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MLB Inside Jon Morosi on Tarik Skubal's injury and a possible time table.
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00:02Good morning. On a Tuesday, taking a break from the Pistons talk to get into the Tigers
00:08with a friend of the show, John Marossi, MLB Network. John, good morning. Thanks for joining
00:12us.
00:12Jim, John, Heather, good morning. I hope everything is going great. It is a lot of fun to have
00:17the Pistons going on a playoff run, isn't it? Lots of great things to talk about right
00:21now.
00:21Well, it is. And in general, yeah, it's going great. We could use some warmer weather and
00:27we could use some good news in regards to the injuries. And obviously we got the news
00:32yesterday that Tarek Skubal was going to be out for an extended period of time. How big
00:38of a hit is this to where the Tigers are right now with the other injuries that they have
00:45to Casey Mize and the pitching staff?
00:47It changes their season and time will tell exactly how long he's going to be out. Obviously
00:53he hasn't had the surgery yet. That'll happen here this week at some point. The initial
00:58estimates ranging from two to three months, but again, it's hard to really know for sure.
01:04There's just no question that when you talk about one of the brightest lights in the game
01:08and one of the best arms in baseball for the last several years, and he's going to miss,
01:12give or take, half of the season, it's a significant blow. There's no getting around that. And obviously
01:18it's, to your point, adding on to JV being on the injured list and Mize within the last
01:24week landing on the IL as well. So this is a really stressful point in the Tigers season.
01:30It's probably too early to talk about trade moves and bringing in a ton of help from the
01:36outside. What they really need now is for the likes of Fromber, who of course goes tonight,
01:42and then Cater Montero and Flaherty to be really good. And they need more of what they saw last
01:46night from Ty Madden. Maybe at some point Sawyer Gibson Long comes up, but this is a team that is
01:53in a stress point right now with their pitching. And when you lose one of the best pitchers that
01:58any of us have ever seen in a Tiger uniform for half of the season, potentially, it's a significant
02:03blow for this team. Other guys that have dealt with this, do they come back and they just hit
02:08the ground running? What is the track record with something like this? Yeah, it's a good question.
02:13It depends from player to player. And I was listening carefully to how Tarek was describing
02:19it yesterday. And again, I will fully acknowledge, not a doctor, of course, any of us that cover
02:24sports long enough, we all think we're amateur orthopedic surgeons because we talk about it
02:27so much. But what I will say is this. At one point in time, he used a singular description
02:36to describe the loose body in his elbow, like it, it is bothering me, basically meaning
02:41that it, from how he was describing how he could manipulate it in his elbow when he was
02:46on the mound in his last outing, it sounds as though, and again, this is based on his
02:52description, which we don't know fully until they actually get in there and remove it,
02:55that it might be a bone chip, a loose body, or at least a significant principle one that
03:02would occasionally get into the elbow and restrict his range of motion. A.J. Hinch was
03:08talking about how it would lock up effectively and he wouldn't be able to get around it. And
03:13sometimes, as Tarek was describing yesterday, he could move that chip around and kind of get
03:18some relief and then still go back to being able to pitch. But when you think about it,
03:23obviously, if you're Tarek Skubel, setting even aside the contract piece of it for being
03:28a free agent after the season is over, if you have that loose body in your elbow, what
03:33you don't want it to have is for it to catch the ligament in the wrong spot and then start
03:37wearing the ligament down. So you really got to get in there and remove it. You don't want
03:42it to involve the nerve. You don't want it to compromise the ligament. And so it really
03:46is important, not just for the Tigers' season, but for Tarek's future, to get in there
03:50and remove it now. And so I think this is the logical thing to do. As Tarek said yesterday,
03:57it was interesting. He said people probably deal with this more than you realize. And
04:01to be fair, 24 hours ago, we didn't know exactly what he was dealing with at this moment in
04:08time either. And he was able to pitch with it all season long. He was just able to either
04:13manipulate it or for a time the bone chip wouldn't be there and bothering his ligament or nerve,
04:18and he was able to pitch as normal. So it's one of those tricky things where sometimes
04:24it can be asymptomatic, but when it becomes symptomatic and you don't have range of motion,
04:29you really can't be yourself. And it also risks that the nerve could get involved in
04:34the ligament, which no one wants. So this is the right time to handle it. And the Tigers
04:40just have to do their best to manage without one of the best guys in the game for the next
04:44two to three months. So, okay. I want to, I want to talk a little bit more about that
04:48because Scooble's out, Mize is out. Now it doesn't seem like that's going to be a long
04:53term deal, but Olsen is out for the season. Melton won't come back until maybe end of May,
05:00the start of June. Job sometime in August. Vest is out. Briskey seems like we could go right
05:04down the list. Verlander. What, what can the Tigers do now? Is it just pitching chaos?
