It was reported earlier this week that right-hander Justin Verlander would be coming off the 60-day injured list to start Sunday’s game, with righty Keider Montero moved to the bullpen. That will no longer happen. Verlander suffered a left hamstring injury while throwing a bullpen on Wednesday and has now been diagnosed with a strain with will cost him several weeks, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. Stavenhagen adds that Montero will start that game instead.
It’s yet another frustrating setback in the Verlander-Tigers reunion. Detroit signed him to a one-year deal in the offseason, a $13MM guarantee but with $11MM deferred. That was supposed to lengthen the rotation and give fans some excitement about the prospect of Verlander returning to Comerica Park in Tigers orange.
That still hasn’t happened yet. Verlander made one start on the road in Arizona before left hip inflammation sent him to the IL. Sunday was set to finally be his triumphant return to Detroit but that will now have to wait even longer.
The Detroit rotation has had a number of health issues all year long, though the past few weeks have been relatively stabilizing. Each of Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Troy Melton came off the IL in the past four weeks, joining Framber Valdez and Montero in the rotation. Jack Flaherty went on the IL a week ago, creating a bit of breathing room for those returns. As mentioned, Verlander’s return was going to push Montero to the bullpen but now Montero can just stay in his spot alongside Skubal, Mize, Valdez and Melton.
Montero has been having a decent year, with a 3.67 ERA, so the rotation will ideally be able to be in decent shape without Verlander. Still, it’s less than ideal to for the depth to be thinner for another few weeks. Flaherty can’t return until later this month. Reese Olson is done for the year. Jackson Jobe is still working back from last year’s Tommy John surgery.
Flaherty might be back fairly quickly, but for the time being, the club’s top depth options are Ty Madden, Sawyer Gipson-Long and Jake Miller. They also have Drew Anderson as a long man in the bullpen.
It’s possible there’s a big shakeup over the horizon. The trade deadline is August 3rd and the Tigers have a 30-44 record. They are technically only 6.5 games back in the weak American League playoff field but they probably need to show some life in order to avoid a sell-off. If they do end up selling, Skubal, Mize, Flaherty and Verlander are all impending free agents and would be natural trade candidates. Anderson is on a one-year deal with a club option.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
