If it were up to Matt Manning, he'd be back on the mound next week after breaking his right pinky toe in the Tigers' 9-3 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday. But it's up to A.J. Hinch and the Tigers, who on Wednesday placed Manning on the 15-day injured list with a right foot fracture after he got hit by a come-backer on the final pitch of his second start of the season.
Manning suffered a shoulder injury in his second start last season that cost him three and a half months.
"Same way I got hurt last year, freak accident, can’t do anything about it," Manning said Tuesday night. "Trying to think, give it a week off, see how it feels and get back out there. I mean, it’s just a foot."
Problem is, it's his push-off foot, and it's the toe that's closest to the rubber when he's striding off the mound. Hinch said on Wednesday's pregame show on 97.1 The Ticket that Manning will miss "significant time."
"He’ll be out for however long it takes," said Hinch. "We can keep his arm moving and continue a rehab program for him, he’s going to go see some specialists and make sure there’s nothing that we missed or that the initial diagnosis missed, but it’s unfortunate for him because it wasn’t a play that he felt like was a big deal."
Manning successfully covered first base on the play to record the final out of the sixth inning and told Hinch in the dugout afterward that he was fine. X-rays revealed the fractured toe.
"I really couldn’t believe it," said Hinch, "because the way that he covered first and the way he came off the field, I asked him if he was OK and he said, 'No problem.' He was coming out of the game either way, but now he’s going to miss significant time."
As for how much time exactly, Hinch told reporters Wednesday that the Tigers will have "a more definitive timeline" after Manning undergoes further testing.
"He’s not going to make his next start, contrary to his declaration that it’s only a foot," said Hinch.
Manning, 25, wound up posting a 3.43 ERA across 12 starts last season and had allowed six runs (and four homers) in his first two starts this season. The Tigers were counting on him to take a big step forward this year, with Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal both rehabbing elbow injuries. Now the entire Big Three is on the shelf.
"I need to be out there," Manning said Tuesday night. "I need to be out there to pitch, I need to be out there to get that experience and just keep growing as a pitcher. An (injury) like this, I don’t really have time for."
He'll have more time -- perhaps a lot more -- than he'd like.
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