Tarik Skubal is on the mend and on the mound. Just three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow, Skubal faced hitters in live batting practice Tuesday afternoon at Comerica Park. His review of his performance?
"I think we nailed it," he said.
"Really encouraging day with him on the mound," said A.J. Hinch. "Just good to see him out there and letting the ball go freely. The velocity was really good. The stuff was good. Execution was OK. All things that he's going to challenge himself with as he gets back ramped up, but it was a really good day."
A.J. Hinch on "a really encouraging day" for Tarik Skubal, who threw live BP.
A not-so encouraging update on Javy Baez, who needs further medical evaluation: “His ankle is not responding quickly."
Plus updates on Ty Madden and Justin Verlander: pic.twitter.com/qXRnEWAYnp
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Skubal threw 40 pitches over three innings and allowed one hit, a homer to Jahmai Jones. He said afterward that he felt good; the big tell will be how he feels tomorrow. Barring any setbacks, Skubal will throw a bullpen later this week, another simulated game next week where the Tigers will increase his volume, followed by an actual game in the minors before he makes his return to Detroit.
"Everyone races to him right after he throws, and he felt great," said Hinch. "It’s the first thing he said to me on the field. Now we just sort of wait as things calm down -- is there any sort of soreness? He’s going to get pitching soreness again, which is not uncommon, but obviously all attention is on anything with his arm, and it’s been perfectly fine. His recovery is going to really lead this, and then you give him a little bit more rope and a little bit more rope."
"The next stressor would be competition," Hinch went on. "That’s going to be a rehab assignment. I know everyone keeps asking me, I keep saying the same thing: he’s going to pitch in a game somewhere other than the big league before he comes to the big leagues. That will come when it can. If he needs more time, cool. If he’s continuing to progress, we’re paving the way for him. He’s doing a great job job of being very diligent with his work and his communication with everything, so hats off to him and everyone that’s working on that because it’s gone as well as we possibly could have hoped."
Indeed, it was three weeks ago Monday that the Tigers announced Skubal was undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his left elbow. Cursory research on such a procedure suggested that Skubal could lose a significant chunk of the rest of the season.
"I didn’t know when I was going to be back, I didn’t know the timeframe on removing a loose body, I didn’t know anything about the injury," Skubal said. "But if you were to check timelines it would say three months, and I don’t think it’s going to be three months, obviously. That’s very positive."
The outlook changed when he had a meeting with noted surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who told Skubal that based on the relatively minor issue in his elbow, "I can do this a different way and get you back a lot faster and you can start playing catch (shortly after the procedure)."
"That was music to my ears," said Skubal. "You work so hard in the offseason and in season to go out there and play, and to not be doing that right now is killing me. I’m trying to do everything I can to be back as fast as possible but also as healthy as possible and try to walk that fine line with the (right) steps. It’s a little unprecedented what’s going on, so I’m trying to push that threshold but also be smart because I don’t want to come back, let’s say, two, three weeks from now and then go right back on the shelf a month later. That’s not the goal. The goal is to come back and pitch the rest of the season healthy and play postseason baseball and see what happens."
The second part of that goal was much more realistic at the time that Skubal went down. The Tigers were 18-18 and tied with the Guardians atop the AL Central when his injury was announced on May 4; they've gone 3-15 since and trail Cleveland by 10 games entering play Tuesday night. They have the second worst record in the American League as they open a three-game set with the Angels, the only team below them.
Skubal is a fierce competitor. Watching his team struggle without him has probably been the most difficult part of his rehab.
"I hate it," he said, "because I can’t go make an impact on the field and help the guys out. It sucks. I know a lot of these guys in this clubhouse trust me, and they instill a lot of confidence in me with that because I know on days that I go, everyone in here expects to win. Not being able to do that and provide for the team, especially when you’re scuffling a bit, it hurts. I hate it, just having to watch. You feel for the guys."
"But also," he added, "I think we’ve played a bad stretch of baseball here and we’re still, what, five games out of the wild card. That’s the reality of the situation. So as bad as it may seem, we’re still right there. We just gotta play good baseball and win baseball games."
The Twins are currently in the final AL wild card spot at 26-28. But there are seven teams between them and the Tigers, who have a huge hill to climb to get back in the race. The hope when Skubal returns, likely in the first half of June, is that his starts will serve as more than showcases ahead of the August 3 trade deadline.
In the meantime, he'll have to sit back and hope for the best.
"That’s the part that eats at you as a competitor, just because I can’t help out and do my part," he said. "I’m expected to provide a lot and it sucks not being able to do that for our guys. And I understand that expectation. It’s what fuels me to want to be great."