05:11Can they go out at this time of the year, make a trade, or this is somebody that we haven't
05:17brought
05:17up yet today, but I know the name has been floating around Trevor Bauer. Does that, does he ever pitch
05:24in major league baseball again? And is that something that Tigers should think about?
05:29I don't expect Bauer would be an option. Uh, even looking at his, his performance, um, in various
05:36levels, independent ball, it, it doesn't seem like it would necessarily translate to success right
05:42now in, in the major league setting aside, even all of the, uh, all the other off the field
05:47considerations there. So I, I would not expect Bauer to be an option, uh, first and foremost. I, I think
05:52in the, within the system, I mentioned Sawyer Gibson long, he's probably the next man to, to get the
05:59call. And, and let's also remember this, and this is a bit of an inside baseball point, but it's an
06:04important one when you have a lot of players on the IL, unless you're able to then move some of
06:10them to the 60 day IL, which probably will be the case for school. If you're going to be out
06:15for two
06:15months, you could be on the 60 day IL that does not count against the 40 man limit. So if
06:21you've
06:21got a whole lot of players on the, uh, on a 10 or a 15 day IL, it crowds your
06:2640 man roster to where
06:28you just don't have the roster spots to, to bring up additional players who aren't already on the 40
06:33man. Gibson long is, and, and that's why I mentioned him intentionally. Cause I believe
06:38he is probably the easiest guy to call up. If there's any, any additional length of, of,
06:44of absence or, or any other situations that come up, I thought one of the most telling things,
06:49John, that, that AJ said after the game last night was that he used every available pitcher
06:55that he had. That was, that was a bit with the exception of Finnegan. Finnegan was the only guy
07:00that was still available. And he was going to pitch the 10th inning, which says to me,
07:04my goodness, do they have to make a move today with someone to just get a fresh arm up out
07:08of
07:08the bullpen from Toledo? Um, because they had to pitch Van Asco. They had to pitch to Jesus.
07:14Obviously Madden was fantastic. Holden was the opener. And then Kenley came in late.
07:18That was all he had with it in concert with Finnegan. So it's a, it's a stress point. And, and
07:26the,
07:26the point I'll make about the pitching chaos, and I'm glad you brought that up because what made the
07:32chaos work when they, when they were able to get into the playoffs there in 2024, what made the
07:38chaos work was the first part of that, that concept, which was Scooble and chaos. It worked
07:44because you had a guy that was soaking up seven or eight innings every time out that made the chaos
07:49work on the other days. Who's going to be that guy? Now, maybe it's Fromber who has that potential
07:54to be an ace of that level, but that's what you need right now. You need Fromber to pitch like
07:59an
07:59ace. You have to hope that either Verlander or Mize comes back. I think that the important point
08:04to make here is that the Tigers in this, it is very, um, how do I, how do I describe
08:09it? A parody
08:10heavy AL central where mediocrity can be at the top of the division. They've been able to effectively be
08:17in first place despite never having a full turn of the rotation after the first one of the season
08:23with everybody healthy. So actually they've done pretty well with the cards they've been dealt.
08:28Well, that's what we've been talking about. Can you stay afloat in the comedy central,
08:31if you will, it's a division where there's not a runaway train and maybe the biggest, uh,
08:37boost for the Tigers this year has been Kevin McGonigal. Yep. So if we could shift to more
08:42uplifting subject here, how impressive, cause we look at him and he's arguably one of the best
08:47players in baseball. Forget about rookies. What have you seen from McGonigal? And can he key this
08:52offense to make up the gap in pitching? He is, he has been the metronome of this team,
08:58consistent day in, day out quality at bats. And Jim, I agree with your characterization. He's been,
09:04he has been their best player. He has been their MVP to this point in time. And, and whatever metric
09:09you want to use, um, if you look at wins above replacement, which is a helpful measure, it's not
09:14always the be all end all, but he's one of the top 15 or 20 players in the sport full
09:19stop period.
09:20And he's having one of the better rookie seasons by a tiger position player ever. I mean, he's at,
09:26at the age that he is, uh, in his early twenties to, to show up on opening day and, and
09:32be,
09:32be the, the pivot point of the whole offense just says a ton about who he is. I mean, he's
09:38right up
09:38there, not, not terribly far back of where a Bobby Wood Jr. is in terms of the value as, as
09:43a young
09:44infielder. It's just, he's, he is everything the tigers hoped he would be and more. And, and that
09:52is on some level, uh, proof of concept of the way they've built this team, but there've been plenty
09:57of times when in the last couple of years of deadlines, when fans have said, Hey, they should
10:02have been more aggressive. And listen, there were ways they could have made the team better
10:06that did not involve trading Kevin McGonigal, but this is why you identify who the special talents
10:13are and you keep them. And then you sign them long-term as they've already done with McGonigal.
