Spencer Turnbull landed on the injured list a month ago with a right forearm strain. We may not see him pitch again this season.
The Tigers on Wednesday transferred Turnbull from the 10-day to the 60-day IL after he took a step backward in his rehab. A.J. Hinch said "the best case scenario" is a return at the "beginning of August."
Turnbull will meet with Dr. Keith Meister Wednesday in Dallas where the Tigers are completing a three-game series with the Rangers.
"In his throwing program he’s taken a step backward," Hinch said. "He’s still feeling symptoms, they’ve remerged, so we have to go back through the battery of tests. He'll see the doctor and we'll get another evaluation of him, but it looks like he will have to be shut down for a little bit in his throwing program given the symptoms he’s feeling."
It's a tough break for Turnbull, who had a career best 2.88 ERA through nine starts at the time of his injury. And a tough break for the Tigers, who are also missing fellow starter Matthew Boyd due to an arm injury of his own.
Despite the holes in Detroit's rotation, Hinch made it clear the club won't back off the innings limits on their young starters.
"We’ve got some issues, but that doesn’t mean we want to make a bad decision after a bad turn of events," he said. "Our No. 1 priority is to keep our current pitching healthy. We’re not going to alter (Casey) Mize’s schedule or what our plans are for (Tarik) Skubal and (Matt) Manning to accommodate an injury. It's not smart for us or part of what we’re doing."
Instead, the Tigers will continue to lean on Wily Peralta, hope for improvement from Jose Urena and go with a bullpen day when necessary. The club also called up left-handed reliever Ian Krol on Wednesday after sending the struggling Bryan Garcia to Triple-A Toledo.
Krol, 30, pitched for the Tigers in 2014 and 2015 but hasn't made a big-league appearance since 2018. He has a 2.42 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning in 17 outings this year for the Mud Hens.
"He’s out-pitched everybody down there," said Hinch. "We had (Miguel) Del Pozo and (Alex) Lange and (Derek) Holland as options, but it does feel good to reward Krol for the work he’s done this season. He was highly recommended by our Triple-A staff."