Latest news with #AJHinch
Reuters
3 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Tigers place rookie Jackson Jobe on 15-day IL with elbow injury
May 30 - Detroit Tigers rookie starting pitcher Jackson Jobe was placed on the 15-day injured list with a Grade 1 flexor strain, the team announced Friday. The move was retroactive to Thursday. Jobe mentioned some discomfort in his right throwing elbow after Wednesday's start against the San Francisco Giants. He threw 95 pitches in 4 2/3 innings -- allowing three runs on seven hits -- before being removed. "He reported that he had a little bit of soreness," Detroit manager AJ Hinch said on Friday. "So we took him immediately to get evaluated. When the test came back and the doctors read it, they discovered this flexor strain. "I try not to rush to any judgment until we see how his rest goes and see how his rehab goes. We'll listen to the doctors and the pitching coaches on that." The 22-year-old Jobe, the third overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, entered the 2025 season as one of the top prospects in baseball. Through 10 starts, he is 4-1 with a 4.22 ERA, 39 strikeouts and 27 walks in 49 innings. Right-handed reliever Dylan Smith was called up from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move. To make room for Smith on the 40-man roster, Alex Cobb was transferred to the 60-day DL. Jobe joins three other Tigers starting pitchers on the IL: Cobb (hip inflammation), Reese Olson (finger inflammation), and Sawyer Gipson-Long (elbow surgery). --Field Level Media
Associated Press
3 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
MLB-leading Tigers place RHP Jackson Jobe on injured list with flexor strain
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Detroit Tigers place pitcher Jackson Jobe on the 15-day injured list Friday with a right elbow injury. Jobe, a rookie right-hander, mentioned discomfort after leaving his last start, against San Francisco on Wednesday. The injury was described as a Grade 1 right flexor strain, and the move was retroactive to Thursday. 'He reported that he had a little bit of soreness,' Detroit manager AJ Hinch said before the MLB-leading Tigers opened a three-game series in Kansas City. 'So we took him immediately to get evaluated. When the test came back and the doctors read it, they discovered this flexor strain. 'I try not to rush to any judgment until we see how his rest goes, and see how his rehab goes. We'll listen to the doctors and the pitching coaches on that.' The 22-year-old Jobe is 4-1 with a 4.22 ERA in 10 starts this season. He has 39 strikeouts and 27 walks in 49 innings. Right-handed pitcher Dylan Smith was selected from Triple-A Toledo and will make his major-league debut with his first appearance with the Tigers. To make room for Smith on the 40-man roster, right-hander Alex Cobb has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Merging old school grind with new ways of thinking, the Detroit Tigers are here to stay
DETROIT — When the Detroit Tigers clinched their playoff spot last fall, the raucous celebration rolled deep into the night. Riley Greene, the team's All-Star outfielder, double fisted beers, jumped, shouted and poured suds on anyone he could find. Manager A.J. Hinch doused pitching coach Chris Fetter with Coors Light. Scott Harris, the clean-cut president of baseball operations, joined in on the action, goggles atop his head, hair soaked in celebration. Advertisement Ace Tarik Skubal, when asked who would be going the hardest in the midst of the party, did not hesitate. 'Me,' Skubal told broadcaster Jason Bennetti. 'I don't have to play tomorrow. Me.' The festivities carried on into the night, extending beyond the clubhouse and into the Tin Roof bar across historic Woodward Avenue. It continued, in a different sense, into the postseason, where the underdog Tigers beat the mighty Houston Astros in the AL Wild Card Series. Last season's team overcame historic odds. Perhaps you've heard? The Tigers had just a 0.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs, on Aug. 11. Then they staged a dramatic 31-11 run. They won white-knuckle games with breakneck baserunning night after night. The team's patented pitching chaos approach — openers, bulk relievers and bullpen roulette — created daily migraines for opposing managers. Nondescript relievers no one had ever heard of kept mowing down lineups. The Tigers' play was amazing and anomalous. It finally came to a hard end when the Cleveland Guardians beat them in Game 5 of the ALDS. But a tone was set. 'I think we understand that we're a good team that made a pretty good run into the playoffs last year,' Skubal said one recent cloudy morning. 