DETROIT -- The sound of Jay-Z’s “Holy Grail” blared around Comerica Park as Tarik Skubal prepared to bound up the dugout steps, take the mound and face hitters Tuesday afternoon. But the stands and concourses at Comerica Park were empty, aside from the in-game entertainment crew doing its pregame preparations, and Skubal was facing teammates Zack Short and Jahmai Jones.
Skubal Day was essentially a simulated game, a few innings of live batting practice against Tigers hitters. But the fact that Skubal was on the mound, facing hitters and throwing his usual arsenal 20 days after surgery to remove a loose body from his elbow, is a great sign for his recovery and his timetable for a return to a Tigers rotation that could use the back-to-back American League Cy Young winner.
“Really encouraging day with him on the mound,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Just good to see him out there and letting the ball go freely. Velocity was really good, stuff was good, execution was OK, all things that he’s going to challenge himself with as he gets back ramped up. But it was a really good day.”
By unofficial count, Skubal threw 39 pitches while recording eight outs. He struck out the first batter in each of his three innings -- all swinging -- and recorded a handful of whiffs. Jones, who homered off Justin Verlander in Verlander's simulated outing last week, did the same off Skubal, hitting a ball deep to left. Skubal, his competitive instincts flowing, started him off next inning with a first-pitch curveball for a called strike.
How Skubal feels over the next couple of days will determine how he progresses, but assuming he feels nothing more than normal post-start soreness, the Tigers plan to continue to build up his arm on a five-day schedule similar to a normal rotation. That would put him on track to throw another simulated session to hitters on Sunday in Chicago, stretching out his workload.
“Recovery is going to really lead this,” Hinch said, “and then you give him a little bit more rope. The hope is that you’re going to build the volume to a level that he can go out and the next stressor would be competition. Now, that’s going to be a rehab assignment. I know everybody keeps asking me, saying the same thing: He’s going to pitch in a game somewhere other than the big leagues before he comes [back] to the big leagues. And that will come when it can.”
In so doing, both the Tigers and Skubal are taking the long view, making sure that when he returns, he’s ready to push for the stretch run.
“I'm trying to do everything I can to be back as fast as possible, but also as healthy as possible, and trying to walk that fine line,” Skubal said. “It's a little unprecedented, kind of, what's going on, so [I'm] trying to walk that line and push the threshold but also be smart, because I don't want to come back, say, two or three weeks from now and go right back on the shelf a month later. That's not the goal. The goal is to come back and pitch the rest of the season healthy, play postseason baseball and see what happens.”
It’s tough, especially with the injury-plagued Tigers struggling. As Hinch also said Tuesday, he’s grateful to have a five-man rotation again with Troy Melton’s return Sunday from right elbow inflammation.
“I hate it, because I can't go make an impact on the field and help these guys out,” Skubal said. “I know a lot of these guys in this clubhouse trust me, and they instill a lot of confidence in me with that. I know on days I go, everyone in here expects to win. Not being able to do that and provide for the team, especially when they're scuffling a little bit, it hurts. But you can kind of use that as motivation. You don't take stuff for granted. You can use it as fuel for when you get back. …
“But just having to watch, it's not fun. You feel for the guys. But also, I think we've played a bad stretch of baseball here, and we're still, what, five games out of the Wild Card? So that's just the reality of the situation. As bad as it may seem, we're still right there.”