MINNEAPOLIS — A.J. Hinch began his media session early on Tuesday because there was news to deliver.
Almost none of that news was good.
The Detroit Tigers are flipping the calendar to July after a 10-17 June that all but officially tanked their season. As the team’s manager sat atop a bench in Target Field’s visiting dugout, this new month was already off to a foreboding start.
Advertisem*nt
The Tigers, for instance, already had to rework their rotation for this series against the Minnesota Twins. Jack Flaherty, Detroit’s resurgent starter and also the team’s most valuable trade chip, will not start as scheduled Wednesday. Flaherty was not even with the team in Minnesota. Instead, he stayed back to meet with a doctor in Los Angeles, where he received his second injection in his back since leaving his June 4 start with back tightness.
After the first injection, Flaherty and the Tigers framed things as if all were normal. Flaherty, however, allowed five earned runs over 5 2/3 innings in his latest start against the Angels.
Now he is slated to skip a start and return to the Tigers’ rotation next week against the Cleveland Guardians.
The Tigers are again acting as if all is well — “That’s pretty normal, similar to what happened last year,” Hinch said of Flaherty’s injection — but the slight setback could represent a bigger ding to Flaherty’s trade value at the July 30 deadline. Flaherty experienced a similar back tightness and received an injection last season, as Hinch referenced.
Teams may be less willing to offer a significant return for a pitcher who has health questions. The Tigers, too, could face added risk if they do not trade Flaherty and attempt to give him a qualifying offer at season’s end. These are storylines to monitor in the month ahead, ones that could pose another deadline dilemma for president of baseball operations Scott Harris. But as of now, Flaherty is not headed toward the injured list.
“We haven’t talked like that because the doctors have told us we could do it by skipping a start and getting him back in the rotation next week,” Hinch said. “Skipping a start allows for the medicine to kick in and get him feeling better.”
Among players who did make the trip to Minnesota, not all were well. Casey Mize shuffled across the carpet in the visiting clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, now scheduled to go on the injured list with a left hamstring strain. Mize suffered the injury in his most recent outing against the Angels. After the game, Mize expressed hope the pain that caused him to leave the game was merely a cramp. Imaging revealed otherwise, a difficult blow for a pitcher who was slowly finding his form after posting a 3.41 ERA in June.
Casey Mize had a bounce-back June but won’t be able to carry the momentum into July because of a hamstring strain. (Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)
Keider Montero will come up from Triple A and start for the Tigers on Wednesday.
“I felt like I was doing some good things that I looked to carry over into July,” Mize said. “Unfortunately I won’t be able to do that.”
There is no clear timetable for Mize’s recovery. But expect the team to progress him slowly to avoid any lingering lower-body injury that could cause mechanical woes or arm problems.
Advertisem*nt
“That’s the last thing any of us want is to get going too soon to where something else pops up,” Mize said.
Speaking of uncertain timelines: Tigers shortstop Javier Báez (lumbar spine inflammation) is set to begin a rehab assignment in Triple-A Toledo, though that rehab stint is likely to be longer than average as Báez ramps back into form. Maligned as Báez has been during his Tigers’ tenure, his eventual return will be welcome after Zach McKinstry and Ryan Kreidler have gone a combined 10-for-68 (.147) with a spike in errors and mental mistakes in his absence.
Tuesday, Kreidler dropped a relay throw that cost the Tigers a chance for a play at the plate in an eventual 5-3 loss in the series opener against the Twins. The Tigers have now lost five of their past six games.
Detroit would benefit more from the return of left-handed outfielder Kerry Carpenter. But rather than inching closer to a comeback from his lumbar spine stress fracture, Carpenter instead experienced discomfort during his recent return to baseball activities. The team’s injury report now says Carpenter is back to completing rest and rehab daily, but his targeted return is still shrouded in uncertainty.
On Tuesday outside the visiting clubhouse, Carpenter was spotted on a stationary bike.
The wheels spun as he pedaled but, like a team mired in another painful summer, the bike went nowhere.
(Top photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)
Cody Stavenhagen is a staff writer covering the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball for The Athletic. Previously, he covered Michigan football at The Athletic and Oklahoma football and basketball for the Tulsa World, where he was named APSE Beat Writer of the Year for his circulation group in 2016. He is a native of Amarillo, Texas. Follow Cody on Twitter @CodyStavenhagen
