Tigers reliever Alex Lange will undergo surgery to repair an avulsion in his right lat next week, the team informed reporters (X link via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press). The club didn’t provide any kind of return timetable, but it’s fair to wonder if he’ll make it back this season.
Making matters worse, the right-hander suffered the injury while he was pitching in Triple-A. The Tigers had optioned him in late May. He left his appearance on Friday — his ninth minor league outing — in obvious pain. That’ll send Lange to the minor league injured list The Tigers could decide to recall him and place him on the MLB 60-day injured list if they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster, but Lange won’t collect an MLB salary or service time while he’s on the minor league IL.
It’s the toughest blow in an absolute nightmare of a season for Detroit’s former closer. Lange saved 26 games a year ago. He turned in consecutive sub-4.00 ERA showings with plus strikeout and ground-ball rates between 2022-23. Yet the LSU product’s success always felt a little tenuous because of scattershot control. That came back to bite him through the first couple months this season.
Lange walked more than 18% of the hitters he faced over 21 big league appearances. His strikeouts and grounders each dropped to around league average. That’s clearly not a great combination. Lange allowed 16 runs across 18 2/3 innings. While only nine of those runs were earned, his underlying numbers were concerning enough for Detroit to send him down in an effort to back on track. Lange had seemed to be doing just that, striking out 12 with only one walk in 8 2/3 Triple-A frames.
The injury could have an impact on the former first-rounder’s service trajectory. Lange entered the 2024 campaign with two years and 112 days of MLB service. The 172-day threshold marks a full year, meaning he needed 60 days on the MLB roster (or MLB injured list) to reach the three-year threshold in 2024. Detroit optioned Lange after 56 days, leaving him a couple days shy of the three-year mark.
That didn’t seem like much of an issue when the club expected to recall him in relatively short order. It’s more of a concern now, particularly if his season is over. If Lange spends the rest of the season on the minor league injured list, he’ll come up short of the three-year mark. That’d push back his path to free agency by a year and, probably more significantly, prevent him from reaching arbitration next winter as initially expected. (Lange would not qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player, which only applies to players who had at least 86 days of service time in the preceding season.) That could impact whether the Tigers decide to put Lange on the major league 60-day IL at any point this year.
Summabich
Might as well place him on the 60-day IL. I’m not really sure who replaces him on the 40-man though.
Jung? He’s probably in line for a call up at some point.
Jung gets called up when McKinstry gets DFAd.
Maybe Miguel Diaz.
No.
Fine, then who?
I’d say the spot stays open until the trade deadline, just in case the Tigers need it, as Lange was in Toledo at the time of his injury.
After the Turnbull fiasco, I think they’ll be more accommodating for Lange. Especially because (apparently) he doesn’t get paid on the MiLB IL. I think Detroit is a classy organization and I don’t think they’ll allow a player like Lange go without a paycheck under these circumstances.
I’d like to know the deal from the fly on the wall regarding the “Turnbull Fiasco” because it was one. The only reason he is not still starting on arguably MLB’s best team is the Phillies’ misplaced loyalty to Taijuan Walker..
Detroit’s strength thus far is pitching but it is not good enough to dump a guy who is again a top starter.
Someone was to “blame” here. A joint team decision? The pitcher’s?
I think it was Turnbull. And, I think the classy Tigers organization could have kept him to trade him. But, they just let him go to avoid any issues down the road, especially since he is represented by Boras. They even went back and gave him more service time, though I forget exactly how they retroactively awarded him more service time.
The party that demonstrated a lack of professionalism was Turnbull. The party that demonstrated admirable professionalism was the Tigers.
@troyvan. Exactly. The blame is entirely on Turnbull. He was pitching like garbage last year and thought he just deserved to be at the MLB level. Detroit was all class to let him leave. They could have taken him to arb and forced him to be there until he got all the temper tantrums and whining out of the way.
Thank you, TroyVan.
100%! He was stubborn & was getting paid during hid TJ 18 months recovery so HE pushed the Tigers hard to remain the MLB roster for service time even though he gained 18 months while rehabbing. He needed to pitch in the minors & wasn’t ready to pitch in the majors. Mize almost took a similar path but was lights out in spring training. Turnbull wasn’t ready when it was time.
What bounty of prospects did Detroit get when they flipped Boyd and Turnbull?
The same people who post they should have traded Boyd when he had value will be the same who will complain when they trade Flaherty saying they should have kept him. Turnbull was coming off an injury and had a terrible year, they were not going to get anything for him
Hope Lange is fine…….
He’s not, you idiot. Gawd, can’t you simply read an article?!?!?!?!? I suppose not because you’re the Stuperfife.
Hope Lange died in 2003.
She sure was fine back in the day, but she arguably has not been fine since at least 2003 until now – to specifically answer your query.
Pure brilliance, serge! A great response to the legendary Stuperfife’s idiotic comment!
Get better for next year. This season is just about to get the fork stuck in it…..