DETROIT -- The Tigers couldn’t have scripted a much better return for Justin Verlander to Comerica Park: A national stage for a Sunday night broadcast with the downtown Detroit skyline lit up in the background. But with a 43-year-old pitcher, health is hard to plan.
Verlander’s return to the mound at Comerica Park in a Tigers uniform will have to wait. The Tigers placed the former AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner on the 15-day injured list Saturday with left hip inflammation.
The move is retroactive to Wednesday, meaning he’ll be eligible to return as soon as April 16. Still, Detroit wants to make sure Verlander is feeling right and moving well in his delivery first.
Verlander, who returned to the Tigers in February as a free agent on a one-year contract, allowed five runs on six hits over 3 2/3 innings in his Tigers return Monday at Arizona. His hip issue started during that outing.
“My last start, just started to get a little tight,” Verlander said. “Kind of [around my] left hamstring, was just kinda working through it. And then it was really sore the next day or two, but it’s been trending in the right direction. And so it was kinda like a wait-and-see game if it could get good enough. To be quite frank, I think it probably is good enough if we wanted to push it, but [manager] A.J. [Hinch] and the front office -- and I agree with them -- [say] it’s probably not the time of year to do that. And we don’t have an off-day to finagle with, which also kind of hurts.”
Verlander threw Saturday morning to see if he was good to go for Sunday Night Baseball against the Cardinals. The Tigers announced the move afterward.
“He came in [Saturday], and he threw. I could tell he was tentative, and he’s tough and he wants to push through it,” Hinch said.
Said Verlander: “[Saturday] was my best day so far. It’s literally been getting better every day, but when I come off the field, I can’t sit there and tell them 100 percent that tomorrow’s going to be the way it needs to be.”
The raucous ovation Verlander received during pregame introductions Friday, and when he squatted behind home plate to catch former teammate Brandon Inge’s ceremonial first pitch, was indicative of how much his return means to Detroit fans and how big his Sunday night start could've been. The Tigers had sold a good number of tickets ahead of time in anticipation of Verlander’s start, despite forecasted cooler conditions.
“It’s frustrating for me, obviously,” Verlander said. “I also know a lot of fans were excited about [Sunday] night. I know a lot of people spent their hard-earned money to come to the game. I actually talked to the organization about that, and they’re going to do something about that, so that’s nice. Not ideal, but nothing too bad. I think we have it under control.”
The Tigers had been selling special Verlander Homecoming ticket packages for Sunday, including a specially designed T-shirt. More information on those is expected to follow.
Right-hander Keider Montero was recalled from Triple-A Toledo and is expected to start in Verlander’s place Sunday night. Montero was lined up to start for the Mud Hens on Sunday at Syracuse, so he will be pitching on his regular turn. He tossed four scoreless innings with three strikeouts for the Hens in his season debut on March 29 at Lehigh Valley.
“We didn’t anticipate needing rotation help this week,” Hinch said. “But it came up, and we have someone who arguably could have been on this team from the get-go, and now he gets an opportunity to come up and help us.”