/p>\n

Whether that actually happens may depend on what unfolds Friday night.<\/p>\n

A.J. Hinch Admits Tigers Are Mixing and Matching<\/p>\n

At this point, even Hinch sounds like a manager trying to survive one game at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll let Q [Royals manager Matt Quatraro] know tonight after the game,\u201d Hinch said, \u201cdepending on who we use and how we go into tomorrow. I\u2019ll trade him out for Sunday\u2019s starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

That uncertainty extends beyond Saturday.<\/p>\n

Detroit still has not fully mapped out how it plans to navigate the rest of the weekend series, especially with Valdez unavailable while serving his five-game suspension.<\/p>\n

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Tigers Forced Into Bullpen Chaos<\/p>\n

The Tigers<\/a> rotation situation has deteriorated rapidly over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

What started as a deep and reliable group has been reduced to constant improvisation. Jack Flaherty<\/a> is now the only healthy member remaining from Detroit\u2019s original Opening Day rotation.<\/p>\n

Even Hinch acknowledged how chaotic things have become.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be guys who are here, and we\u2019ll mix and match like a traditional bullpen game, whatever that means,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cWe\u2019ll handle the volume based on the next two days in who is available to us, but the group that\u2019s down there is the group that\u2019s going to get us through that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Detroit Just Trying to Stay Afloat<\/p>\n

The reality is simple.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are no longer worrying about perfect matchups or ideal pitching schedules. Right now, the focus is surviving games and finding enough innings to stay competitive until reinforcements eventually return.<\/p>\n

Ty Madden may start Saturday.<\/p>\n

Or maybe he won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

At the moment, even the Tigers seem unsure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What looked like the biggest strength of the Detroit Tigers entering the 2026 season has quickly become the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[2082,5,48,399,147,53,2583,79,84,388,55,4,2099,382,37146,594,12046],"class_list":["post-693953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-tigers","tag-a-j-hinch","tag-baseball","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-casey-mize","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-detroittigers","tag-framber-valdez","tag-jack-flaherty","tag-justin-verlander","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb","tag-scoreless-innings","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-the-detroit-free-press","tag-tigers","tag-ty-madden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116541787806295114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693953","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=693953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}