Detroit — Tough business.
Alex Faedo threw six scoreless innings Sunday and by the end of the night his locker had been cleared out. He was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo.
“It’s about the state of our bullpen,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We don’t have an off day until after the Miami series (July 31) so we made the decision to fortify the bullpen and bring in a fresh arm. It’s done all the time.
“It’s rarely done after six scoreless but as I told him, he did nothing but continue to convince us that he deserves more opportunity when it opens up.”
The move was preplanned and Faedo knew he was making a spot start. The Tigers are trying to give Tarik Skubal an extra day of rest between starts as he works back from flexor tendon surgery and deploying a bullpen game was not an option.
Faedo took full advantage of the opportunity, allowing just one hit with four walks in the Tigers’ 3-1 win over the Padres.
“We’re going to see him again,” Hinch said. “He was very professional about it. But we don’t want to take opportunity away from a game like yesterday for fear of having to make another move afterwards.”
The Tigers called up two relief pitchers from Toledo before the game Monday. Lefty Zach Logue, who pitched in two games earlier in the month, essentially takes Faedo’s spot on the roster.
In a separate move, the Tigers placed right-hander reliever Mason Englert on the 15-day injured list with left hip tightness and recalled right-hander Brendan White. White had just been optioned out Saturday to make room for Faedo.
The Tigers will have to make another rotation decision before the game in Miami Saturday. Faedo won’t be eligible to be called back up that quickly unless there’s an injury. It’s possible Joey Wentz could be recalled to make the spot start.
The other option would be a bullpen game.
Englert’s issue
It’s been clear for a few weeks that Englert, the Tigers’ Rule 5 rookie, was fighting through some physical issues. The velocity on his fastball, once hitting 92-93 mph, had started to fluctuate, dipping to 89-90. The crispness on his secondary pitches was inconsistent, too.
He chalked it up to his body adjusting to a bullpen role. He’d been searching for the right routine and he felt like he wasn’t throwing enough, which led to some weakening in arm strength and the dip in velocity.
The Tigers gave him a nine-day break between outings (July 7 through July 16) and then gave him another six days off. The velocity ticked back up but he couldn’t sustain it through an outing. The nine-run, 10-hit nightmare against the Padres Saturday was the final test run.
“We’ve talked about it a ton,” Hinch said. “The fluctuation in velocity, the effectiveness. We continued to look at things, how his body was moving, how it was responding, his strength, mobility, things that can predict the best version of the player — and as it started to diminish, we finally had to address it.”
He went through another battery of tests after the outing Saturday and the lack hip flexibility was flagged.
“We hope we have a plan in place that will work for him,” Hinch said. “He’s had such a rollercoaster season both in role and the uneven performance. As his body continued not to move the way we liked it to move for the best version of himself, we decided to get it checked out.”
Englert has passed the requisite 90 days of service time needed for players to avoid repeating the Rule 5 roster restrictions.
Around the horn
Right-handed starter Spencer Turnbull (neck) will begin a rehab assignment at High-A West Michigan. He is scheduled to pitch two innings Tuesday and three innings on Sunday. The hope is he will be close to being ready to rejoin the rotation after the trade deadline.
… The way the rotation is set right now, Eduardo Rodriguez, who is drawing a lot of interest from contending teams, is slated to start on deadline day. The actual deadline is 6 p.m. The Tigers play the Pirates that night in Pittsburgh, with a 7:05 p.m. start.
On deck: Angels
▶ Series: Three games at Comerica Park
▶ First pitch: Tuesday-Wednesday — 6:40 p.m.; Thursday — 1:10 p.m.
▶ TV/radio: All games on BSD/97.1
▶ Probables: Tuesday — RHP Griffin Canning (6-4, 4.52) vs. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (6-5, 2.69); Wednesday — LHP Patrick Sandoval (5-7, 4.16) vs. RHP Michael Lorenzen (5-6, 3.49); Thursday — RHP Chase Silseth (2-1, 4.44) vs. RHP Matt Manning (3-1, 3.19)
▶ Canning, Angels: He’s coming off a 12-strikeout performance (in 5⅔ innings) against the Yankees. He has pretty severe reverse splits, with right-handed hitters doing most of the damage against him (.270 average, .819 OPS with 10 of the 15 homers he’s allowed). The reason is his four-seam (95 mph) and changeup combo is lethal against lefties. Both pitches are holding lefties under .200.
▶ Rodriguez, Tigers: With the Aug. 1 trade deadline in plain sight, we’re counting down Rodriguez’s final starts as a Tiger. This could be the last. He would be scheduled to start again Saturday, though it’s likely he’s dealt before then. He’s coming off an absolute gem, limiting the Royals to two runs with seven strikeouts over seven innings in Kanas City.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky