In case you’ve been living under a rock, it was announced on Monday that Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has been diagnosed with loose bodies in his elbow and will require surgery, sidelining him for a minimum of two months. Unless there is underlying damage in the elbow discovered during the procedure, this injury has little to no impact on his long-term outlook as a dominant force in the sport, but in the short term, it spells bad news for the team.
Detroit’s starting pitching – talented and deep
as it looks on paper – has been decimated over the course of the past few months. In addition to Skubal, Reese Olson, Justin Verlander, Jackson Jobe, Troy Melton, and Casey Mize are all residing on the injured list. Those names represent a huge number of lost quality innings and Detroit has no slam dunk answers in their time of need. Instead, the team will be forced to cobble together two starts a week by drawing from a less than ideal pool of candidates. Jack Flaherty’s struggles, and an injury to top reliever Will Vest only compound the issue, forcing the Tigers to lean on a bullpen that is already down their best pitcher.
The first test is just to survive the next few weeks without sinking into a deep hole. Casey Mize and Will Vest’s injuries are reportedly minor, and Melton is working his way back towards a May 25 return, the first day he’s eligible to come off the 60-day injured list. Verlander’s status remains much more murky has he’s reportedly throwing well in bullpens, but still not recovering from those sessions as quickly as he should to begin a progression to the starting rotation, a progression that will now require multiple rehab starts at the Triple-A level.
However, Mize has been pitching like a frontline starter this season, finally drawing the number of whiffs on his long wayward splitter that were expected of him coming out of the college. Melton is probably the Tigers best power arm other than Skubal himself. Those two pitchers in particular can do a lot to get the starting rotation back to their early season success prior to the injury bug biting. The trouble is hanging in there until they get them back.
Here’s a look at some of the potential roads the team could take to keep themselves afloat in the less-than-incredible AL Central while they wait for reinforcement and then eventually, for their best pitcher to return.
Bullpen Days
We got a glimpse into the team’s thinking by means of a surprise bullpen day on Monday, beginning with Tyler Holton on the mound before turning bulk duties to a recently called up Ty Madden. The days of true pitching chaos are behind us. The Tigers had three young starters breaking into the league in mid-2024 in Keider Montero, Brant Hurter, and Ty Madden. Their mix of skills and experience just happened to emerge at the right time for a full dose of chaos behind Tarik Skubal, but even now turning to the ‘pen for the occasional scheduled game could be a workable strategy.
Brant Hurter becomes a key cog in manager AJ Hinch’s pitching machine if bullpen days become a staple of the Tigers’ plan moving forward. At his best, Hurter can be more than just a sloppy innings eater. The team likes Hurter as a once-through-the-order type guy, and given how tough he is on left-handers, and his ability to keep the ball in the park, he could be stretched beyond that role if he’s deployed just as a pocket of lefties is coming up to bat.
It gets a bit trickier to absorb innings once you get past Hurter. Enmanuel de Jesus and Drew Anderson both have a history as good starting pitchers in South Korea, and could be leaned on for long relief, but none have been able to consistently throw quality strikes in 2026. Holton can go for a few innings also, but his command has abandoned him in the early going. Other relievers on this staff have found more success this year but can’t really be trusted to go multiple innings. Between the taxing nature of bullpen games and the fact that Jack Flaherty can’t be trusted to throw deep into games, leaning on the ‘pen becomes a scary strategy pretty quickly.
The fundamental problem is the lack of pitching development in the Tigers’ system. Back in 2024, they had multiple starting pitching prospects of decent quality at the Triple-A level. Currently they have none. The only two legit starting pitching prospects in the upper minors at all are lefties Jake Miller and Andrew Sears. Both are good enough to develop into the next Brant Hurter at least, but both are on the injured list and still at the Double-A level where work is required to get them to a point of major league readiness. There isn’t really even a homegrown relief option in Toledo to hope on other than Tyler Mattison, and the Tigers have been waiting for his command to come together for a while now. For all the success of Scott Harris in terms of drafting position players, and that success has been extremely impressive, they’ve really dropped the ball on the pitching side, and that problem is now staring them right in the face as it did for much of 2025 as well.
Ty Madden
As the immediate call up in the wake of Skubal’s injury news, Madden was nothing short of brilliant as he struck out seven hitters over the course of five innings on Monday. The right-hander lost all of 2025 to injury and looked atrocious in 18 starts in Toledo the year prior, so expectations for him were low for him as this season got underway. However, if he has turned over a new leaf, a short-term place in the rotation might be warranted.