'We were one pitch away from going to the ALCS and playing the Yankees in seven games and seeing what happens. We understand how close we were last year, and I think that gives us confidence.' Now, the thing about last year? That was last year. The Tigers' renovated clubhouse is filled with dark blue carpet, blue accent walls, wood lockers and bright white ceilings. On a Friday afternoon in May, this room is largely empty. Most players are on the field doing early work, in the training room mending their bodies or in the cage honing their swings. Skubal briefly stops in, threads a navy belt through the loops in his white pants, grabs his black Nike glove and gallops out toward the field. There is work to be done. Advertisement The Tigers have baseball's fifth youngest group of position players; the group buzzes with a relentless energy that has helped them rise from scrappy overachievers to the best team in the American League, with a 37-20 record and a six-game first-place stranglehold entering Friday. But for all this team's youth, players are more likely to be studying film on an iPad or taping a bat grip than shouting punchlines or profanities across the room. Inside the clubhouse, the JBL Partybox 310 speaker that's usually hauled out to the bullpen sits silent. Instead, '90s country plays softly over the room's speaker system, the relative quiet underscoring a palpable air of seriousness. Perhaps that's a reflection of the team's leadership. Maybe it's a product of big-league pressures. Or, just maybe, it's a lesson from last season that has carried over: You don't get the cathartic celebrations without mastering the daily grind. In Detroit, a city where old and new are always intertwined, wedding the two is a delicate exercise. Here at Comerica Park, there is a new scoreboard, a new sound system and, beginning this year, luxury seating behind home plate. But the park's defining feature — aside from the giant Tiger outside its gates — is still the city skyline beyond the outfield walls. The art deco facade of the Guardian Building, completed in 1929, coexists with the shining glass panels of the brand-new Hudson's tower. The Tigers, meanwhile, have searched for the blend every baseball team looks for: Merging the old school and the new, analytic savvy and human feel. Hinch has been the face of the Tigers' renovation. When he took this job before the 2021 season, Hinch was on the heels of his one-year suspension for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal. The Stanford-educated manager who proved himself with the data-driven Astros inherited an organization trying to climb its way out of a long rebuild. Under former general manager Al Avila, the Tigers had drafted some high-end talent and tried to catch up in tech and analytics. Hinch brought an instant air of credibility but also faced a tall challenge. He was rebuilding his own reputation. And by signing up to manage a rebuilding team, he was taking the long road to doing it. 'He wants to win more than any of us do,' outfielder Riley Greene said. 'You can just see it in him, how he goes about his day and how he manages, he cares, and he's always in it. He never takes a pitch off. Just like us, we can never take a pitch off, either.' Advertisement In the years since, the Tigers have revamped their front office. Avila was dismissed and Scott Harris, formerly a wunkerkind from the Theo Epstein tree, took over as president of baseball operations after the 2022 season. In Hinch's early years, the team tried to find small advantages through versatility. The Tigers have since doubled down on the strategy, coveting players who can play multiple positions and falling in love with platoon splits. Before the season, FanGraphs again had the Tigers pegged to win 82 games. Even an optimistic view of the projection systems would forecast a young team dealing with bouts of inconsistency, again trying to punch above its weight and sneak into the playoffs. In spring, Harris talked about the blessings and curses of young hitters, admitting there could be ruts in the road ahead but maintaining a confident tone about the organization's progress. By the end of spring, though, the Tigers were down three outfielders who played important roles on last year's team. Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Perez were all injured. That left the Tigers with a major hole in center field and plenty of questions at third base. Still, these Tigers were returning all 26 players from last season's playoff roster. 'It's not even resiliency,' Hinch said. 'I think it's our focus on what we're trying to do that makes this team really unique.' Rather than play to the projections, the Tigers are again breaking the system. Injuries? No problem. They've found solutions through the likes of Javier Báez — once a maligned shortstop on an ill-fated $140 million deal — emerging as an electric defender in center field and recapturing hints of his old self. Two years ago, Zach McKinstry was sipping a margarita at a Mexican restaurant after failing to make the Cubs when he learned the Tigers were trading for him. Now he is playing a defining role for a first-place team, batting .272 and having already played five positions. 'I don't think that's everywhere,' Malloy said. 