Justin Verlander's Hip Still Isn't Right, and the Tigers Are Running Out of Time to Figure It Out
Justin Verlander is 43 years old and supposed to be the ace Detroit brought back to win games. Instead, his recovery from a left hip injury is stalling out, and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch admitted Thursday that things are moving slower than anybody expected.
Verlander landed on the 15-day injured list on April 5 with the inflammation. He threw a bullpen session on Wednesday, but Hinch wasn't exactly thrilled with what he saw. "I don't think he's necessarily taking a step forward, and he hasn't taken a step back," Hinch said. That's the kind of comment that makes you nervous. It's not progress. It's treading water.
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Verlander's only appearance so far came on March 30 against Arizona, and it wasn't pretty. He gave up five runs on six hits across 3 2/3 innings in a 9-6 loss to the Diamondbacks. That's not what you expect from a three-time Cy Young Award winner, even one at age 43. Making his first start for Detroit since 2017, he took the loss immediately.
"He had a bullpen yesterday that went OK. It wasn't quite to the level that I think he wanted or that we wanted," Hinch explained. "We're going to take it day by day."
The Timeline Is Getting Fuzzy
Hinch said Verlander will travel with the team for this weekend's series at Boston and "will do something there," but there's no clear path back to the rotation yet. The hip still isn't at 100%, which means no full game activity is coming soon. "It's going a little slower than I think he anticipated or we anticipated, but that's OK," Hinch said. "We've got to make sure we get this right."
That's front office speak for "we're not rushing this." But the Tigers need rotation depth, and every day Verlander sits is another day without their future Hall of Famer on the mound. He's got 266 wins across 21 seasons and 3,554 strikeouts, leading all active pitchers in wins and ranking eighth all-time in strikeouts. The guy is a legend. But right now, he's just trying to get healthy.
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