The Detroit Tigers received some rough injury news on Saturday as Casey Mize could be out awhile, and Javy Baez is playing through pain.
Baez admitted he was injured on Opening Day, after hitting a walk-off double to defeat the Chicago White Sox. Javy has sat out the last few days, and will do so again for the rest of the Royals series. After an off day Monday, if he’s not ready to go for a series against the New York Yankees, then the Tigers will be faced with a tough decision.
“It’s really tricky with thumbs. Bubic is gonna throw a ton of cutters to us today. I can put him out there and make everybody feel better on the front end of the day. But one swing can take us back 10 days,” A.J. Hinch said on Baez.
Casey Mize, however, is an entirely different looming distraction.
Tigers get bad news on Casey Mize, Javy Baez
Mize was placed on the 10-day injured list with an elbow issue, which has since been diagnosed as a medial collateral ligament sprain. He’ll need further consult from doctors, but the first step is to remain inactive for 7-10 days.
“It was more when I woke up this morning,” Mize said. “I’m going to leave it up to the doctors and trainers. I don’t want to play the what-if game. I think that’s a bad place to be in. We’ll have more answers in the next couple days. I’m just trying to wait until then, honestly.”
Hinch was blunt with reporters, stating he didn’t know how serious of an injury it was. Elbow issues with pitchers can keep them out anywhere from a matter of weeks to months. Tommy John surgery is obviously the worst possible outcome, but the goal is to avoid that at all costs.
The Tigers hope they caught Mize’s injury early on.
“I don’t know how significant of an injury it is,” Hinch said, “other than we know it was going to be at a minimum a start, so that takes him onto the injured list. We’ll go through the battery of tests and hope for the best. Maybe it’s just a little bump in the road and he’ll feel better in the coming days.”
Overall, this is not the news Hinch and Detroit were hoping for, especially for one of the more promising young arms in all of baseball.