Inside the Article:
The Detroit Tigers starting pitching staff has been decimated by injuries this season. This week we saw the return of Tarik Skubal and Eduardo Rodriguez, which were exciting until the Tigers lost twice to the worst team in baseball. Now, injured starter Alex Faedo will be returning from a finger injury on Friday versus the Toronto Blue Jays – the announcement was made on 97.1 The Ticket this morning by manager A.J. Hinch.
Why it matters
Last season the Tigers started 17 different pitchers due to injury. This season, they have already had 14 different pitchers start games, utilizing bullpen days over the last three weeks religiously. The return of Skubal and Rodriguez is a welcomed sign, but it comes on the heels of Matthew Boyd‘s Tommy John surgery as the hits kept on coming. Getting Faedo back will hopefully help to lengthen their rotation and provide some stability as the trade deadline approaches and arms like Michael Lorenzen, Rodriguez, and potentially Skubal all draw trade interest.
Alex Faedo by the numbers
Faedo was recalled from AAA Toledo to start against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 7th. He made a total of five starts before landing on the IL.
- He’s thrown only 26.0 innings this season in five starts, giving up three runs or less in four of those five starts.
- He has a 5.54 ERA (which is inflated due to his 4.1 IP and 6 ER vs. Texas in his last start), a 4.52 FIP, and a 3.61 xFIP – indicating he’s pitched much better than the standard numbers indicate.
- He has a 25.2% strikeout rate and only a 1.9% walk rate in those 26 innings pitched. Not to mention a 13.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
- Opponents are hitting just .218 off of him and he’s carried a 0.92 WHIP in his five starts.
The bottom line
The Tigers are reeling after two horrific losses to the Oakland Athletics, a historically bad baseball team. Much of that is due to a taxed bullpen due to multiple bullpen games in the recent weeks – though the team has fared well in those games. However, that is unsustainable. Getting the fresh arms back into the rotation and saving the bullpen for lighter workloads will serve the Tigers well in the second half.