'Here in our locker room we've done such a good job of being selfless and doing what we need to do to win.' The Tigers have built a sophisticated pitching infrastructure and developed a crop of homegrown hitters. A team that needed offense signed only one free-agent hitter before spring training. That was second baseman Gleyber Torres, who has turned out to be a steady presence and reliable bat, playing at an All-Star level. But the Tigers are the class of the American League right now more because of what they do on the margins. The Tigers pinch hit more often than every team except the Seattle Mariners. They are no longer deploying openers and bullpen games on a daily basis, but they've leveraged their depth to keep starters throwing on five days of rest as opposed to the conventional four days. Slowly, and then suddenly, the respect from opposing dugouts has intensified. Advertisement 'I think their confidence, how fast it happened, it's just grown, and they carried that into this year,' said Bruce Bochy, the Texas Rangers manager who has won four World Series titles. 'When that confidence grows, that mindset changes, and you're seeing what happens.' The Tigers clearly have an affinity for data, whether it be as simple as platoon splits or as complex as pitch modeling systems. Two of their pitching coaches came from the college game, Chris Fetter from Michigan and Robin Lund, a former kinesiology professor, from Iowa. The Tigers target pitchers with outlier traits, and, they've found value in down-and-away changeups and ball-in-play sinkers just as much as they have swing-and-miss velocity. This year, no team throws more changeups. No team spots the ball at the lower rail or below more often. These are old-school ideas that are quietly coming back into style across the league. 'It's special,' said right-hander Tommy Kahnle, who played in the World Series with the Yankees last season. 'I can see it. I would say probably it's more the finer things of baseball. The first-to-thirds are big time, and just getting guys in position to succeed. I think they do a great job with what we have, and we're excelling at it.' Across their system, the Tigers are now leveraging the aforementioned positional versatility, a way of giving Hinch endless in-game options to work his chess master magic. 'Every day it's a different lineup,' left-hander Tyler Holton said. 'It's never the same. It's a little bit different than old-school baseball. But everyone is brought in.' All this creates a unique brand of play, and while much of it is data-driven, players talk over and over again about that buy-in. They don't exactly enjoy being pinch-hit for. Most wouldn't choose to have five different gloves in their lockers. But they've seen the merit in the strategy too many times to doubt it. One day this season, the Padres stuck with a left-handed pitcher with the righty Malloy at the plate. Had San Diego made the switch to a right-hander, Hinch would have pinch-hit Kerry Carpenter, a 19th-round draft choice who has developed into one of the most dangerous lefty bats in the league. Malloy ended up hitting a home run, and in the dugout afterward, he and Carpenter hugged each other while Hinch stood to the side, smiling. Advertisement 'I think so many times people have taken our sport and think that it's done on a whiteboard and we're just analytically working our way through the game, and that's bull—,' Hinch said one recent afternoon. 'Sorry for the language. It's just, I'm tired of hearing about 'the answer key.' There is no answer key. The players are playing the game.' 'We got to be perfectly clear. The reasons that we are playing well and playing winning baseball is the players, not some mysterious data set.' Before Tarik Skubal was this team's workhorse, its trump card, its greatest asset, he was a ninth-round pick from a school — Seattle University — that once did not have its own baseball field. He was born in California and raised in the small town of Kingman, Ariz., where he had only one Division I offer. The Tigers drafted Casey Mize No. 1 overall in 2018 and Spencer Torkelson No. 1 overall in 2020. Both of their comeback stories — Mize recapturing the stuff injuries robbed from him and Torkelson battling back from the edge of the roster — have helped fuel the Tigers' start. But their most high-octane player was more of a happy accident. Skubal overcame a Tommy John procedure in college and a flexor tendon surgery earlier in his big-league career to become one of baseball's elite pitchers. Last season he won the Cy Young Award and captured a pitching triple crown, leading the AL in wins, ERA and strikeouts. So far this season, he has looked just as good if not better. In his latest start, he hurled nine shutout innings in only 94 pitches. He's under team control through the 2026 season, and while everyone loves to speculate on his future, the present is a treat to watch. Standing at his locker one day before that shutout, he craned his neck and peered across the room. 