Detroit Tigers Newsletter: An ever-spinning rotation gains another rookie rider

When 26-year-old right-hander Garrett Hill took the mound against the Cleveland Guardians at 1:10 p.m. Monday, give or take a minute, he became the 14th pitcher to start a game for the Detroit Tigers during the 2022 regular season.

Amazingly, that’s not a record, either for the franchise or for the major leagues. At least, not yet.

Of the Tigers’ 122 seasons (dating back to 1901), 10 others have featured at least 14 starters. Over that same span, there have been 283 other teams with at least that many starters in a season. Shoot, the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers did it just last season, and the Toronto Blue Jays used 21 back in 2019.

FEELING A DRAFT: Breaking down several players Tigers could select No. 12 overall in MLB draft

Of course, if you looked at a calendar today (or heard the fireworks last night), you’ve probably worked out that it’s only July — there’s still more than half the season to go.

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Likewise, the 2022 Tigers have a long way to go to reach the MLB record — that would be 24 by the 1915 Philadelphia Athletics. (Those A’s went 43-109 while allowing 5.77 runs a game, suggesting this record isn’t one to aspire to.) But the Detroit record — 17, set by the 1912 Tigers — certainly seems within reach.

We have to note, though, that rotations back then were much less, well, rotation-y. For example, ace George Mullin, who threw the franchise’s first no-hitter that season — 110 years ago Monday, actually, on his 32nd birthday — started six of the Tigers’ first 21 games that year (while also making a relief appearance). Over that stretch, his days of rest following his Opening Day start were: three, four, four, five and two, respectively.

Whew. I nearly blew out my elbow just typing that.

Those Tigers went 69-84 while allowing 5.05 runs a game. The starters, however, were responsible for 4.29 runs a game. This year’s Tigers, even with their recent run of poor performances, have that beat, at least; their 2022 starters are allowing 2.83 runs per game, albeit over several fewer innings per outing.

In the interest of completeness, we’ll list the 13 other starters (in alphabetical order, lest we be accused of playing favorites): Tyler Alexander, Beau Brieske, Alex Faedo, Rony García, Drew Hutchison, Matt Manning, Casey Mize, Wily Peralta, Michael Pineda, Eduardo Rodriguez, Elvin Rodríguez, Tarik Skubal and Joey Wentz.

Skubal leads the squad in starts, with 16, followed by Brieske at 13 and Faedo — Monday's Game 2 starter today — at 11. As for effectiveness? Well, Peralta has a 0.00 ERA as a starter; he went two innings on May 8 in Houston. Manning is next, at 2.25 … in two starts, though there’s hope he could return from the injured list by late July.

And Rodriguez, the Tigers’ highest-paid starter at $14 million? He posted a 4.38 ERA over eight starts before going on the IL, and then the (unpaid) restricted list, with no timetable for his return. (The Freep’s Evan Petzold has the latest here, which features the meant-to-be-reassuring yet vaguely ominous phrase, “We know he's safe,” from manager A.J. Hinch.)

But back to Hill; he’s replacing García, who headed to the IL on Saturday with shoulder soreness. The 2018 26th-round pick, out of San Diego State, is set to make three turns in the rotation before the All-Star break, meaning Detroit probably won’t set the franchise record for starting pitchers used until at least August.

After that? Who knows. The Tigers aren’t asking Hill to repeat Mullin’s July 4 fireworks from more than a century ago. But if Hill can deliver a shadow of his most recent performance — six innings of one-run ball (with seven strikeouts) against Louisville (the Cincinnati Reds' Triple-A affiliate) on Wednesday — it could start calming the winds of fortune whipping the Tigers’ 2022 rotation around.

Warming up in Erie?

Down in Double-A Erie, the strikeout numbers for right-hander Reese Olson have soared after he received some extra attention at spring minicamp during the MLB lockout. Olson had 114 strikeouts in 104 1/3 innings in the Tigers and Brewers system last season (he came to the Tigers for Daniel Norris at the trade deadline); he’s at 103 strikeouts through 66 innings in 2022, tops for the SeaWolves and seventh in all of the minors. The Freep’s Jeff Seidel caught up with Olson last week. His next big goal? Packing on the pounds.

Draft daze

Speaking of the youth movement, the MLB draft — now in July and now in the All-Star Game’s host city (Los Angeles, in case you’d kinda tuned out the All-Star campaign talk this season) — is less than two weeks away. So who will the Tigers be targeting? Our Man Petzold chatted with ESPN draft expert Kiley McDaniel, who reveled the quickest fix for the Tigers’ biggest woe this season: College hitters. Get the breakdown of who could be waiting for the Tigers at No. 12 here.

Hollywood Horton

All-Star Game? While we have to wait a few more days to find out who the Tigers’ playing representative will be — the roster comes out Sunday — we know there’ll be another veteran member of the franchise headed to L.A.: Willie Horton, who was picked by AL manager Dusty Baker (now leading the Houston BOO HISS TRASH CAN JOKE Astros) as an honorary coach. Our Man Petzold has the report on who else is getting honored at the game at Dodger Stadium on July 19.