10:17Um, this is the reason why this is an important data point to sort of keep in mind when we're
10:22late
10:22July, why not trade this guy or that guy? Well, sometimes that guy becomes McGonigal and, and he's
10:28been their best player this season. So I want to ask you then about the lineup with, obviously with
10:33McGonigal in it, you got green Dingler, who's one of the better hitting catchers in his second
10:37year, torque carp, like Colt Keith is, is that a good start to this season? How dangerous can this
10:45lineup be? And is it good enough to withstand some of the issues that they've had, uh, with the
10:51pitching staff? Yeah, John, it's an important point. I think that to, to your question, this is one of
10:57the better lineups they've had in a decade. It's, it's certainly the best lineup they've had since
11:02AJ's become the manager. And I'm not sure that I put it up against the, the Miguel and Prince
11:07Fielder and Victor groups of the early 2010s, but it's, it's a good lineup. And I think that
11:14they're going to have to win some games eight to six and seven to five and in ways that they
11:19weren't winning it before. But this is the, the reward of, of building an offense that has
11:24that level of, of performance. The one thing they don't really do a lot of that they don't
11:28steal the bases that they're not, they're not, that's probably the one thing that you
11:32would say reminds you a bit of, of the previous iteration that I'm describing of, of Miguel
11:38and Prince and Victor, uh, that, that team just mashed and they didn't do a lot of the
11:42small ball things. Maybe they do a bit more once McKinstry comes back, which could happen
11:47as early as today. Um, so the, the offense is better. The pitching obviously has become
11:52inconsistent. One aspect that we haven't talked about a lot yet, and it hasn't really cost them
11:57in too many games thus far is the defense. This, if you look at the, the, the metrics
12:03of, of, of again, you know, wins sort of like defensive wins above replacement, some of the
12:08analytics that get into the defensive side of the ball. Um, it's been one of the worst
12:12defensive teams in baseball this season. And, and we do, we have rarely said that about
12:16a Scott Harris, AJ Hinch team because of how much AJ values athleticism and versatility.
12:22But you think about it, no Meadows right now, no Baez right now, no McKinstry right
12:27now. So some of their more athletic dynamic defensive players have been hurt. And, and
12:32so it has, I think, diminished their, their defensive quality, especially in the outfield
12:37that they're not as athletic out there. And, and this is a, this is, as we know, a ballpark
12:41where that can get exposed over, over a one 62. So I think for me, uh, seeing how they
12:47manage their, their personnel, do they look for different ways to get more athletic as
12:52the year goes along? That might be a small thing they can upgrade at the deadline. But
12:56again, the deadline is late July. We're, we're, we're a long way away from that. They're
13:01going to have to find ways to be a little bit better with the group they've got.
13:04And we'll definitely want to check in with you closer to the trade deadline. John Marossi,
13:07MLB network. You've got an event coming up this weekend.
13:10Yes, I do. So I'll be there to Pretzel Bell in Ann Arbor, four to six 30 on Saturday.
13:17The Miles Jeffrey Roberts Foundation, uh, for youth suicide prevention, uh, dear friends
13:22of mine, Jeff and Kristen Roberts, they sadly lost their son, uh, Miles by suicide in, in
13:272017. And they've done an amazing job to, to educate communities. And they've, they've
13:32utilized sports and, and Will Heininger, who, you know, through Michigan football, uh, has
13:36been one of the great champions for this too. So just getting into schools, talking with
13:40young athletes about mental health. And so this is a great cause. It's called the Mullets
13:44for Miles, uh, four to six 30 Saturday, Pretzel Bell in Ann Arbor. I will be there supporting
13:49the cause. But as if you, if you know me, you know, I cannot grow a mullet. So I'm, I'm
13:54there to, I'm like a cheerleader for the guys that have mullets, but you know, my hairline
13:58guys does not allow me to have a mullet. So I'm going to just, I'll be supporting the
14:02cause, uh, even though I am a follically challenged in the realm of the mullets.
14:07Hey, thanks. And I love that you're doing it in Ann Arbor and Pretzel Bell is a great
14:11location for it. So, uh, we'll look for you down there.
14:14Sounds great, John. I really appreciate it, Jim. John, Heather, all the best. And I really
14:18appreciate all the great work you do here in Detroit.
14:19Of course. We appreciate your time. He's John Marossi, MLB Network. It's 97.1.
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