The wait continues. The Tigers closed out a disappointing home series against Cleveland over the weekend, dropping two of three, almost getting no-hit by Triston McKenzie and seeing Miguel Cabrera remain one home run shy of 500. The next shot Miggy will get is when the Angels roll into town on Tuesday. Let’s take a look at what’s happening while we wait.
Boyd back soon
If things progress well, it looks like we might see our old friend Matthew Boyd back on the mound before the end of August. He got through two rehab innings in Toledo on Friday night and is on the road back from an injury he believes he suffered while swinging a bat in the series earlier this season against Milwaukee (Can you say universal DH?). Boyd has two more rehab starts on his schedule and if those go well he should be back up in time to make five or six starts to end the year.
Farmer to the farm
It looks like Buck Farmer may have played his last game in a Tigers uniform. To make room for Drew Hutchison to come up and get shelled on Sunday afternoon, the team designated Farmer for assignment on Saturday. Farmer who had been designated once already earlier in the year was pitching pretty effectively following his return to the team in June, posting a 3.65 ERA. His performance over that stretch might be enough for another team to claim him off waivers. Or not. We’ll see.
Welcome Robson
Jacob Robson has spent the 2021 season doing two things: raking and waiting for his chance to play with the big league club. When Niko Goodrum hit the IL last week, Robson got his chance. He’s happy for the opportunity, even if it did take him a while to make the trip from his home town of Windsor to Detroit. He may only be up for a few games, or it could stretch into a longer period of time. As with all other call-ups under the AJ Hinch regime, his tenure in Detroit will be largely up to him.
Training wheels are off, mostly
There was no real road map for how to handle two rookie pitchers coming into a season like this one, but Detroit seems to be managing. At this stage of the game, AJ Hinch’s stance is pretty clear. The training wheels are off. Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize should be and are preparing to pitch all the way up through the end of the season or until a reason not to presents itself. Matt Manning is in a bit of a different position getting a later start to the season, but he appears to be set up for a similar situation.
The team plans to temper things a bit by working through a modified six-man rotation, which would give their young hurlers a bit more time between starts. Aside from that it looks we’re going to see them pitch as long as they are capable for the foreseeable future.
Teheran running out of time
Remember Julio Teheran? After pitching one game in April where he went five innings and earned the win, he was shut down with a shoulder strain. He was placed on the IL and there he has remained for the entirety of the season. It has been crickets regarding Teheran for much of the time following his injury. Most recently he threw live batting practice in Lakeland, but he has once again been shut down due to issues with his velocity. It may very well be that we don’t see Teheran again, but if we do he’s going to need to increase the velocity and the team will evaluate the best way to use him over the last couple months.
Trial by fire
When you think of Willi Castro I imagine you don’t think of left field. Castro, wanting to do whatever is necessary to play, has long been willing to make that jump and in Saturday’s game AJ Hinch took him up on the offer. While there aren’t many options for outfield spots due to the recent spate of injuries, there are enough bodies to go around to do without Castro in left, but Hinch felt that Castro could handle it and really wanted to find a way to keep his bat in the lineup. Is this the beginning of the latest iteration of the Detroit super utility player? We’ll have to wait and see.
Getting promoted is awesome
Spencer Torkelson, Riley Green, and Ryan Kreidler have all been promoted to Triple-A Toledo.
Around the horn
Drew Pomeranz to undergo season ending surgery. Chris Sale makes his first start in two years, and it’s a good one. Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Tyler Gilbert pitches a no-hitter in his first MLB start. Former MLB pitcher Brandon McCarthy is not a fan of ESPN’s Sunday night baseball crew.-jul