Tigers Place Casey Mize, Javier Báez On Injured List
The Tigers have placed righty-hander Casey Mize and utilityman Javier Báez on the injured list, per a club announcement. Mize heads to the 15-day IL due to a right adductor strain. Báez is going on the 10-day IL due to a sprained right ankle. Lefty Enmanuel De Jesus and infielder Jace Jung were recalled from Triple-A Toledo in a pair of corresponding moves.
The loss of Mize is a tough blow for the rotation. He’s out to the best start of his career, having pitched to a 2.90 earned run average with a 27.3% strikeout rate that would easily register as a career-high in a full season. He’s walked 8.6% of his opponents and kept 38.8% of batted balls against him on the ground. Mize’s prior career-highs in opponents’ chase rate and swinging-strike rate were 28.3% and 10.8%, respectively; he’s at 30.8% and 12.1% so far in 2026.
Mize exited his most recent start in the third inning. He pulled up with an apparent injury while attempting to field a bunt up the first base line. He wound up being charged with two earned runs that game — just the second time in six starts this season that he’s been charged with multiple earned runs in a start.
With Mize sidelined for at least two weeks and Justin Verlander also on the injured list, the Tigers’ rotation depth is being tested. Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez remain a formidable one-two punch atop the staff. Keider Montero is also out to a career-best start. Veteran Jack Flaherty, conversely, is having one of the worst starts to a season in his career. Swingman Drew Anderson, who’s stretched out and has gone as long as 3 1/3 innings this season, is a candidate to step into the vacant spot in the rotation. Detroit could also turn to Triple-A, where righties Sawyer Gipson-Long and Ty Madden are possibilities.
Báez, meanwhile, had to be carted off the field in yesterday’s game after injuring himself on a slide. He underwent an MRI that revealed the sprain. A timetable for his return isn’t yet clear. He’s been getting frequent run in the infield and in center field, following the Parker Meadows injury, and is hitting .256/.280/.397 with a pair of homers in 82 plate appearances this year.
With Báez out of the equation for the short term at least, Detroit’s options in center field include Matt Vierling and Wenceel Perez. Young outfielder Max Clark, a former top-five pick and one of the ten top prospects in all of baseball at the moment, looms as an option in Triple-A. He’s slashing .303/.377/.444 with a homer, eight steals, an 11.4% walk rate and just a 13.2% strikeout rate in 116 trips to the plate. Clark isn’t on the 40-man roster but seems quite likely to make his big league debut at some point this season. It’s possible that Báez’s injury accelerates that timetable, although for now, center field will seemingly be entrusted to more experienced options.
Tigers Notes: Báez, Mize, Melton
Javier Báez is going for testing on a right ankle injury, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters following tonight’s 5-2 loss in Atlanta (relayed by Chris McCosky of The Detroit News). The team will provide an update in the coming days, though Báez said postgame that he’s been able to put some pressure on his leg (via Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press).
Báez suffered the ugly looking injury in the fifth inning. He hit what appeared to be a routine ground-ball to shortstop. Mauricio Dubón’s throw was high, leading Matt Olson to jump and pull himself off the first base bag. Báez made an impromptu decision to slide and try to avoid the tag. He slipped as he hit the base with his left foot, and his right ankle appeared to buckle underneath him as he went to the ground.
The three-time All-Star tried to hobble off the field with assistance from trainers but ultimately needed the cart. An injured list stint seems inevitable. The Tigers will await the test results before they have an idea how long he’ll be sidelined.
Báez was in the lineup in center field tonight. Wenceel Pérez came off the bench to play right field, as Matt Vierling kicked over from right to center. Báez has bounced between shortstop and center field — in addition to a start at second base on Saturday when Gleyber Torres got a breather.
That defensive flexibility is Báez’s biggest on-field asset for Detroit. They’re already shorthanded in center field with Parker Meadows out for a while after breaking his arm earlier this month. Vierling and Pérez can play center field but are better suited for corner spots. Neither player has hit much in the early going either. Báez’s lack of plate discipline limits his own offensive upside, but his .256/.280/.397 line is better than what Vierling and Pérez have mustered.
