So here's something fun. When the Tigers signed Justin Verlander, bringing him home after 8 years, there was a staged photo opportunity of the rotation. JV, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Framber Valdez and Jack Flaherty. Basically saying 'this is our pitching, get ready', etc.
Last week, the Tigers only had Flaherty on their active roster. Just one guy of that immortal five. Hooboy.
To get here, a lot of shit had to go wrong. First JV got injured in his very first start, after giving up 5 runs. If he ever pitches again, hopefully it'll be halfway decent, but the man is 43 years old. Then Mize, after starting the season with a 2.90 ERA, got hurt. Then SKUBAL, with a 2.70 ERA in 7 starts, got hurt. Then Framber Valdez, shaky but still reliable, gets suspended for plunking Trevor Story after Story started a sign-stealing train on second base. And the Tigers were left with Flaherty, and his 5.73 ERA, plus Keider Montero who wasn't supposed to be needed for a bit but still has a 3.18 ERA in 7 starts and has done just fine.
So in that interim period in between Valdez's suspension, the Tigers had...two active starters. And so they had to get creative. A lot of bullpen games, a couple openers, lots of long appearances from Enmanuel de Jesus and Drew Anderson. And then last night, they get Valdez back, he has a fairly decent start. But...now they're down to 3 valid starters and some bullpen games. They could, like, go and get Sawyer Gipson-Long from Toledo, but that seems to apparently be the coward's way out for this team. Why go and get the guy who's never had room to pitch in the majors the second a spot opens up? Why do that? I bet they're gonna trade him like they did with Matt Manning.
Anyway, despite all that, the Tigers are trending upwards but still in 3rd place, underneath the White Sox who are on a better pace than they've been since the rebuild started. Not helping the Tigers is the fact that the lineup depth is diluted this year. Torres, Carpenter and Baez are all hurt. Torkelson, Vierling, McKinstry and Wenceel Perez are all slumping. Dillo Dingler leads the team in homers with 7. Hao-Yu Lee was brought up as a new infield depth option but he's not hitting either. Thankfully there's 3 guys hitting .300, but one of them is Cole Keith, with 6 RBIs to his name. Having McGonigle and Greene performing well is a very good thing, but it feels like much less of a team effort than usual for these teams. Greene's hitting .315 with 4 homers and 20 RBIs, building on his 2025 ASG season despite the usual defensive quibbles.
If the team isn't gonna hit as a unit, having a fractured pitching staff's gonna hold them back even further. Hopefully they can build on this and reestablish leverage in this division, but at the present moment it looks tougher than usual.
Coming Tonight: The latest Japanese pitcher to settle into comfortable success in the States.
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