The Detroit Tigers tend to keep their injury reports as quiet as possible. That makes it difficult to interpret how things are actually going with various injured players. Zach McKinstry was on the injured list for a few weeks for what was described as hip/abdominal inflammation. Turns out it was a Grade 3 oblique tear off his pelvic bone. The inflammation was just the byproduct of a much gnarlier injury. So, it’s best to wait until we get details as to the level of rehab work each player is doing.
On Wednesday, we got some pretty good news on that front.
The two most promising notes, are that both Casey Mize (groin strain) and Will Vest (forearm inflammation) threw bullpens on the Tigers’ off day in New York on Monday. Mize’s outing was a live BP session, compared to a regular pen from Vest, so that’s a pretty good sign that Mize is pretty close to going out on a rehab assignment or possibly even just rejoining the Tigers straightaway. Vest may be a little longer, but as a reliever, the pace of his work can accelerate quickly back to the major leagues. The question is how both responded physically after their work on Monday, and we’ll have to see how quickly their next steps come to have a good guess at that.
Relievers Beau Brieske and Connor Seabold have both moved their rehab sessions from Single-A Lakeland up to Triple-A Toledo, indicating that they’re both close to returning to action, though Brieske is on the 60-day injured list and not eligible to return for roughly two more weeks either way. The same holds true for right-hander Troy Melton, who was shut down in spring camp at the beginning of April with forearm inflammation. Melton’s velocity has been good in short outings in Lakeland, and he certainly appears to have avoided any of the sinister consequences that sometimes follow from forearm inflammation. He won’t be eligible to return for two more weeks, giving him time to build up his innings and get dialed back in should the Tigers expect him to take a spot in the rotation. It’s still possible that a Mize return could have them using Melton in some kind of a hybrid role out of the bullpen, helping to cover innings until Justin Verland potentially returns to action. Or, they may just send Melton out as a full-time starter. We’ll see how they progress his rehab work in Toledo to gather what role they’re expecting him to fill.
In other news, Javier Báez has started a hitting progression. That too is a good sign, although with a high ankle injury, we’ll be looking for him to play defense and run the bases before he’s close to a return to action. That still seems more like 2-3 weeks away.
Gleyber Torres is hitting, fielding, and running the bases already, so would seem to be a lot closer to returning to action after a mild oblique strain.
Finally, Jackson Jobe threw a bullpen on Monday as well, and has now been on a pretty regular schedule with his bullpens as he gets closer to a return from last May’s UCL reconstruction surgery. His timeline is probably still a month away from starting to build up workload towards rehab work in June and possibly July, but at least all the progess with Jobe has been at the most optimistic curve in the typical 12-16 month timeline to return from Tommy John surgery.
In a final bit of news, Gary Jones has been named the new manager of the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Jones has coached on A.J. Hinch’s staff since 2022, when he was the first base coach. He’s also served as the third base coach as well as coaching outfield for the Tigers. He’ll take over from interim manager Mike Hessman, who has run the show for the past week since Gabe Alvarez’s termination for an HR violation.