The Tigers have a more obvious replacement at shortstop. Kevin McGonigle has divided his time between shortstop and third base. Detroit has preferred Báez at shortstop with McGonigle at the hot corner behind ground-ball specialist Framber Valdez, but the rookie can handle an everyday shortstop role. That’d open more playing time for Colt Keith and Hao-Yu Lee at third. A Báez injured list stint would leave them without a backup shortstop, though, as Zach McKinstry and Trey Sweeney are both out already.
Báez wasn’t the only Detroit player to make an early exit tonight. Starter Casey Mize left in the third inning with right groin tightness. Mize generally downplayed his concern postgame but said he’ll go for an MRI tomorrow. The All-Star righty has been excellent through the first six rotation turns. He struggled a bit tonight but carries an overall 2.90 earned run average while striking out 27.3% of opponents.
Detroit’s top three of Tarik Skubal, Valdez and Mize have all pitched well. Keider Montero has stepped up nicely with Justin Verlander sidelined by hip inflammation. It has been a nightmare start to the season for Jack Flaherty, though.
The Tigers signed Drew Anderson to compete for a rotation spot. His early work in a long relief role has been inconsistent. Sawyer Gipson-Long and Ty Madden are on the 40-man roster and starting games with Triple-A Toledo. Either could get a look if Mize requires an injured list stint.
Troy Melton would have been in the mix if he were healthy. The righty pitched well in a multi-inning relief role in the second half. He entered camp battling for a rotation spot but was sidelined in Spring Training with elbow inflammation. The Tigers moved him to the 60-day injured list, so he’s still at least a month off.
Petzold wrote this evening that the Tigers are building Melton back up as a starting pitcher. He has thrown a few live batting practice sessions and will need an extended minor league rehab assignment to get his pitch count up. The Tigers might’ve been able to build him more quickly as a reliever, but it’s more valuable to have Melton as a rotation option for the final four months of the season.
They could still keep him stretched out in long relief if there’s no starting spot available once he’s healthy. Detroit’s bullpen again lacks swing-and-miss upside. Melton didn’t miss a ton of bats as a rookie but has a power arsenal and posted huge strikeout numbers in the minors.
Tigers Notes: Skubal, Bullpen, Vierling
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal gave the team a scare last week when he exited his start due to tightness in his left side. The obvious initial concern was that Skubal had suffered an oblique or intercostal strain that could necessitate a notable absence, but subsequent testing did not reveal a major injury. Several days of rest appear to have eased any discomfort the Cy Young front-runner was feeling. Skubal told the Tigers beat yesterday that he felt “100 percent” one day after a bullpen session.
“If anything, I probably worked a little bit harder just to make sure that I was good to go,” Skubal said of Monday’s bullpen session (via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). “There was nothing there. It was all good.”
Skubal added that he fully anticipates making his next start tomorrow. He called last week’s early exit “one of those weird things” and wasn’t sure what had caused the discomfort, but for now, it seems the issue is largely behind him. For a Tigers club that’s already lost Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe for the season, Skubal’s ostensibly clean bill of health creates an even greater sigh of relief.
Outside of Skubal, Detroit’s rotation has been a mess since the trade deadline. Neither Charlie Morton nor Chris Paddack, the Tigers’ two rotation additions ahead of the deadline, has bolstered the staff. Morton sports a woeful 5.92 ERA in eight starts since coming to the Motor City, and Paddack has already been moved to the bullpen after posting a 6.38 ERA in five starts. Jack Flaherty (5.14 ERA in his past eight starts) and Casey Mize (4.85 ERA in his past eight starts) have also been limping to the finish line. Overall, the Tigers’ rotation has a 4.77 ERA dating back to Aug. 1 — and that number skyrockets to 5.40 when subtracting Skubal’s contributions.
The Tigers deployed their “pitching chaos” tactic to great effect late last season, using Skubal as their lone traditional starter and otherwise deploying an all-hands-on-deck approach. They haven’t reverted to that form just yet, and it’s worth noting that both Mize and Flaherty have had some strong starts in the past couple weeks. Presumably, Flaherty and Mize are the favorites for postseason starts behind Skubal right now, but last year’s approach showed that the Tigers aren’t beholden to conventional setups with their pitching staff.
Detroit is also hoping for some reinforcements in the bullpen sooner than later. Yesterday’s injury report from the club indicated that right-hander Kyle Finnegan tossed a bullpen session yesterday. He landed on the shelf earlier this month due to an adductor strain. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press tweets that Finnegan, who tossed 14 1/3 shutout innings after being acquired from the Nationals in July, could embark on a rehab assignment in the near future.
