Detroit Tigers cannot catch a break with their starting rotation

The 2022 season initially brought a lot of promise and excitement for the Detroit Tigers organization. The start of the 2022 season has brought about a lot of familiar emotions for Tigers fans. Unfortunately, not the good ones.

The Detroit Tigers have battled adversity early on and look like they are far from competing. But, part of the issue is things that they cannot control. With injuries being a significant hindrance to their team, it’s been a rocky start to the 2022 season.

The Tigers are doing their best to piece together a healthy roster, but injuries have made this even more challenging. The team’s starting rotation has been struggling, primarily because of injuries, and they just keep coming.

In the Tigers game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, offseason signee Eduardo Rodríguez had to leave the game early. He would record just one out before exiting the game and turning things over to the bullpen.

Detroit Tigers starting rotation just keeps taking hits.

First, Casey Mize and Matt Manning were put on the shelf with injuries. While they are both working through rehab assignments, it was a wrench in the team’s rotation early on in the 2022 season.

After that, Michael Pineda sustained a finger injury and found himself on the Injured List (IL) as well. The issue is that pitchers just keep finding themselves hurt or off the mound, even if it’s not an IL stint.

Now, Rodríguez will likely be on the IL as well, leading to the rotation being in shambles. The team came into the year knowing they would not have Spencer Turnbull, but now they will be without four starters who were anticipated to be a part of the rotation.

They’ve gotten strong performances out of the bullpen and pitchers who they were not expecting success from. Many would have expected the bullpen to be an issue, and they have exceeded expectations and been a bright spot on the pitching side of things.

The rotation continues to take hits, lose pitchers to the IL, and leaves the Tigers scrambling to find arms to fill out the team’s staff. They have even resorted to call-ups like Alex Faedo and Joey Wentz, who have each made their big league debuts.

With the rotation continuing to lose arms and need to eat up innings and find starters elsewhere, they will likely turn to some creative strategies. Expect the team to have some bullpen games, using the Rays opener strategies, and also make some call-ups if need be.

The hope is that they will get some of their pitchers back, but hopefully, they do not lose any more before then.