Detroit Tigers: Daniel Norris to Open Season on DL, Team Searches for Starter
By Matt Snyder
The Detroit Tigers announced that starting pitcher Daniel Norris has a non-displaced fracture in his back and will start the season on the disabled list.
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Daniel Norris had to leave Tuesday’s spring training start in the first inning after experiencing tightness in his lower back. He went to see a specialist today where it was revealed that he actually had a fracture in his back.
Jason Beck passed along the diagnosis on Twitter:
Daniel Norris has nondisplaced fractures in spinous process, Brad Ausmus said. "It sounds worse than it is," head trainer Kevin Rand said.
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) March 24, 2016
Diagnosis doesn't change timetable on Norris, according to Tigers, but he won't pick up a ball for 5 days. He will open season on DL.
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) March 24, 2016
I know that you, the reader, knows exactly what a spinous process is, but for those others out there, here’s the definition from spine-health.com.
"Spinous processes are the ridges that can be felt through the skin along the back of the spine. Incidents of abrupt torsion in the neck such as whiplash can cause the spinous process to fracture."
“Incidents of abrupt torsion” sounds kind of like pitching to a non-medical professional such as myself.
Norris hadn’t pitched well this spring, though it’s not clear how long this back issue might have been bothering him. He entered camp as the presumed favorite to win the fifth spot in the starting rotation, but was in the process of perhaps pitching his way to a minor league assignment.
Internal candidates to win the final rotation spot includes the others who had been battling with Norris this spring: namely Matt Boyd and Shane Greene.
Boyd was shaky in his start on Thursday afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays, but he’s been fairly good (and very good in flashes) thus far in spring.
But it’s probably Greene who has both the higher upside as a major league starter and the inside track to win the opening day rotation spot this season. He’s posted a strikeout rate above nine per nine innings while limiting walks and home runs in his entirely meaningless small sample size spring statistical line.
Greene has had more success at the big league level (prior to last season) than Boyd has had and the Tigers’ coaching staff and front office might be willing to believe that 2015’s struggles were caused by his arterial issues and not simply a complete collapse in ability.
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In addition to internal candidates, it had previously been reported that the Tigers had been taking a look at veteran free agent Kyle Lohse. Lohse would be a great depth piece to add if he’d be willing to take a minor league contract and begin the season in AAA.