Fellow deadline pickup Paul Sewald has already started his own rehab assignment as he works back from a July shoulder injury. He’s allowed one run and punched out four hitters in 4 2/3 innings of rehab work — most recently pitching two-thirds of an inning just last night. A return shouldn’t be too far off, barring any late setbacks.
While the updates on Skubal, Finnegan and Sewald are largely positive, the news regarding outfielder/third baseman Matt Vierling is far less rosy. Vierling, out since early August due to an oblique strain, began a minor league rehab assignment earlier this week. However, the Tigers announced in their latest injury report that Vierling has been pulled from that rehab stint after just one game due to continued soreness in his oblique region.
“I’m going to stop short of calling it a setback because I don’t know that yet,” manager AJ Hinch said last night (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News). “But it’s clearly slowed down our plan with him. He’s pretty bummed out about it and he should be. We are, too. It’s just a matter of being re-evaluated and seeing what he can tolerate and what we can hope for.”
Hinch didn’t declare Vierling out for the season but conceded that the best he could answer regarding Vierling’s playoff availability was a simple, “I don’t know.” Presumably, Detroit will have more information on his status in the next few days.
It’s been a frustrating season for Vierling, who turned 29 the same day he had to be pulled from that rehab stint. He’s been limited to just 31 games and 100 plate appearances due to a pair of shoulder injuries and a pair of strains in his left oblique. When on the active roster, he’s turned in a tepid .239/.310/.307 batting line.
That pedestrian line is a far cry from Vierling’s quietly solid .257/.312/.423 performance during a 2024 season that saw him connect on a career-high 16 home runs. Vierling also set highwater marks in doubles (28), games played (144) and plate appearances (567). On the other side of the ball, he chipped in passable glovework at third base and above-average defense across all three outfield spots. It’s still possible he makes it back to the roster, particularly if the Tigers go on a deep run in October, but a return doesn’t appear to be on the immediate horizon.
Tigers Place Reese Olson On Injured List
The Tigers placed Reese Olson on the 15-day injured list due to right ring finger inflammation, as first reported by Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. Reliever Chase Lee was recalled from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding active roster move.
Detroit will temporarily operate with a nine-man relief group and four starters. McCosky adds that they’ll push Jack Flaherty’s start back to what would have been Olson’s turn on Thursday against the Guardians while deploying a bullpen game on Wednesday in St. Louis. The Tigers are three games into a nearly two-week stretch without an off day, so there aren’t upcoming opportunities for their starters to work on regular rest in a four-man rotation.
Olson’s injury comes as a surprise. He looked sharp as ever during Saturday’s start in Toronto, firing six scoreless innings in an eventual 2-1 loss. He sat north of 95 MPH with both his four-seam fastball and sinker, slightly above his season average. It’s not clear if the soreness arose during that start or in the past two days, but it’s evidently enough to shelve him for at least two weeks.
The 25-year-old Olson has somewhat quietly emerged as one of the better young pitchers in the sport. He owns a 3.60 ERA over parts of three seasons and is out to a career-best start. Olson carries a 2.96 earned run average across 48 2/3 innings. He’s striking out more than a quarter of opponents while getting grounders on half the batted balls he allows. Olson has reeled off four scoreless appearances through his first nine starts. He could be in the mix for his first career All-Star selection if this injury proves minor.
At 31-16, the Tigers have MLB’s best record. Olson, Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize each carry sub-3.00 ERAs, helping Detroit to a 3.39 rotation earned run average that ranks fifth in the majors. Mize went down with a hamstring strain a couple weeks ago, while they’ve been without Alex Cobb all season due to a right hip issue. Skubal, Flaherty, Jackson Jobe and Keider Montero comprise A.J. Hinch’s current four-man starting staff. McCosky writes that Mize could be activated from the IL by the weekend.
Tigers Place Casey Mize On 15-Day Injured List
The Tigers announced right-hander Casey Mize is being placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left hamstring. Right-hander Chase Lee is being recalled from Triple-A Toledo to replace Mize on the roster. As noted by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters that the strain was “very mild.” Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic adds that the issue initially cropped up during his last start against the Rockies, but that it was initially believed to be dehydration.