It’s a big month for Horton; his fourth book, “Willie Horton: 23: Detroit’s own Willie the Wonder, the Tigers’ first Black great,” is coming out on July 12. He talked this week with the Freep’s Mason Young about his challenges in baseball, and the struggle for racial equality the sport still faces.

Taking the lead(off)

One Tiger we know won’t be headed to L.A.? Riley Greene, though it’s not because he hasn’t played like an All-Star; he has reached base in all 13 of his big-league games (albeit once by only an error) — already the longest streak by a Tiger this season — and has a slash line of .292/.414/.417. He’s already fifth on the roster in bWAR (Wins Above Replacement, according to baseball-reference.com) at 0.6. (Then again, Austin Meadows is third, at 0.7; the Tigers just aren’t good, is what we’re saying.) That early success has Hinch betting big on Greene and putting the rookie into the leadoff spot on a semi-permanent basis. Our Man Petzold has the reasons — beyond his triple and home run to open and close Saturday’s win over the Royals, that is — right here.

Down on the farm

Speaking of would-be leadoff hitters, Akil Baddoo has been crushing the ball for Triple-A Toledo since Greene was called up on June 18. In his 13 games with the Mud Hens since then, Baddoo is 19-for-50 (.380) with five doubles, two triples and two homers, plus six walks and nine strikeouts, for a ridiculous OPS of 1.136. Last month he told Our Man Petzold he planned to “be that Baddoo” again; it appears he’s much closer than we expected.

3 to watch

These three Tigers are hoping for better weeks following the holiday:

AUSTIN MEADOWS: You’re not gonna believe this, but he’s on the IL for something new.

TARIK SKUBAL: After three straight seven-inning outings, Sunday was his fifth straight without reaching the sixth.

SPENCER TORKELSON: It was a weekend for the rookie — hit by pitch Friday, hit pitch far Sunday.

The Javy Way: It’s time to play the Feud!

Javier Báez’s bat cooled off this week, as he went from a three-homer week against the Red Sox and Diamondbacks to a 4-for-20 week (with seven strikeouts) against the Giants and Royals. Still, things weren’t entirely chilly in JavyLand, as he had a heated (and mostly good-natured, we think) exchange with K.C. reliever Amir Garrett on Saturday afternoon. What sparked the trash talk between the pair? Well … it’s a long story; Our Man Petzold took a dive into it here.

Happy birthday, Josh Harrison!

OK, it didn’t work out in Detroit — Josh Harrison, who turns 35 on Friday, posted a .480 OPS in 36 games with the Tigers in 2019 — but Harrison rebounded with a pair of solid seasons with the Nationals, with a .794 OPS in 2020-21. His return to the AL hasn’t gone as well, however, with a .637 OPS in 48 games with Oakland after last season’s trade deadline, and a .663 OPS this year with the White Sox. (And that’s despite a .892 mark since the start of June.) Still, he’ll get a reunion with his former franchise this weekend as the Tigers visit Chicago, and, hey, isn’t reconnecting with old friends really what birthdays are all about?

Other Tigers birthdays this week: George Mullin (would have been 142 on Monday; died in 1944), Jason Thompson (68 on Wednesday), Coot Veal (would have been 90 on Saturday; died in 2021), Sergio Alcántara (26 on Sunday).

Mark your calendar

The Tigers’ July slog to the (abbreviated) All-Star break — 19 games in 17 days — continues with an eight-game week: four against the Guardians at Comerica Park from Monday-Wednesday followed by four in four days against the White Sox. The ChiSox have arguably been the most disappointing team in baseball, with a 38-39 record that’s papering over a minus-36 run differential. Even Tony LaRussa's squad's biggest doubters before the season — ahem — had them cruising not only to an AL Central title, but a first-round bye. Instead, besotted by injuries, they’re four games out of the final wild-card spot and 4 ½ games out of the Central lead. Despite their disparate preseason goals and spots in the standings, the Tigers and ChiSox have the same goal this month, as Our Man Petzold wrote here: To make up ground on the Central-leading Twins … and stay ahead of the cellar-dwelling Royals.

TL;DR

While we’re not fond of adding asterisks to the record book — a season is what it is — the 1912 Tigers’ roster of starting pitchers was artificially inflated by at least one. Following Ty Cobb’s indefinite suspension for going into the stands in New York on May 15 and beating a heckler during a game — the whole 1912 season was a banger, eh? — the entire Tigers squad went on strike, forcing the club to scrounge up a roster of semipros and retirees for a May 18 date with the A’s in Philly.

The starter that day was 20-year-old Allen Travers, normally the assistant manager of the St. Joseph’s baseball team; for $50, as the story goes, he went all eight innings while giving up 26 hits and seven walks in a 24-2 loss. (He did have one strikeout, pitcher Boardwalk Brown.)

We’re pretty sure Hill will do better than that. And if he doesn’t, well, at least he’ll get paid more than $50.

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers Newsletter: A season of fireworks in the rotation