{"id":711207,"date":"2026-05-28T18:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/711207\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:03:30","slug":"tigers-notes-skubal-verlander-mize-carpenter-torres-baez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/711207\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Notes: Skubal, Verlander, Mize, Carpenter, Torres, B\u00e1ez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left-hander Tarik Skubal<\/a> is on the injured list but is in the spotlight regardless. He is working his way back from surgery earlier this month to remove a loose body from his elbow. He has already begun throwing. On Tuesday, he threw 40 pitches over three innings in a sim game. He\u2019ll throw another sim game on Monday, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are staying away from specific timelines with Skubal, which is understandable. A surgery for loose bodies in a pitcher\u2019s elbow would normally require an absence of three months or so, if not longer. It\u2019s possible Skubal can return quicker but he\u2019s in uncharted waters. His procedure was performed with a device called a NanoNeedle, which is smaller than a traditional arthroscope. A smaller device means a smaller incision and, hopefully, less swelling, pain and recovery time.<\/p>\n

It all sounds nice but Skubal is the first MLB player to have surgery with the device, so there\u2019s no track record here. But with Skubal already throwing a few innings, perhaps it\u2019s possible he\u2019s back on a big league mound sooner than would normally be expected. Even returning in July would be quicker than most other surgeries for loose bodies but June doesn\u2019t feel totally out of the question at this point, though it\u2019s worth reiterating that no one really knows for sure how this will play out.<\/p>\n

As he goes through the next stages of his recovery, he will be closely watched since the ramifications of his status are huge. It\u2019s well known that Skubal is one of the best pitchers alive. He won the American League Cy Young in each of the past two seasons, with an ERA barely over 2.00 in each of those campaigns.<\/p>\n

He is also an impending free agent and the Tigers are floundering without him. When the news of his surgery dropped on May 4th, the Tigers were 18-17 and tied with the Guardians for the lead in the American League Central. They have since gone into freefall and have a record of 22-34, just one game ahead of the basement-dwelling Angels in the A.L. standings. Despite that poor record, the Tigers are only five games out of a playoff spot, due to the general weakness of the A.L. playoff field.<\/p>\n

Trade speculation has been swirling around Skubal for a while. A deal in the offseason never seemed especially likely with the Tigers in win-now mode. If they stay down in the standings, then the possibility will increase. The Detroit front office may be left with some difficult decisions in the coming months, depending how the team plays, how other A.L. clubs play and how Skubal\u2019s health proceeds.<\/p>\n

For now, they will be focused on getting him back on the mound. And it\u2019s not just Skubal whose health is in focus, as there are a large number of injuries impacting the club. Their rotation is also without Justin Verlander<\/a>, Jackson Jobe<\/a>, Reese Olson<\/a> and Ty Madden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Skubal, Verlander is on the comeback trail. Verlander made just one start this year before left hip inflammation sent him to the IL. Yesterday, he threw 66 pitches over parts of four innings in a sim game, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>. His next step will be a rehab assignment as long as he doesn\u2019t experience any kind of setback in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s encouraging that Skubal and Verlander are making progress, the rotation might take a step back before either of those two can return. Casey Mize<\/a> only lasted four innings yesterday, departing due to right groin tightness. That\u2019s the same area that sent him to the IL earlier this year, as he spent about three weeks on the shelf from late April until the middle of May. It\u2019s not yet clear if he\u2019ll need to return to the IL this time around.<\/p>\n

If the Tigers need to reach further into their depth, they have Sawyer Gipson-Long<\/a> and Jake Miller<\/a> on optional assignment. Drew Anderson<\/a> has been pitching multiple innings out of the bullpen and could perhaps step into the rotation.<\/p>\n

On the position player side, there are some guys making good progress. Outfielder Kerry Carpenter<\/a> and second baseman Gleyber Torres<\/a> are both going to start rehab assignments in the coming days, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Torres has been out for about three weeks due to an oblique strain. Since then, Detroit has mostly been deploying a platoon of Hao-Yu Lee<\/a> and Zach McKinstry<\/a> at the keystone, but Lee is hitting .194\/.237\/.306 and McKinstry .168\/.232\/.228. Torres had an odd .259\/.389\/.328 line before hitting the IL, with his walks way up but his power down, but that would be a clear upgrade over what the Tigers are getting from the position now.<\/p>\n

Carpenter was striking out a lot but still hitting fairly well before a left AC joint sprain put him on the shelf earlier this month. Getting him back into the designated hitter\/corner outfield mix should allow the Tigers to take at-bats away from Wenceel P\u00e9rez<\/a>, who has a .163\/.226\/.260 line on the year, or Gage Workman<\/a> and his .167\/.167\/.417 line.<\/p>\n

One guy who apparently won\u2019t be back in the mix soon is Javier B\u00e1ez<\/a>, who has already missed a month due to a sprained right ankle. Per Christian Romo of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>, manager A.J. Hinch said this week that B\u00e1ez\u2019s ankle hasn\u2019t been healing as hoped and he is headed out to see a specialist to try to find more answers.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Left-hander Tarik Skubal is on the injured list but is in the spotlight regardless. He is working his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,399,95,1329,388,391,4,382],"class_list":["post-711207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-casey-mize","tag-gleyber-torres","tag-javier-baez","tag-justin-verlander","tag-kerry-carpenter","tag-mlb","tag-tarik-skubal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116653523209492590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711207","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=711207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}