Given the mild nature of the issue, it’s reasonable to think that a reasonably quick recovery could be on the table for Mize. With that said, Petzold points out that Mize has had issues with his left hamstring before and ultimately ended up missing two months due to the issue last season. Given that previous injury history, it would hardly be a surprise if the Tigers ended up being cautious with Mize’s hamstring. He’ll miss at least the next two weeks due to the issue in any case, but even mild hamstring strains can leave pitchers away from the big league mound for a month or longer.
Losing a pitcher from the starting rotation is always worrisome, but it’s especially disappointing for Mize and the Tigers given the former first-overall pick’s strong start to the 2025 campaign. After throwing just 112 1/3 innings from 2022 to 2024 due to a number of injuries and struggling to a middling 4.57 ERA even when healthy enough to pitch, Mize entered the 2025 season without any assurances of a starting role. He managed to make the club’s Opening Day rotation despite that, however, and has looked excellent in seven starts this year with a sparkling 2.53 ERA across 42 2/3 innings of work. That level of dominance isn’t quite supported by the advanced metrics, as Mize is striking out just 21.0% of his opponents with a 3.93 FIP and 3.81 SIERA, but even those less impressive numbers would be a big step forward for the right-hander if carried forward across a full season.
Now that Mize’s attempts to put together a quality season in the middle of the Tigers rotation are on hold for the time being, Detroit will need to find a way to replace his production in the rotation. Mize was next slated to start for the Tigers on May 13, so a decision won’t be necessary for another few days. Right-hander Alex Cobb threw a live, two-inning bullpen session yesterday that lasted 30 pitches, but isn’t expected to be ready to return from hip inflammation until later this month. Matt Manning and Keider Montero are both on the 40-man roster with starting experience in the majors; Montero’s last start was the same day as Mize’s start against Colorado, while Manning’s came the day prior. That means either righty would be on full rest and able to take the ball if necessary. If the Tigers don’t want to turn to either Montero or Manning as a starter, they’ll likely be left forced to go with a bullpen game against the Red Sox this week.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they’ve gotten generally strong production from the rest of their rotation this year that should help them weather the loss of Mize. Tarik Skubal looks every bit like the reigning AL Cy Young award winner after winning the pitching triple crown last year, Reese Olson has built on an excellent 2024 season with strong numbers again this year, and Jack Flaherty has looked solid even if he isn’t quite as dominant now as he was in his first stint in a Tigers uniform last year. The only slot in the rotation that’s currently providing the club below-average production is that of top prospect Jackson Jobe, but even he had a solid 3.38 ERA before he was torched for six runs in 3 2/3 innings at Coors Field during his last start. As for Lee, the 26-year-old righty made his big league debut with Detroit earlier this year and pitched to a 1.42 ERA in six appearances with six strikeouts against three walks.
The Tigers’ Rotation Camp Battle
The Tigers expected to enter Spring Training with four rotation spots secured. Jack Flaherty’s surprisingly quiet market allowed Detroit to reinstall him as the #2 starter behind Tarik Skubal. Righty Reese Olson filled that role down the stretch last year after the Tigers traded Flaherty to Los Angeles. Free agent signee Alex Cobb would’ve had a mid-rotation role in his own right.
It didn’t take long for an injury to intervene. Cobb is battling inflammation in his right hip, which is likely to lead to a season-opening injured list stint. It’s an alarming start to his Detroit tenure, as the veteran righty missed a good portion of last year rehabbing a 2023 labrum repair in his opposite hip.
What had been a camp battle for one spot expands to a competition for two vacancies. Detroit has a handful of recognizable names — including a few one-time top prospects who are still looking to establish themselves — in the mix for those jobs behind the Skubal/Flaherty/Olson top three.
Aside from Roki Sasaki, the 22-year-old Jobe may currently be the sport’s most talented pitching prospect. Baseball America, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, and MLB Pipeline each placed him as their #2 pitching prospect. Keith Law of The Athletic ranks Jobe as the #1 pitching prospect — Law excluded Sasaki from his ranking based on the latter’s NPB experience — while Eric Longehagen of FanGraphs had Jobe behind Sasaki and Andrew Painter.
