SAN DIEGO -- When Tarik Skubal takes the mound in San Diego on Thursday afternoon, he’ll be making his first appearance at Petco Park, as a pitcher at least.
Long before Skubal was the most fearsome left-hander in baseball, he was a college kid looking to go somewhere warm on vacation during summer break. One of those spots was Coronado, just across the bridge from San Diego. So while he was relaxing, he made the trip over, bought a ticket and took in a Padres-Cardinals game as a fan.
“I was talking to [former Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty] on the way here, I was wondering if he was on that roster,” Skubal said. “But then, I don’t even know what year it was, trying to figure that out. ...
“The whole stadium was all St. Louis fans. It was unbelievable. But it was really cool to watch and experience. The seventh-inning stretch was unreal. I’ll never forget that.”
That was a while ago, before the Padres’ current run of success that has packed the park with home fans. Skubal will have a different view and a different reception from the mound on Thursday, perhaps similar to what he experienced in Seattle last October after going to so many Mariners games as a college kid.
But, as Skubal points out, last season is now in the past.
“It’s exciting,” Skubal said of his third Opening Day start. “Everybody’s 0-0. Doesn’t matter what happened last year. Nobody cares. It’s kind of a fresh start for everybody. It’s exciting all the way around starting off. We’re going to be 1-0 after tomorrow’s game and carry that into the next one.”
Rogers describes freak concussion injury
Jake Rogers said he’s feeling good and ready for Opening Day after the bizarre batting cage accident that left him with a concussion last week in Lakeland.
“It was a crazy, freak accident,” Rogers said. “To this day, I don’t know if I could do it again.”
The incident, he said, was a hitting drill that included a resistance band holding Rogers in an effort to get him to stay on his back hip in his swing longer. Rogers swung, and somehow the bat bounced off the band and hit him in the face.
“I still don’t know what happened,” Rogers said. “That’s just my interpretation of it. That moment when it happened, I don’t really remember.”
The impact knocked Rogers to the ground and left a gash around and inside his mouth, requiring a dozen stitches to close. Fortunately for Rogers, his moustache and beard are in midseason form, hiding the stitches.
For a couple days, Rogers’ readiness for Opening Day seemed in question. But within a few days, he cleared MLB’s concussion protocol and returned to action for Detroit's final tuneup games against the Rockies, first as a pinch-hitter, then as a catcher. The Tigers still have Eduardo Valencia (Detroit's No. 25 prospect) with them in San Diego as a precaution in case they needed to make a move on short notice.
“It was a really weird, freak accident, and scared a bunch of people for a day or two,” Rogers said. “But after a day or two, got stitched up and it was all good.”
That drill, however, is over.
Pitching prospect designated for assignment
The promotion of top prospect Kevin McGonigle (MLB Pipeline's No. 2 overall) to the Opening Day roster meant the Tigers needed to make a move to open a 40-man roster spot. That turned out to be fellow prospect Dylan Smith, who was designated for assignment.
Smith, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Tigers’ No. 21 prospect, made his MLB debut in Detroit last summer and emerged as one of the organization’s more promising young relievers. He was part of Major League camp and then pitched in last week’s Spring Breakout game, tossing a perfect two-thirds of an inning on just seven pitches with one strikeout while topping out at 95.9 mph with his sinker.
Smith, the Tigers’ third-round pick in the 2021 Draft out of Alabama, has two Minor League options remaining. The Tigers can outright the 25-year-old right-hander to the Minor Leagues if he clears waivers, but as president of baseball operations Scott Harris acknowledged, there’s a lot for organizations to like.
“I think Dylan has the talent to be an effective reliever in this game,” Harris said. “For us right now, given the young players that we added to our 40-man to protect them from getting taken in the Rule 5 [Draft], and given the springs that a number of guys on our 40-man had, we had a tough choice.”