{"id":510320,"date":"2026-02-28T19:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510320\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:49:07","slug":"tigers-troy-melton-delayed-by-elbow-inflammation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510320\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers&#8217; Troy Melton Delayed By Elbow Inflammation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TODAY: Melton told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/sports\/mlb\/tigers\/2026\/02\/28\/detroit-tigers-troy-melton-in-a-good-mind-space-despite-worrisome-diagnosis\/88915754007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Detroit News\u2019 Chris McCosky<\/a> and other reporters that he is \u201cnot too concerned about anything long-term\u201d with his elbow issue.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll know more for sure in a couple of days or a week.\u00a0 But I\u2019m pretty positive for the time being,\u201d Melton said.<\/p>\n<p>FEBRUARY 27: Tigers right-hander <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/meltotr01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Troy Melton<\/a> has halted his throwing program due to elbow inflammation, the team announced. Manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/evanwoodbery\/status\/2027424539181797729?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Evan Woodbery of MLive<\/a>) that the second-year pitcher is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>Melton pitched well as a rookie. Promoted shortly after the All-Star Break, he logged 45 2\/3 innings. He started four of his 16 appearances and pitched to a 2.76 earned run average. Melton fanned 20% of batters faced against a league average 8.3% walk rate. He performed well enough to earn a spot on Detroit\u2019s playoff roster, though he surrendered five runs across 8 1\/3 frames.<\/p>\n<p>Although Melton worked mostly out of the bullpen in his first season, he projects as a long-term starter. Melton posted a sub-3.00 ERA across 18 appearances (16 starts) in Triple-A before his promotion. He may have been in the mix for a rotation spot this spring if not for the late free agent signings of\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdefr01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Framber Valdez<\/a> and\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/verlaju01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justin Verlander<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Valdez and Verlander slot behind\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skubata01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tarik Skubal<\/a> in Hinch\u2019s starting five.\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mizeca01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Casey Mize<\/a> and\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/flaheja01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jack Flaherty<\/a> will round out the group if everyone gets through camp healthy. KBO signee\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anderdr02.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Drew Anderson<\/a> can work in long relief or as a spot starter; he\u2019d presumably draw into the rotation if anyone from the starting five is injured. That would have left the Tigers to decide whether to carry Melton as multi-inning leverage reliever or have him stay stretched out in the Triple-A rotation.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no indication he\u2019s facing a long-term absence. The team will be cautious with any elbow concern for one of their more talented young pitchers, of course, but it doesn\u2019t seem out of the question he could be back after a fairly minimal injured list stay to begin the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TODAY: Melton told the Detroit News\u2019 Chris McCosky and other reporters that he is \u201cnot too concerned about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85,117620],"class_list":["post-510320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-troy-melton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}