Tigers righty Spencer Turnbull, who has spent the entire season on the injured list while rehabbing from last summer’s Tommy John surgery, is unlikely to make it back to a big league mound this season, manager AJ Hinch told reporters yesterday (Twitter link via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). Turnbull hasn’t experienced any setbacks, but the team would need an “aggressive” timeline to get him back on the mound for a couple late-September starts. Given the Tigers’ place in the standings, it’s not much of a surprise that they’ll opt for a more deliberate and cautious approach to getting Turnbull back up to full strength.
Turnbull, 30 in September, has started 53 games for Detroit dating back to the 2018 season and has seen his results improve each year of his career. The 2021 campaign looked to be a legitimate breakout for the late-blooming, former No. 63 overall pick, as he tossed 50 frames of 2.88 ERA ball with a 21.9% strikeout rate, 6% walk rate and hefty 57.2% ground-ball rate. Turnbull, always stingy in terms of allowing home runs, faced 201 hitters and yielded just two long balls in 2021.
The peak for Turnbull undoubtedly came on May 18, when he punched out nine Mariners and allowed just two walks en route to the eighth no-hitter in franchise history — the Tigers’ first no-no since Justin Verlander’s one decade prior (nearly to the day). That historic effort required a career-high 117 pitches, but the righty showed little in the way of immediate fatigue or decline. He received an extra day’s rest, completed six quality innings in his next appearance, and bounced back from that with another sharp 100-pitch performance. Turnbull’s next start lasted just four innings before he departed with forearm discomfort, however, and while the Tigers were initially optimistic that a worst-case scenario had been avoided, he ultimately required Tommy John surgery in late July.
Though the Tigers knew Turnbull was something of a long shot to log meaningful innings this season, they still signed him to a modest two-year deal just prior to Opening Day. He’d been arbitration-eligible, and rather than head to a hearing over his 2021 salary, the team put forth a two-year, $3.65MM offer that’ll now pay Turnbull $1.5MM to rehab this season and a $2.15MM salary in 2023, when he’ll hopefully return at full strength. He’s still under club control through the 2024 season, so assuming all goes well with his rehab, Turnbull can give the Tigers two seasons of starts.
Cancel the World Series parade in downtown Detroit.
I preemptively pulled the permit for the parade back in March and saved the Ilitch family $50.
“Joe Does It All”
See you in ’23, Red Bull!
Probably for the best. Let him continue to go at his own pace and have a normal spring training in ‘23.
Not a surprise. Never thought he would pitch in Detroit this year. At best he might get some rehab starts in Lakeland.
Wouldn’t limiting him to rehab action only save the Tigers a few weeks with regard to a roster decision? Turnbull is on the 60-day IL and would not need to be activated.
Gruß,
BSHH
Would have been nice to get an indication of his health and progress this year, as the entire Rotation and the back up Rotation have all been injured. Hard to plan when you don’t know who you can count on.
Think about Turnbull the next time a manager gets blasted for pulling a starter in the 7th inning of a no-hit bid. Turnbull’s gem simply wasn’t worth this.
It isn’t 1963 and Spahn-Marichal dual 16-inning complete-games are never coming back.
I doubt modern elbows are going bad quicker than before. A check of Baseball Reference show endless names of one and two year wonder pitchers who were gone by ages 24, 25. It was always happening, but the supply of replacement arms in the past was bigger even including pitchers no longer barred barred from white US ball.
There were many more minor league teams and less other pro sports options for top young athletes in the past.
If anything, pitchers aren’t stretched out enough and that’s why they are getting injured. That’s my opinion because I heard Jack Morris say it on a broadcast. He’s not a doctor, but he is a hall of famer.
Now I’m a wishing
I was a fishing
In Michigan……
Al Avila is salivating at the thought of getting Turnbull back so he can trade him for useless spare parts
Don’t you dare underestimate Avila like that! He’ll come back with spare parts… for the wrong car…
I think there is a large misconception about TJ surgery. It’s a matter of time as a baseball player. It’s a completely unnatural motion. It’s becoming more common because of travel baseball as a kid and how much more your throwing than how it used to be.