{"id":709108,"date":"2026-06-17T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709108\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:49:12","slug":"tigers-move-keider-montero-to-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709108\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Move Keider Montero To Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tigers are moving\u00a0Keider Montero<\/a> to the bullpen for at least the next two series, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (link via Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press<\/a>). That\u2019ll open a rotation spot for\u00a0Justin Verlander<\/a>, who\u2019ll be reinstated from the 60-day injured list to start against the White Sox on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Montero said he\u2019s on board with the move despite holding a rotation spot since the second week of the season. The Venezuelan right-hander has pitched pretty well, working to a 3.61 earned run average through 72 1\/3 innings. Montero has a modest 16.7% strikeout rate but has gotten a lot of free outs by inducing harmless contact. Among qualified pitchers, only Chase Burns<\/a> and\u00a0Parker Messick<\/a> have gotten more infield pop-ups.<\/p>\n

That at least partially explains why hitters have a putrid .225 average on balls in play against Montero. He attacks the strike zone and has mostly kept the Tigers competitive in every start. Montero hasn\u2019t allowed more than four runs in any of his 13 appearances. He\u2019s coming off 6 1\/3 scoreless frames with four strikeouts to beat Minnesota last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Montero nevertheless was the sensible choice to push from the rotation, at least temporarily. He has experience pitching in a swing role, as he only started 12 of 20 appearances in the regular season last year. He came out of the bullpen three more times in the postseason. Hinch didn\u2019t commit to keeping Montero in a relief role beyond this week, but he\u2019ll presumably make at least one outing out of the bullpen during either the ongoing series in Houston or their weekend set against Chicago.<\/p>\n

Jack Flaherty<\/a> went on the IL over the weekend and is out until at least the final few days of June. Framber Valdez<\/a> is on the mound against his former team tonight at Daikin Park.\u00a0Casey Mize<\/a> will come off the injured list to start tomorrow\u2019s matinee series finale. After an off day on Thursday, Detroit will run Tarik Skubal<\/a> and\u00a0Troy Melton<\/a> against the Sox before activating Verlander. Melton would\u2019ve been the only other member of the rotation who might\u2019ve been in consideration for a relief spot.<\/p>\n

The second-year righty has pitched excellently in three of his first four starts since returning from a season-opening elbow issue. He was scratched from yesterday\u2019s scheduled start in Houston with low back tightness but is expected to avoid the injured list.\u00a0Drew Anderson<\/a> led a short notice bullpen game in a 9-3 victory.<\/p>\n

Verlander has missed the past two and a half months with a left hip injury. His return to Detroit has thus far consisted of one start, in which he allowed five runs across 3 2\/3 innings in a loss to the Diamondbacks. Verlander has made a pair of starts with Triple-A Toledo over the past couple weeks. He threw 5 2\/3 innings and 86 pitches on Wednesday. It\u2019ll be 11 days between game appearances, but Verlander tossed a four-inning simulated game yesterday without issue.<\/p>\n

Detroit will need to demote someone tomorrow to activate Mize. They\u2019ll also need to drop a pitcher from the MLB roster by Sunday. Detroit\u2019s 40-man roster is at capacity, so they\u2019ll likely need to designate someone for assignment at the end of the week to reinstate Verlander. Reliever Burch Smith<\/a> would be their only potential candidate for a move to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigers are moving\u00a0Keider Montero to the bullpen for at least the next two series, manager A.J. Hinch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[29502,109211,99],"class_list":["post-709108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-justin-verlander","tag-keider-montero","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}