Evaluators agree that Jobe has top-of-the-rotation ceiling. He’s the most exciting player in this group, but he’s far from a lock to break camp. The 6’2″ righty’s MLB experience consists of four relief appearances — two apiece in the regular season and playoffs — last fall. He has started all of two Triple-A games.
Jobe spent most of last season at Double-A Erie, where he turned in a 2.36 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate but walked nearly 13% of opposing hitters. He missed two months because of a hamstring strain. Last year’s 91 2/3 innings nevertheless represented the most he’s thrown in a professional season. Even if he breaks camp, he’s unlikely to make 30+ starts and top 150 innings. The Tigers surely don’t want to burn him out early in the year. Jobe still has a full slate of options and could begin the year with Triple-A Toledo.
The first overall pick in 2018, Mize is now a few seasons removed from being one of the game’s top pitching prospects. The 27-year-old’s body of work has been decent but underwhelming relative to expectations. Mize pitched to a 3.71 ERA over 30 starts in 2021, his first full season. Tommy John surgery essentially cost him the next two years. The Auburn product returned to action with a 4.49 ERA across 102 1/3 frames last year. He showed plus control and got a lot of ground-balls but managed only a 17.3% strikeout rate.
Mize hasn’t missed many bats and gave up a lot of hard contact last season. He’s still sitting in the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball, but none of his top four offerings (four-seam, slider, splitter, sinker) got especially strong results last year. It looks like he’s trending towards a fifth/sixth starter role. Mize still has a full slate of options, but he’s 61 days away from reaching five years of service time. At that point, he cannot be sent to the minors without his approval. He’s making $2.34MM and under arbitration control for another year beyond this one.
The Tigers inked Maeda to a two-year, $24MM free agent deal last winter. It looked like a good value at the time, but the veteran righty had a terrible first season in the Motor City. Maeda allowed more than six earned runs per nine across 112 1/3 innings. He struck out just 19.8% of batters faced, a huge drop from the 27.3% mark he’d posted during his final season with the Twins. His home run rate climbed for the fourth consecutive season.
Maeda lost his rotation spot last July. He worked in long relief until the final weekend of the season, when he picked up a spot start after Detroit had punched its postseason ticket. Detroit left him off their playoff rosters. While Maeda was essentially a non-factor by season’s end, president of baseball operations Scott Harris said early in the offseason that the Tigers would give him another chance to earn a rotation spot out of camp. The Tigers kept him on the roster all offseason, suggesting they’re still holding out some hope that they’ll get something positive from what’ll be a $10MM investment this year. Maeda can’t be sent to the minors, so if he doesn’t win a rotation spot, he’ll either head back to long relief or be a release candidate.
A seventh-round pick in 2021, Hurter made his MLB debut last August. The 6’6″ lefty came out of the bullpen for all but one of his 10 appearances. He averaged 4.5 innings per appearance, though, so he was more or less operating as a bulk arm who generally followed an opener. Hurter had a strong debut, pitching to a 2.58 earned run average through 45 1/3 frames. He struck out 21.7% of batters faced against a 3.4% walk rate while getting grounders at an excellent 53.1% clip.
Hurter leans most heavily on a sinker that sits in the 92 MPH range. That pitch gets a lot of grounders but rarely misses bats. He showed more swing-and-miss potential with a low-80s breaking ball. Hurter recorded a lot of strikeouts up through Double-A. Hitters started putting the ball in play much more frequently at the top minor league level. There’s volatility with that approach, which is demonstrated by the 5.80 ERA which Hurter posted across 19 Triple-A appearances (18 starts). The Tigers could have some questions about how his arsenal would play against right-handed hitters, in particular, if he works as a traditional starter.
Detroit added Montero to their 40-man roster during the 2023-24 offseason. They called him up for the first time late last May. The 24-year-old righty took the ball 19 times (including 16 starts) and worked 98 1/3 innings of 4.76 ERA ball as a rookie. The underlying marks weren’t great. His 18.7% strikeout rate and 9.4% swinging strike percentage were each a few points below average. He surrendered more than 1.7 home runs per nine innings. Montero’s 7.5% walk rate was fine and his fastball sat in the 94-95 MPH range, but his rookie year was mostly a struggle.