As a prospect, the big complaint about Madden was that his fastball has a hittable shape. Combined with below average extension, his fastball plays down from its mid-90s velocity, and since his shoulder trouble which cost him all of 2025, that velocity hasn’t really been in evidence. We saw more 95-96 mph in his season debut on Monday at least, so perhaps it’s starting to return.
The Tigers have worked for years to help him overcome that hurdle in fastball shape with little success. He remains too home run prone with the fourseamer. However, this season, the Tigers appear to have encouraged him to up his cutter usage. Especially against right-handers, he’s used it almost as often as his four-seamer and it’s done the trick nicely so far. Madden has drawn whiffs with the cutter at an 18.2% clip in Triple-A, which is essentially middle of the pack for all pitchers who have thrown cutters this year, and rung up four Red Sox with the pitch on Monday. At very least, Madden has a deep bag of pitches, and if he can command the cutter, slider, curveball, and splitter, he can take some pressure off the fourseamer and sinker and not be forced to throw them in the zone too much. Working as more of a bulk reliever instead of a regular starter also helps in that regard.
As a 26-year-old, Madden is basically out of development time and there’s little downside to forcing the issue and finding out whether he has the goods to be a major leaguer. Worst case scenario? His first appearance with the club this year was a mirage and he proves himself untrustworthy. Even if that comes to fruition, his 40-man roster spot can be cleared without any heartburn in time to add someone more useful.
Troy Melton
Although Detroit primarily used him as a relief arm during their 2025 playoff run, Melton has come up through the minor leagues as a starter and projects to remain in the rotation as a big leaguer. The Tigers likely envisioned him as a member of the MLB staff and their sixth or seventh starter alongside Keider Montero, but he fell to elbow inflammation in February and hit the 60-day IL as a result. Fortunately, his recovery has gone exactly to plan so far and he began a rehab assignment with the Flying Tigers on Sunday, averaging 97.2 mph in his brief return to the mound.
As a prospect, Melton was known as a hard thrower with a quality slider and a splitter that gained effectiveness quickly as he approached the major leagues. As our Brandon Day argued following Melton’s debut season, he should ditch the rest of the clutter in his arsenal and stick to what works, which boils down to that simple pitch mix.
Melton isn’t eligible to return until May 25. That timeline affords him a few more trips through the rotation, presumably spending most of that time in Toledo and steadily building his pitch count. It’s not an instant fix and the Tigers will need to manage without him for a few weeks longer, but Melton is likely their best hope for a capable internal option once he’s stretched out and ready to roll.
Trade Market
Let’s be honest – no one expects that Tigers boss Scott Harris will go out and make a splashy move to patch up his team’s rotation. For one thing, it’s just not his style to spend much prospect capital on big league talent, and for another, he would hold virtually zero leverage in negotiations. The team across the table would be holding him over a barrel and be right to try to shake him down for a massive overpay. Teams just do not trade major league quality pitching this time of the year. Even teams with no aspirations still need to get through the season, and this is the time of year where pitching injuries can really put a team in a bad spot, as we’re finding out. A GM that deals away a starting pitcher for prospects right now runs the risk of ending up in an even worse position than the Tigers are, and with no Melton, Mize, or Skubal returning to help the cause during the rest of the season.
If Harris were to attempt a trade, few candidates spring to mind. The Rockies, who have fallen to last place in their division, could perhaps be convinced to part with Tomoyuki Sugano, who they have on a modest one year deal. He’s firmly a fifth starter, but he can be relied on to take the ball and won’t walk too many hitters. If the Mets decide their season would be too difficult to recover, I’d be interested in David Peterson. He is playing on an expiring contract and has a high ERA, both factors that drive down cost, but his peripheral numbers indicate a rebound is coming any day now. There are some speculative rumors that the Marlins would listen to offers on Sandy Alcantara, but there’s no reason to believe he’d come cheap.
Of course, there’s also the grab bag of bad starting pitchers hanging around at the Triple-A level, or a brief reunion with someone like Chris Paddack, who was just DFA’d by the Marlins. Frankly, we’d prefer to stick with the chaos and just try to match up relievers as best as possible.
There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but right now the Tigers have to get through the next two weeks and change without digging their season into an early grave. They’re going to have to lock in and start playing clean baseball, and hope their manager and pitching coach can pull some more magic out of their collective hat. The situation is bad, and there just aren’t any push button solutions available. All they can do is dig in like May is the stretch drive and play every game like it might be their last.
