The Tigers have been plagued by pitching injuries, and manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Chris McCosky of The Detroit News) that the 2022 season is over for two of the club’s hurlers. Right-handers Alex Faedo and Kyle Funkhouser are both considering surgery — Faedo for a nagging hip problem, and Funkhouser for the shoulder strain that has kept him from pitching all season.
Faedo was one of several younger pitchers called up to help the rotation weather the injury storm, and he delivered a 5.53 ERA over his first 53 2/3 innings of Major League action. With a 2.92 ERA over the first 37 of those frames, it looked like Faedo was making a rookie breakout before the league started to get a book on him, and also before his hip injury began to impact his performance. The bad hip forced Faedo out of a July 4 start after only 3 2/3 innings, and he has been tagged for seven runs over his last two starts and 5 1/3 innings of action.
The 18th overall pick of the 2017 draft, Faedo was himself making a comeback from injury, as a forearm strain in 2020 resulted in Tommy John surgery at the end of that year that sidelined him for all of 2021. Unfortunately, he’ll now face another significant absence even if he ultimately decides against hip surgery, and if he does opt to go under the knife, the rehab process could impact Faedo’s readiness for Spring Training or Opening Day 2023.
Funkhouser is also facing an uncertain timeline, as a shoulder surgery could potentially threaten his entire 2023 campaign, depending on the severity of his injury and the specific nature of the procedure. He was initially set back by lat soreness during Spring Training, and will now miss a chance to follow up on a promising 2021 season.
Making his big league debut in 2020, Funkhouser posted a 7.27 ERA over his first 17 1/3 frames in the Show, but he had decidedly better results last year. Despite a mediocre 12.8% walk rate and a below-average 21.1% strikeout rate, Funkhouser rode a 53.2% grounder rate and a lot of soft contact to a 3.42 ERA over 68 1/3 innings. The Tigers frequently used Funkhouser for more than one inning, and he also made two “starts” (in opener fashion) in bullpen games.
Faedo and Funkhouser join Casey Mize (Tommy John surgery) as the Detroit pitchers whose injuries were season-ending, but the large majority of the pitching staff has spent time on the injured list with some type of issue. Just in today’s game, Michael Pineda had to leave early due to right tricep tightness, creating another possible hole in the rotation. Righty Rony Garcia was expected to be activated from the 15-day IL in time to start tomorrow’s game.
Funkhouser on the bass guitar
Hope he makes Bob Einstein proud.
The Tigers’ pitching staff have had a ridiculous amount of injuries this year, I’ve never seen anything like this.
Turnbull, Mize, Manning, Pineda, Brieske, Faedo, Alexander, R.Garcia, E.Rodriguez.
9 starting pitchers on the IL for substantial time. Un Be Leivable!
Ten of them, if you count Peralta. He did make one start this year.
You forgot Wentz and Peralta.
A name like Funkhauser make me glad I have the name I have…
Well, they’re lucky they signed Eduardo Rodriguez to eat innings in case this happened.
I mean, he was injured but whatever his personal issue was, it was clearly bad and he’s clearly needed the time.
It was a divorce from the rumors circulating. Haven’t had the pleasure myself but saw a buddy get wrecked for a year with one. Once it gets to the legal system it can be brutal from what I saw
It appears Eduardo is on the restricted list for the issues and missing approximately 400k a start…
My wife has a friend going through one right now. I couldn’t imagine going through that. They are both so mean to each other.
How they haven’t fired the strength and conditioning coach yet is beyond me.
The Tigers aren’t the most injured team in MLB. They are tied with the Dodgers for 10th with 20. At this time, the Reds 31 followed by the Twins 28 have the most players on the IL. The Cubs, Rays and Pirates each have 26. That may change before I hit “Post Comment”.
We can’t assume that the Tigers would contend without any injuries. No team batting .199 can hope to contend.
I agree the hitting has been abominable, but I have never seen any team having to go this deep on their depth chart to field a starting rotation. The goal this year IMO was to play .500 ball. We’ll never know, if healthy, that could have been achieved.
Not disputing you at all but do you by chance know overall time on IL vs just number of players?
100% agree that the injuries haven’t been the issue with performance.
The Tigers may be tenth in total players on the injured list. But I’ll bet they rank a lot higher in total days lost. Many of these guys have missed huge portions of this season. Also, has any other teams had nine starting pitchers on the injured list?
I do agree that injuries aren’t their only problem.
Of the Tigers’ 14 starting pitchers, 10 of them have been on the injured list, even worse than I thought.
I have to wonder if there is something that is being taught by the coaching staff that is leading to all the injuries. Seems to be more than just a coincidence at this point.
Any relation to Marty?
Yes it’s a different game today and all but the 68 and 84 Tigers went through entire seasons with very few injuries to the starting staffs. Wilcox was the only one getting a horse tranquilizer for the constant pain in his elbow. Wilson was hurt in 68 but not until the end of the season. Yet due to the big money these players are making they are coddled. Still we have this….more injuries than a team can handle.