Montero has missed more bats in his minor league career, albeit with shakier control than he showed in his MLB action. He struck out 24.1% of opponents across 13 Triple-A starts. A walk rate north of 13% contributed to an unimpressive 5.03 ERA over 48 1/3 frames. Montero still has two option years and can bounce between Detroit and Toledo. While he has been a starter throughout his professional career, perhaps there’d be some intrigue in seeing how his stuff plays in a relief role.
Manning, 27, is another former top 10 pick and top prospect in this mix. The 6’6″ righty has made 50 career starts over the past four seasons. He carries a 4.43 ERA across 254 innings. As with Mize, he has shown decent control but struggled to miss bats (16.4% strikeout rate). Manning fell fairly far down the depth chart last season. He only made five major league appearances while taking the ball 15 times for Toledo. He posted a 4.28 ERA while striking out a quarter of batters faced over 69 1/3 minor league innings. He battled a lat injury in the second half and was sidelined from around the All-Star Break until the middle of September.
This will be Manning’s final option year if he spends at least 20 days in the minors. He’s on track to qualify for arbitration next winter. It’s approaching make-or-break territory if he’s going to carve out a significant role in Detroit.
Madden reached the majors for the first time last August. The Texas product had a limited role as a rookie. He pitched to a 4.30 earned run average with a 16.8% strikeout rate across 23 innings. Madden missed a lot more bats in the minors, where he punched out 28.3% of opposing hitters over 22 starts. That was about the only positive from his minor league numbers, though. Madden allowed nearly seven earned runs per nine. He gave up way too many home runs and walked nearly 10% of batters faced.
Baseball America ranked Madden as the #18 prospect in the Detroit system this winter. The outlet writes that his four-pitch mix and command are fringy. The stuff has been good enough to get whiffs against minor league hitters, but he’s probably ticketed for Triple-A to begin the season.
Tigers Decline Option On Casey Mize, Retain Club Control Via Arbitration
The Tigers declined their $3.1MM option on Casey Mize. That’s a procedural transaction, as Mize does not have the requisite six years of service to become a free agent. He remains under arbitration control and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2MM salary. Detroit also outrighted Bligh Madris, Ryan Vilade and Bryan Sammons off the 40-man roster.
Mize took the ball 22 times this past season. The former first overall pick still hasn’t developed as hoped. He turned in a 4.49 ERA with a middling 17.3% strikeout rate. That limited his earning potential in arbitration. The modest $2MM projection means the Tigers will very likely bring Mize back to compete for a spot at the back of the rotation. He’ll be eligible for arbitration one more time before reaching free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.
Madris, Vilade and Sammons all played small roles for the Tigers in 2024. Madris and Vilade made a handful of appearances off the bench. Sammons, a rookie left-hander, pitched 27 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball as a bulk pitcher. All three players can become minor league free agents.
Division Series Roster Notes: Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, Tigers
We’ve already covered some notable roster additions for the Guardians and Mets as the Division Series begins, and the Royals are sticking with the same 26 players used in the Wild Card Series against the Orioles. Now that all eight teams in the LDS rounds have revealed their rosters, here are the details…
- The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed. Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players. Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
- The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms. Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen. It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September. On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
- The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps. Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters. “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said. Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
- The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals. Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis. The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
- The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize. Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games. This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.
Tigers Designate Joey Wentz For Assignment
2:55pm: The Tigers made these moves official and also announced that right-hander Alex Faedo was transferred to the 60-day IL. He landed on the 15-day IL on August 22 due to a right shoulder strain and the club announced that his season is over, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic on X. Detroit’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
2:03pm: The Tigers have designated left-hander Joey Wentz for assignment, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. He’ll be the corresponding roster move for right-hander Casey Mize, who is being reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Wentz, 26, was the No. 40 overall pick by the Braves back in 2016. The southpaw quickly became one of the more prominent pitching prospects in what was then a stacked Braves farm system and made his way to the Tigers alongside outfielder Travis Demeritte in the trade that sent righty Shane Greene to Atlanta. Wentz made his big league debut with the 2022 Tigers and has pitched for Detroit in each of the past three seasons.
That 2022 cup of coffee proved to be a solid debut effort. Wentz started seven games, totaled 32 2/3 innings and posted a 3.03 earned run average along the way. His 20% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate didn’t necessarily stand out, but for a 24-year-old making his debut after just 12 appearances at the Triple-A level, it was an encouraging start all the same.
