LAKELAND, Fla. -- The last time Casey Mize pitched in a game, he faced a Royals lineup that included Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi, Carlos Santana, Hunter Dozier, Adalberto Mondesi, Michael A. Taylor and Nicky Lopez, none of whom are Royals anymore. Bobby Witt Jr. started at third for Kansas City in his sixth MLB game. The only other Royal from that April 14, 2022 lineup still with the club is cleanup hitter Salvador Perez.

It's not just who Mize faced that evening at Kauffman Stadium. The only players from the Tigers’ lineup still with the club are Spencer Torkelson and Akil Baddoo.

None of this is lost on Mize. In some ways, that night feels like forever ago. In other ways, it feels like yesterday.

“Yeah, both. As contradictory as that is, yes,” Mize said Tuesday morning after throwing off the bullpen mounds at Tigertown. “I remember some stuff from years ago like it was yesterday, and then some stuff it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t believe how much time has passed and how much I’ve grown and changed.’”

Mize has 39 career Major League starts, and 66 for his pro career. However, the top overall pick from the 2018 MLB Draft has three-plus seasons of Major League time. He has been around long enough to be a mentor of sorts to Jackson Jobe, the Tigers’ first-round pick in 2021, in his first big league camp.

The 26-year-old Mize has been through a lot. He just hasn’t been through a lot of games lately, none since undergoing Tommy John and back surgeries in the summer of 2022. He’s ready to change that.

“I definitely went through a really challenging time, so it just means a lot to me to be able to be back and compete,” he said. “I’ve always loved baseball. I’ve loved every single part of it, but I think it’s just a new perspective on how much I need to focus just on day by day and on competing and being present and not looking back on what I just went through and what’s in the future. I just really need to be focused on today.

“I don’t want to be the player that’s viewed as always hurt. I don’t think that’s really the case. It’s just obviously I missed a lot of time, but I had a very major, very common surgery. If you look around the room at the scars, there’s a few. And I was able to lean on them for those experiences, too. … I’m not sure what this year’s going to bring me, but I’ve been able to see a lot of guys go through it. Just to be healthy again, it feels really good.”

Mize finished the final steps of his rehab process early in the offseason, driving back and forth from his St. Petersburg, Fla., home to the Tigers’ Spring Training complex. After a brief rest, he had a normal offseason throwing routine at the Summers Method Performance Center in St. Pete to ramp up for a comeback campaign.

The Tigers haven’t discussed their plan for Mize with him yet, he said. There will likely be some limitations. With six starters competing for five rotation spots, the Tigers have the option of piggybacking Mize with another would-be starter early in the season to ramp him up slowly.

“I’ll throw as much as they let me. I just want to play,” Mize said. “That’s pretty much where I’m at on it.”

He will not be simply picking up where he left off. By doing most of his rehab work last year in Detroit and being around the team, he saw how teammates pitched and adjusted to opponents. He worked on his own pitches. His game has evolved even while on hold, which became apparent during his mound sessions against hitters late last season. It could evolve even more this spring with two new teammates, Kenta Maeda and Shelby Miller, known for their splitters, the pitch that made Mize dominant in college.

“I’ve definitely changed,” he said. “You guys are going to see different pitch mixes, maybe a tiny adjustment mechanically or whatever. I don’t feel like I’m the same. I feel like we’re always adapting and changing, so I don’t want to say I’m the same. That doesn’t mean I’m worse. I feel like it’s going to be even better.”