The Tigers have announced that left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left ribcage sprain. The move is retroactive to May 19. Another E-Rod is joining the team in a corresponding move, as righty Elvin Rodriguez has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo.
Eduardo was removed from his start on May 18 after recording just one out due to discomfort in his side. An MRI performed in the subsequent days didn’t find anything concerning about his oblique or intercostal muscles, making his ailment a bit of a mystery. It seems the team’s personnel have settled on a diagnosis, though no timeline was provided for his absence.
Regardless of how long he’s out of action, it’s a serious problem for the Tigers. After an aggressive offseason, it was expected that they could contend for a postseason berth this year, with their rotation standing out as a potential strength. Unfortunately, a slow start has been compounded by a truly staggering numbers of injuries to their starting pitchers. E-Rod joins Matt Manning, Casey Mize, Tyler Alexander, Michael Pineda and Spencer Turnbull on the IL. Eduardo and Tarik Skubal are the only Tigers to have made more than five starts this season, with Skubal now the last man standing in terms of rotation mainstays on the year.
Due to that rash of injuries, the club has had to lean on its depth, giving MLB debuts to Alex Faedo, Beau Brieske and Joey Wentz already this year. Elvin Rodriguez also made his big league debut, though in relief, throwing 2 2/3 innings back on April 10. He’ll make his first start in the show tomorrow. Since that lone MLB outing, he’s made six appearances in Triple-A, five starts, throwing 22 2/3 innings with a 3.57 ERA. In that time, he’s got a 21.6% strikeout rate, 13.4% walk rate and 37.7% ground ball rate. That walk rate is certainly high but is actually uncharacteristic for him, as he’s never had a rate above 8.8% before, perhaps suggesting small sample noise.
The club’s record is currently 13-26, the worst in the American League, but it can’t be entirely blamed on pitching injury woes. The team-wide ERA of 3.67 is actually 12th in MLB, though advanced metrics are a bit less bullish. The real culprit has been the lineup, as the team as a whole is hitting .219/.282/.313 for a wRC+ of 77, a figure that places them dead last across the majors.
Replaced E. Rodriguez with E. Rodriguez, nice.
The Tigers have another E. Rodriguez pitching for their Low-A team in Lakeland. The supply chain seems to work!
Gruß,
BSHH
He can even wear Eduardo’s jersey
Eduardo has 70 pounds on Elvin. The Tigers have a good tailor handy?
Yes, their hitting coach. It’s the only thing he’s good at.
With what he went through medically, I’m rooting for him but I’m glad the Sox didn’t pay Tigers’ money to resign him. He’s a solid #3 who can at times look like a #1.
Sox saved money by buying on Sale!
Sale at 80% is still better than most of MLB’s starters. The TJ surgery was inevitable, but who would have foreseen the stress fracture?
Hopefully, Eduardo will not be out long. If the offense doesn’t show up, it really won’t matter, however. I was hoping for a better season from Miggy and Willi Castro, but never figured their bats would be leading the team. Even Meadows hot start has been devoid of any HRs and he’s now cooled and is on the IL. Where is the results from last year?!
Probably because the tigers philosophy for the last 10 years has been to hit line drives and grounders. Unfortunately, that’s not how you win. If you can’t hit homeruns you will lose. Pitchers are too good now for hitters to string together 3 lucky hits.
Huh? this is Miggys best season so far since his prime years. What where you expecting from the 39 year old? Willi was probably the next cut on the 40 man roster at the beginning of the season, but he was called up and is one of the few Tigers hitting.
Baez on the other hand is leading baseball in chase rate and whiff rate. Just awful. No reason not to throw him a slider outside the zone. Swing and miss
LA, you misunderstood what he meant.
Miggy is doing what is expected of Miggy.
Signing players until they are 40 always turns out great. I can’t wait to see Mookie at 40 years old.
Wait, the pitching is excused by “advanced” metrics… yet the offense is rated by ancient stats like batting average. Why not rank their hard hit rate and launch angles? Are they truly the worst offense?
The advanced metrics say the pitching is mediocre while the batting is terrible. The other metrics say the pitching is mediocre while the batting is terrible. Have you tried reading the article you are criticizing?
Given the ragtag bunch of starters they’ve had to trot out there, I’d say it is a miracle their pitching isn’t among the very worst!
Hard to have a launch angle when you swing and miss…..
It’s time to start looking at a different GM. I know everyone will say he can’t be blamed for injuries and that’s true, but NOTHING he has done (trades, FA signings, drafts, etc) have worked. If you look back to some of his 1st FA signings (J. Harrison, Joe Nathan, Jordan Zimmerman, etc) and outside of the obvious picks like Mize and Torkelson, he hasn’t done squat! It’s time to go in another direction as far as leadership on this team.
Nothing will happen, until little I sees a problem, and as long as he’s making $$$’s, he’s happy
Well at least the Tigers look like they will be drafting “top 5” next year.
Draft hitters in the 1st 5 rounds next year.
I think the Tigers pitching is nothing short of a miracle. They stitxhed together a starting rotation that is league average despite losing all but 1 starter. Faedo is pitching very well. Brieske has been adequate (for the most part). I think that’s credit to Chris Fetter. He’s done an excellent job.
Make no mistake, they are losing because they aren’t hitting. Seems like someone should be fired soon because they are en route to a historical bad season at the plate.
This is why Boston let him walk. Not consistent…tips his pitches…prone to injury. When he’s on—which is rare—he’s real good. He’s just frustrating.