Unfortunately, that’s the most success Wentz has enjoyed in the majors to date. He appeared in 25 games with the 2023 Tigers — 19 of them starts — and was rocked for a 6.90 ERA with nearly identical strikeout and walk rates to that ’22 debut. Wentz became extremely homer-prone, however, surrendering an average of 2.13 round-trippers per nine innings pitched — the third-worst mark of any pitcher who totaled at least 100 innings last year.
Wentz’s 2024 season has been somewhat better but not enough to save his roster spot. In 55 1/3 innings, he’s pitched to a 5.37 ERA with a career-high 23.6% strikeout rate but also a career-worst 10.6% walk rate. He’s out of minor league options, so the Tigers couldn’t simply send him to Triple-A if they wanted to free up his roster spot. The DFA became a necessity in that regard, and Wentz will now be made available to all 29 other clubs via waivers.
If another club claims him, he’ll need to go right onto the big league roster, as he can’t be sent to the minors without clearing waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he lacks the service time and prior outright needed to reject a minor league assignment. As such, he’d stick with the Tigers as a depth option in Triple-A Toledo without occupying a 40-man roster spot.
Tigers Notes: Carpenter, Mize, Maeda
A pair of injured Tigers faced off in live batting practice yesterday, highlighting their progress towards returning to action. Outfielder Kerry Carpenter and right-hander Casey Mize both looked good during the session, which included a long home run and a single off Mize by Carpenter.
Carpenter, 27 in September, has been on the IL since May due to a lumbar spine stress fracture. He was in the midst of an incredible season when he hit the shelf, slashing a fantastic .283/.347/.572 with 10 doubles, four triples, and eight home runs in just 50 games. That performance was good enough for an excellent wRC+ of 149, and Carpenter’s return from the shelf should provide a big boost to the Tigers lineup down the stretch even as they’ve largely fallen out of playoff contention at this point. That return could be just over the horizon, as Carpenter told reporters (including Chris McCoskey of The Detroit News) yesterday that he’ll “probably” be starting a rehab assignment sometime this week. With both Carpenter and Riley Greene on the IL at the moment, the Tigers are currently relying on an outfield of Matt Vierling, Wenceel Perez, and Parker Meadows.
Despite the damage dealt by Carpenter, Mize also reportedly looked good during his two innings of work yesterday. As noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, Greene (who also faced Mize yesterday) told reporters that the right-hander looked good and threw all of his pitches with confidence during the outing. Mize, who has been on the shelf for just over a month now due a hamstring strain, won’t be eligible to return from the 60-day IL until August 31 but could begin a rehab assignment of his own at some point in the near future as he builds back up towards MLB action. Mize’s 16 starts this year have been something of a mixed bag with a league average 4.23 ERA but a much stronger 3.69 FIP in 78 2/3 innings of work, though getting on the field at all was a meaningful step for the first overall pick of the 2018 draft after he made just two starts in 2022 and missed the whole 2023 campaign due to Tommy John surgery.
Mize’s eventual return to the rotation for the Tigers is sure to be a welcome one given the relatively dire situation the club’s starting staff has found itself in recently. After the club dealt Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers at the deadline and saw Reese Olson join Mize on the shelf due to shoulder strain late last month, the club is facing plenty of uncertainty behind ace Tarik Skubal. Rookies Bryan Sammons and Keider Montero have struggled to ERAs north of 5.00 and 6.00 respectively as fill-in starters this year while veteran righty Kenta Maeda had a 7.26 ERA in 16 starts before being moved to the bullpen just before the All-Star break.
Maeda has pitched somewhat better since moving to the bullpen, with a 4.40 ERA and a stronger 4.14 FIP in 14 1/3 innings of work across four appearances. As noted by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, manager A.J. Hinch recently told reporters that while the club expects the veteran to rejoin the rotation proper at some point, their current plan is to keep him in the bullpen for the time being while trying to get him “regular work that’s similar to a starting pitcher.” So far, that’s seemed to mean using Maeda as a bulk arm following an opener while mostly keeping him on a starting pitcher’s schedule. The Tigers are surely hoping that the 36-year-old can get right in the final months of the 2024 season as they look ahead to the final year of his two-year, $24MM contract in 2025.