'I think when you look at different rosters, there's guys that don't see the field for 10 days, two weeks,' Skubal said. 'It's not because they're not good players. It's just because there's other guys that are on the field. I think it's unique that we do what we do, both on the offensive and defensive side of the baseball. I know it's fun for me when I get to watch these guys do their routine and prepare to play each and every day. You watch it, and then you kind of elevate your own preparation and what you want to do. Because that's just what's demanded out of this clubhouse.' Skubal is known to flex and roar after big strikeouts. Against the Guardians, he backpedaled off the mound after finishing a hitter with a 101.7 mph fastball. His final pitch was an absurd 102.6 mph. He brings instant energy, infectious emotion. But like his team, all that comes out only after diligent preparation. Skubal is here because he spent a summer driving his now-wife's Dodge Dart from Kingman to Phoenix for Tommy John rehab. He's here because of his work with trainers in Arizona, his willingness to learn a new changeup and his uncanny transformation from a fly-ball pitcher prone to elevated pitch counts to a groundball maestro who loiters his powerful stuff inside the strike zone. Advertisement 'Preparation is everything for me,' Skubal said. 'It's what breeds all my confidence when I'm out on the mound.' So how much of what they're doing is real? Detroit finished Wednesday second only to the Yankees in the American League with a plus-84 run differential. Dating to last season, the Tigers have a 68-33 record over their past 101 games, the best mark in all of baseball. Better than the Dodgers. Better than the Yankees. Wednesday, they completed a sweep of the Giants to cap a six-game homestand. Catcher Jake Rogers scampered from first to third and later scored. Kahnle entered with two runners in scoring position and nobody out. He somehow escaped unscathed. 'We don't care who the hero is,' Hinch said. 'We don't care what inning it's gonna be. We've shown it over and over and over again that we're gonna try to beat you with our 26 guys, and sometimes, it works.' After another win where every roll of the dice seemed to work out in the Tigers' favor, clubhouse attendants packed up orange-and-blue travel bags. Players showered up, then slipped into Lululemon sweats embroidered with the Olde English D. The club filed out the door one player after another, marching on like this was business as usual. (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire, Patrick McDermott, Matt Dirksen,)
Fox News
5 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Tarik Skubal wants to be an inning-eating workhorse, even if MLB has changed
Tarik Skubal enjoyed his first taste of throwing a complete game as a professional and the Detroit Tigers ace is hoping to be a rare starting pitcher who is regularly on the mound late in games. In this era, teams usually depend on relievers to pitch at least a few innings and the reigning AL Cy Young and league Triple Crown winner would love to buck the trend for manager A.J. Hinch and the AL-leading Tigers. "The game's changed a little bit because these guys that come in are the best they've ever been, but my goal is to make it as difficult as I can on A.J. to take me out of a game," Skubal said Wednesday before Detroit wrapped up a series at home against San Francisco. "I want him thinking a lot about it. I don't want it to be an easy decision. "That's kind of that's what starting pitching is — you take the ball and you eat innings. There's probably been a little bit of less value in that in today's game as it was five, 10 years ago." Justin Verlander laments that fact. "Most guys are getting pulled in the fifth or sixth inning," he said. Verlander, a three-time AL Cy Young Award in his first season with the Giants, understands clubs try to limit innings starters pitch in part to avoid injuries. The 42-year-old right-hander, though, is grateful Jim Leyland was his manager early in his career with the Tigers and allowed him to have 120-pitch outings and 200-inning seasons. "Even at that time, that was a little old school," Verlander said. "Had he not been my manager, I might not have had the opportunity to show what I can do. I think what separated me from a lot of guys was my ability to throw that many pitches and get stronger as game went on, and do it every five days." When Skubal makes his next start on Saturday at Kansas City, the hard-throwing lefty wants Hinch to see plenty of reasons to keep him in the game longer than usual. "I want to be out there for the sixth, seventh and eighth inning," he said. "There's going to be five-inning outings. Those are grinder games. I'm not too proud of those ones. I'm proud of ones I'm in the seventh, eighth and handing the ball off to the back end of our guys." [Related: Last Night in Baseball: Tarik Skubal goes Maddux, historically