Tigers right-hander Alex Cobb will be pulled off his rehab assignment and shut down for a week. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press spoke to manager A.J. Hinch about the situation. Hinch framed this as a way to restart Cobb’s rehab window. A rehab assignment for a pitcher comes with a 30-day maximum. Cobb began his rehab assignment July 29th and was coming to the end of his 30 days. A player can finish a rehab assignment and start a new one but, per MLB rules, must be shut down for seven days in between.
In essence, this is the Tigers kicking the can down the road on Cobb again. Detroit signed him to a one-year, $15MM deal in the offseason but he has yet to throw a pitch for the big league club, mostly due to issues in his hips. He had missed a decent chunk of 2024 recovering from left hip surgery, but then his right hip was inflamed in spring training 2025. The right hip issue put him on the injured list to start the year.
Since then, he’s been battling issues in both hips and struggling to get back on the mound. He started a rehab assignment in late May but that only lasted three appearances before he was shut down again. He started a new rehab assignment about a month ago but he seemingly struggled to pitch for more than about two innings at a time. Last week, the club decided to pivot Cobb to a relief role to see if that could help him get back to the majors. The soreness in his hips has continued.
The tricky part of the calculus is that the Tigers are playing meaningful baseball. They have a huge lead in the Central division but have a tighter fight for a bye through the first round of the playoffs. Just because Cobb is a respected veteran and earning a decent salary, doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed a role as the games become more important.
“I think the goal is to have as many productive players as we can and guys that can help us win,” Hinch said this week. “If that’s the case and it lines up, then great. We want him to be good. We want him to help us win. We want him to be a part of this because we think that the stuff has been pretty good throughout the summer. He just hasn’t been able to bounce back as much. It’s not just trying to be the good guy and try to give him a platform to pitch again. That’s not been the motivation. It’s because when he has flashed that stuff over the last handful of outings, it’s been pretty good. He hasn’t always been able to retain it, or hasn’t been able to bounce back, and that’s what we’re working towards. We’re going to go day by day. This isn’t something that we’re looking at over the course of weeks. We know how much of the season is left. We know what he has to accomplish to be one of the best 13 pitches that we have — or 14 when September rosters expand. We’re just going to continue to evaluate.”
In other news from Detroit, Hinch said this week that outfielder Parker Meadows will begin a rehab assignment shortly, per Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. “He will have a schedule and we’re going to go day-to-day to see how much activity he has and how much he can handle,” Hinch said. “Which is good. We need him out there playing the field and we need him running around freely.”
Injuries have limited Meadows to just 38 games this season. A nerve issue in his right arm held him back during spring training and into the regular season. He was reinstated from the IL in early June but then a quad strain put him back on the shelf at the end of July. Those issues seemingly prevented him from getting in a groove. He hit just .200/.270/.296 in between those IL stints, a far cry from last year’s .244/.310/.433 line.
Meadows is a strong defender in the outfield, so he can be a useful player with a bit more offense than he’s shown this year. For now, the Tigers are using Riley Greene, Wenceel Pérez, Javier Báez, Jahmai Jones and Kerry Carpenter in the outfield. The return of Meadows could perhaps lead to Carpenter sticking as the designated hitter more often or more infield time for Baez.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
We better hope the offense goes crazy in October be the pitching is getting scary.
Hopefully Urquidy can make an impact once he’s ready, starting rotation definitely needs help
Urquidy has only been pitching 1-2 innings at a time so he probably won’t be a true starter if he comes up though Cobb was only going 3 so the rotation we have is probably set. I wouldn’t have minded giving Gipson-Long a longer look but Morton has been ok I guess.
I’m just guessing, but I’m thinking the Tigers hope Urquidy can go full blast for 1-2 innings, which will allow them to use Troy Melton as a starter.
Honestly, who do the Tigers reliably have behind Skubal?
They’ve moved Melton to the pen so they can save his innings for the playoffs.
Again, just my casual musings.
I would be more than fine going Skubal,Melton,Morton in the playoffs. Mize probably as a 4th if we need it.
Wait… wasn’t that what was said last season? And a 3B. And some bullpen help. And a CF.
I have a feeling those will be the same needs a year from now.
Keith is doing well at 3B. Baez went to the AS game as a CYBER and he and Perez are doing fine co bring it. Finnegan has been lights out in the bullpen. Not sure how this is the same as last year?
Oops CF’er.
It’s all in the hips. It’s all in the hips.
Hips don’t lie
He’s got the hippy hippy shakes.
What is Hip
Tell me, tell me
Hip to be Square
Tragically Hip
Hip…. hip….. Hip-Hop Anonymous?
Hips don’t lie
What a waste of $15M…way to go Scott Harris
I know Verlander hasn’t been great but at least he could have pitched for us and sold some jerseys!
Verlander has pitched better than Flaherty and Montero.
Flaherty is getting killed by the walks. He has had tons of strikeouts and less than s hit per inning again.
I never understand how pitchers with shaky 2024’s like walker buehler or max scherzer or this guy can have such a high AAV because all they do is either have a 5.00 era or don’t play (or both)
Because the going rate for even mediocre/bad starting pitching has gotten out of control the past few winters
Well, one big mistake. It is not Cobb’s fault. I understand that he had planned to retire at the end of last year, but the Tigers waved a big paycheck in front of him and, channeling his inner Henry V, he said once more into the breach. For $15,000,000 annual paycheck, I’d come out of retirement and go back to work. As would most of the commenters here would do so as well.
Cobb has been a walking member of the injured list for a few years now. That’s $15,000,000 that Harris and Co. flushed down the toilet that could have been held to try and re-sign Skubal. Oops.
A smarter use of that money would have been to spend the major league minimum that Trevor Bauer was willing to sign for. He’s healthy, would have more wins by now than Flaherty and Cobb combined, and given his history, he would have had to behave like a Trappist monk so as to avoid any media coverage other than the sports’ page of the Detroit area papers and electronic media..
Oh well. Normally this is a “learn your lesson” moment. With the Tigers’ front office, I am not so sure about that.
Bauer hasn’t been very good this yr in Japan. He would have been better than Cobb but that’s not saying much lol.
No, just no! Cobb signing did not work out, but give it a rest regarding Bauer. He is a pariah and he will never pitch in the majors again. No team wants the negative PR and plenty of pitchers who could deliver as good or better than Bauer without the headaches that come with him.
“Cobb has been a walking member of the injured list for a few years now.”
Coming soon on AMC:
The Walking Injured List
Why not? They already have the bats…
Only way Bauer gets back in the League …without PROVEN brilliance elsewhere 1st, maybe even with …is under an Al Davis-type owner.
I don’t see any of those, do you?
No one is going to want him, period.
When it was close to time for him to be eligible for return, the dodgers clubhouse, and very importantly, the players significant others, didn’t want him around the team.
That “I put the fanatic in fan” really took him out. There’s just no coming back from that public exposure, even if she ultimately was found at fault. It just doesn’t matter.
Bauer as a solution is no solution at all. He is not a team player and the Tigers play like a team under Hinch.
In Cobbs mind he did retire at the end of last season.
I love when someone mentions Bauer, because it gives me an excuse to look up his current numbers. He’s got a 4.34 ERA in the NPB, a league where the average team scores 3.06 runs per game. No pitcher in his league has allowed more home runs than Bauer’s 15.
He’s teammates with Anthony Kay, a guy who never did much of anything in the MLB, and Kay has a 1.89 ERA in the same league.
Scoring is way down this yr in Japan and Bauer has one of the worst ERA’s for a qualified starter. Better of letting Gipson-Long start.
Spain
This basically means Cobb won’t pitch for the Tigers this year.
Cobb is 36, and hasn’t been healthy this year, nor last year. Dude might be cooked…
Might as well just release him at this point. Give the spot to someone who deserves it.
Those Ivy League guys are definitely ruining baseball…..now they’ve even got sportswriters using words like, “Calculus”; does not belong in any sports column.
What’s going on? Now sportswriters are trying to pretend they’re smart or something …geez…..
Hippopotamus.
At least we didn’t have to have Cobb pitch when it mattered. Cobb is a great guy, but he would’ve got lit up in the Majors. Hopefully Flaherty can get a run of good starts in before October, Morton can regain that postseason magic, and Urquidy can be counted on for a few innings per game. If the Tigers can’t pull it off this year, Harris needs to be fired for incompetence and for sitting on his hands during free agency and the trade deadline. There were better options than Cobb, Morton, Finnegan (while he has been great), and I feel they got lightning in a bottle with Torres. Unless ownership wouldn’t approve a higher payroll, an exit from the postseason is all on Harris this year.
Part of the blame has to lie with Hinch, too. I say that because he has a dendecey to leave the starting pitcher out to long because he hasn’t pitched at least 85 pitches yet. Eventhough the opponent is hitting them and he is either losing a close game or it is pretty much over. Then he goes to the bullpen and brings a reliever who gets three quick outs on 12 pitches and cant possibly work another inning. Instead he brings a new guy who can’t throw strikes and 3 walks the bases are full before he has to bring someone else in. Happens all to often as Detroit relievers have trouble throwing strikes. What saves these pitchers are the gutsy play of the fielders especially the outfielders that save a lot of runs. Still a good manager but I do have to question some of his moves.
I don’t mind throwing a dart at the board for a longshot pitcher, as the Tigers have been doing a lot lately. But it seems like the Tigers were bidding against themselves for Cobb. Was anyone else even interested in him?
I give Cobb credit for giving it a try & feel bad he can’t fulfill his WS dream, but he just doesn’t seem medically able to perform. $15 mill isn’t a bad consolation prize.
Among the newcomers, Urquidy could still provide something, as could Sewald. There’s also Sawyer G-Long, in whom I still have faith. Those are decent options I’d probably trust more than R.Montera/T.Kahnle
Melton has been very impressive. That kid is a keeper.
I don’t trust Lange or Sommers.
Watch your ankles when Cobb slides in to 2nd
Eight figures well spent.
Bad signing by Harris.
What a complete waste of 15M.
Tigers could have signed Justin Verlander for that price 1 year 15M.
Verlander’s stats would be much better for the Tigers because the Giants did not hit and did not give proper run support for Verlander.
Does Harris not respect Detroit Tigers and Verlander’s history and automatic Hall of Fame election when he becomes eligible?!
Verlander would have been a great leader and mentor for the young pitching staff.
Verlander’s not having one of his best years.
But, he is a bulldog who still has a better ERA than Paddock, Flaherty and Morton in 2025.
And, Verlander provides leadership, championship pedigree, mentorship for the younger pitchers..
Wasn’t Cobb given a phyaical before the Tigers signed him?