DETROIT -- Tarik Skubal was back on the bullpen mound at Comerica Park on Monday, less than two weeks after surgery to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow.
It was the typical, full-arsenal bullpen session he would throw before a start, he said, a good sign that his next start might not be too far off. He doesn’t know when quite yet.
“I'd love to sit here and say I'm going to be back on this date. I just don't know that,” Skubal said. “There's a lot of things that happen, whether it be a rehab assignment or something. Getting through those starts obviously matters, and that'll determine how I'm back here, too. I'd love to sit here and give you an answer on when I'm going to be back, because I want that same answer. I don't have it, but hopefully sooner rather than later.”
The fact that the Tigers brought him back to Detroit after his initial throwing at the team’s Spring Training facility in Lakeland, Fla. -- including his first mound session last week -- is a good sign. It means Skubal isn’t simply throwing just to throw, that he’s far enough along that Detroit wants pitching coach Chris Fetter and assistants Robin Lund and Juan Nieves watching his work and tracking his progress.
“They’re good signs,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I think the step-by-step process has worked for him, where he’s answered everything. The feedback has been good. The follow-up after this throwing has been even better. And when you put your heads together, it’s just trying to give him more and more to get him back into the regular routine.
“Now that the mound progression is going to be pretty consistent on that five-day, six-day cadence like a starting pitcher normally would be, we certainly want him with Fett, Robin [and] Juan here in Detroit. So that’s why we moved him to the next step.”
So far, Skubal is seeing the benefit of the Nanoscope procedure that Dr. Neal ElAttrache saw him as a good candidate to undergo, given the nature of his elbow and the loose body in it. There was hope it would lead to a quicker recovery and shorter buildup than a normal arthroscopic surgery, which has played out so far. Skubal didn’t need his arm in a cast after surgery, just in a sleeve, and he was encouraged to work to regain range of motion quickly. He began throwing within three or four days.
“From the first day I picked up the baseball, it was a lot more free, a lot more freedom in the throw,” he said. “I didn't realize what I was doing [shaking my arm] was actually moving the loose body out of the joint to keep throwing. I didn't know that's what I was doing, but I knew it gave me relief. So there's still like, I don't want to call it hesitant or waiting for a symptom to come back. You still kind of have to prove that through this whole process, and that's what the next however many days are for until I get back to pitching in the big leagues: You're good, and you feel good. And I feel good right now.
“Coming off a bullpen session like that, no symptoms at all of what I was experiencing prior. And that wouldn't be the case two weeks ago, when I threw my last bullpen before having the surgery. So I think all things considered, it's a very positive thing. And I haven't had any symptoms since the surgery.”
Skubal and the Tigers' medical staff remain in touch with Dr. ElAttrache on checkpoints and next steps. One of the advisories, not surprisingly, is to not move too aggressively based on how he feels.
“I'm trying to keep the governor on a little bit,” Skubal said. “That's the guidance I've been told is just, 'Hold it back, you're going to feel good, but try to keep the reins on a little bit, and then as you respond well, and as you keep bouncing back well from each bullpen session, just kind of go out there and compete.' I think that's the hardest part right now, because I feel really good and want to let it go. But I've been instructed not to.”