so] In Skubal's last start, he gave up two hits and matched a career high with 13 strikeouts in a 94-pitch performance that included just 22 balls and no walks. It was just the fifth individual shutout this season in the majors, and a complete-game shutout thrown in under 100 pitches is nicknamed a "Maddux," in honor of Greg Maddux, a leader in efficiency in an era of inflated pitch counts. That kind of efficiency is also what allowed Skubal to throw a record 102.6 mph, per Statcast's measurement, on his final pitch of the game. Which was also the fastest recorded velocity of any pitch 75+ pitches into a start. Skubal has yet to surpass 96 pitches in a start in 2025, and exceeded the 100-pitch mark just four times in 31 starts a year ago, while averaging over six innings per start – Skubal made it to the seventh inning throwing between 74 and 91 pitches on nine occasions in 2024. He's averaging nearly 6.1 innings per start in 2025, with the same level of pitch efficiency. If he or any other Detroit starter is as efficient as Skubal was on Sunday, then Hinch plans to keep them in for the final inning. "If guys want to enter the ninth inning with 85 pitches, I promise you I will leave guys in," Hinch said. Hinch said it's not an indictment on starters when they don't last deep in games, adding it's not a "healthy badge of honor," to just leave pitchers on the mound because they're having a good day. Simply put, he said the stuff a fresh reliever has to throw at teams is going to be better than one of the last pitches from any starter. "As starters fatigue, is their 120th pitch better than Will Vest's first pitch? Or, Tommy Kahnle's first pitch? Or, Brant Hurter's first pitch?" Hinch asked. "The answer is no." Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Tarik Skubal hopes to make it tough for Tigers manager A.J. Hinch to take him out late in games
DETROIT (AP) — Tarik Skubal enjoyed his first taste of throwing a complete game as a professional and the Detroit Tigers ace is hoping to be a rare starting pitcher who is regularly on the mound late in games. In this era, teams usually depend on relievers to pitch at least a few innings and the reigning AL Cy Young and league Triple Crown winner would love to buck the trend for manager A.J. Hinch and the AL-leading Tigers. 'The game's changed a little bit because these guys that come in are the best they've ever been, but my goal is to make it as difficult as I can on A.J. to take me out of a game,' Skubal said Wednesday before Detroit wrapped up a series at home against San Francisco. 'I want him thinking a lot about it. I don't want it to be an easy decision. 'That's kind of that's what starting pitching is — you take the ball and you eat innings. There's probably been a little bit of less value in that in today's game as it was five, 10 years ago.' Justin Verlander laments that fact. 'Most guys are getting pulled in the fifth or sixth inning,' he said. Verlander, a three-time AL Cy Young Award in his first season with the Giants, understands clubs try to limit innings starters pitch in part to avoid injuries. The 42-year-old right-hander, though, is grateful Jim Leyland was his manager early in his career with the Tigers and allowed him to have 120-pitch outings and 200-inning seasons. 'Even at that time, that was a little old school,' Verlander said. 'Had he not been my manager, I might not have had the opportunity to show what I can do. I think what separated me from a lot of guys was my ability to throw that many pitches and get stronger as game went on, and do it every five days.' When Skubal makes his next start on Saturday at Kansas City, the hard-throwing lefty wants Hinch to see plenty of reasons to keep him in the game longer than usual. 'I want to be out there for the sixth, seventh and eighth inning,' he said. 'There's going to be five-inning outings. Those are grinder games. I'm not too proud of those ones. I'm proud of ones I'm in the seventh, eighth and handing the ball off to the back end of our guys.' In Skubal's last start, he gave up two hits and matched a career high with 13 strikeouts in a 94-pitch performance that included just 22 balls and no walks. It was just the fifth individual shutout this season in the majors. If he or any other Detroit starter is as efficient, Hinch plans to keep them in for the final inning. 'If guys want to enter the ninth inning with 85 pitches, I promise you I will leave guys in,' Hinch said. Hinch said it's not an indictment on starters when they don't last deep in games, adding it's not a 'healthy badge of honor,' to just leave pitchers on the mound because they're having a good day. Simply put, he said the stuff a fresh reliever has to throw at teams is going to be better than one of the last pitches from any starter. 'As starters fatigue, is their 120th pitch better than Will Vest's first pitch? Or, Tommy Kahnle's first pitch? Or, Brant Hurter's first pitch?' Hinch asked. 'The answer is no.' ___ AP MLB:
