\u201cHe obviously feels great,\u201d Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. \u201cI was texting back and forth with him last night. He was super excited about just the general feeling. It doesn\u2019t feel weird. It doesn\u2019t feel awkward. It\u2019s not guarded. I\u2019ve seen video of it. We\u2019re in touch daily with him about the program. That sort of freedom, mentally and physically, I think is a great sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, there is a large gap between playing catch and pitching at an elite level. The Tigers have remained in touch with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed Skubal\u2019s surgery, and are following a careful protocol. Although there\u2019s reason to believe Skubal can beat the two- to three-month recovery typical of arthroscopic procedures, there\u2019s not yet a definitive timeline for his return.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as he feels comfortable, like he has command and can do all the things that he is accustomed to doing on the mound, then it sort of goes at his pace,\u201d ElAttrache recently told The Athletic regarding Skubal\u2019s next steps.<\/p>\n
With Skubal working his way back, the Tigers are slowly adding reinforcements to a battered ballclub that has 14 players on the major-league injured list.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Casey Mize will start Saturday\u2019s game, returning from a strained adductor without needing a minor-league rehab assignment. Although Mize might be under a slight pitch restriction Saturday, the Tigers expect him to be close to full force.<\/p>\n
\u201cCasey responded well to the multiple bullpens and the live BP that he did down in Lakeland,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cIt gives us comfort knowing he can go out and give us what he would (normally) give us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers also activated reliever Connor Seabold, who had been out with left ankle inflammation. They even saw progress with power arms Beau Brieske and Will Vest, who pitched on rehab assignments in Triple A.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also monitoring as Justin Verlander inches closer to a return. Verlander threw a three-inning, 50-pitch live session Friday, and Hinch reported an uptick in Verlander\u2019s velocity and increased effectiveness with his slider. Verlander will throw again sometime next week, though he is not eligible to come off the 60-day injured list until May 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll try to keep inching him forward with proper rest but also proper buildup,\u201d Hinch said.<\/p>\n
![\"Spencer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2276480222-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Spencer Torkelson\u2019s game-winning single in the ninth inning gave the Tigers their second victory in the last 10 games. (Jaime Crawford \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s walk-off win against the Blue Jays was the Tigers\u2019 second victory in 10 games and improved their record to 20-25. But as the club hopes to tread water until Skubal and the rest of the cavalry arrive, the Tigers must also cross their fingers and hope to avoid any more misfortune.<\/p>\n
In the third inning Friday, right-hander Ty Madden had just thrown his seventh pitch when Yohendrick Pi\u00f1ango smashed a 107.9 mph comebacker that crashed into Madden\u2019s right forearm. Madden\u2019s curse was audible on the broadcast, and it was clear almost right away that he would not be able to continue throwing. He was slated to be the bulk reliever in Friday\u2019s bullpen game, but the Tigers instead had to further tax the rest of their relief unit.<\/p>\n
Burch Smith and Drew Anderson pitched admirably in Madden\u2019s place, but their usage creates more questions for how the Tigers will navigate the rest of this series.<\/p>\n
The initial news on Madden, at least, seems to indicate he avoided the worst. X-rays came back negative. Given the nastiness of the injury, though, he is undergoing further evaluation and could still miss time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could start to see it swell up literally while we were standing there,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cHe was in the handshake line giving high fives to an excited team, but that was a tough night for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Situations like Madden\u2019s have been the Tigers\u2019 luck lately. For any bit of good news comes another helping of bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is part of the game, unfortunately,\u201d Torkelson said. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to find ways to get that next-man-up mentality and keep scratching and clawing to find ways to win with whoever we got on the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the heels of an embarrassing sweep against the Mets, the Tigers at least ended the night with another positive when Torkelson\u2019s ball fell in the right-field gap, and Matt Vierling raced home. Wins help ease all the pain.<\/p>\n
Horrid as this season has been, the Tigers are somehow only 3 1\/2 games out of first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a difficult team to dissect,\u201d Hinch said, \u201cbecause you could go down a couple paths of really liking some things that are ahead. We\u2019re going to get healthy, we\u2019re going to get our team back intact, we\u2019re going to certainly play better than we\u2019ve played to this point. Or you can also dwell on the things that haven\u2019t gone well, and you\u2019re probably right no matter which way you choose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Before Spencer Torkelson\u2019s walk-off hit and a 3-2 Detroit Tigers victory against the Toronto Blue Jays,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,490,462,82],"class_list":["post-674177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}