2026 DETROIT TIGERS REGULAR SEASON THREAD

[romad1]

14 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Click bait.. Lot of pitchers - lot of athletes - have bone chips removed from elbows etc., and it really is no big deal. Of course they could have found something worse when they went in and looked (a la Zumaya) but it that were true then the Skubal camp was putting out outright lies, which seems improbable since it will be perfectly obvious when he has trouble coming back. If they were shading on the time line the only audience for that that matters would be the Tiger FO and I'm sure the FO is not taking any action on anything other than an actual surgical report, not some tweet.

I want to believe he comes back and Willis Reed's the season but... the money involved means we should be looking at some shenanigans on the truth. 

[Sports_Freak]

6 hours ago, romad1 said:

I want to believe he comes back and Willis Reed's the season but... the money involved means we should be looking at some shenanigans on the truth. 

I want to believe the report because I predicted Skubal would be back by July 1st. 😁

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, monkeytargets39 said:

The news so nice they had to say it twice!

[chasfh]

We will learn pretty quickly whether it's a lie ...

[Edman85]

Tigers put their update out Friday afternoons. It will probably say he had successful surgery Thursday and is completing rehab daily.

[romad1]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

We will learn pretty quickly whether it's a lie ...

If he returns and shoves...I'll be happiest.  I'm just concerned this is designed to secure ticket sales for the rest of the year or some other financial reason. 

[Tenacious D]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

Tigers put their update out Friday afternoons. It will probably say he had successful surgery Thursday and is completing rehab daily.

Wake me up when he starts to “long toss”

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

We will learn pretty quickly whether it's a lie ...

Not really.  It could all be true and he could still be out 2-3 months.  

[SoCalTiger]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

The news so nice they had to say it twice!

Heyman is a Boras shill. 

[chasfh]

32 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

Heyman is a Boras shill. 

Doesn't mean it's wrong. I also don't see the business advantage of outrageously lying about it. What's in it for Boras to do so? Skubal gets back when he gets back whether it's four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks, or 2027.

[Tenacious D]

33 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Doesn't mean it's wrong. I also don't see the business advantage of outrageously lying about it. What's in it for Boras to do so? Skubal gets back when he gets back whether it's four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks, or 2027.

From Boras’ camp:  “nothing to see here.”  

[SoCalTiger]

12 hours ago, chasfh said:

Doesn't mean it's wrong. I also don't see the business advantage of outrageously lying about it. What's in it for Boras to do so? Skubal gets back when he gets back whether it's four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks, or 2027.

Boras is using Heyman to downplay the degree..one small loose body...like Tenacious D is saying. Maybe not a big advantage but it's perception building. "no added sugar"..etc..Boras get's good press and Heyman gets scoops. 

[casimir]

I just wonder how Tiger pitching health is compared with other teams over the past several seasons.  This is at the major league level and minor league levels.  It’s probably difficult to get an accurate read if what the Tigers do throughout the system is more or less impactful on arm health vs the rest of baseball.

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Boras is using Heyman to downplay the degree..one small loose body...like Tenacious D is saying. Maybe not a big advantage but it's perception building. "no added sugar"..etc..Boras get's good press and Heyman gets scoops. 

But they are not in a contract negotiation right now, so what's the hoped-for gain here? Whether Skubal comes back in late June, late July, late August, or whenever this season, he still will have to perform at a Cy Young-level to get that max contract. And if he comes out and pitches meh, will teams go back to Heyman's tweet and say, well, this here says the surgery was more than successful, so let's go ahead and give him the extra three years and $150MM? I don't see that happening. And if he were not to make it back at all this season, then Heyman's tweet will be exposed as a lie. So I'm struggling to see where the money in this tweet is for Skubal and Boras?

[Tiger337]

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

But they are not in a contract negotiation right now, so what's the hoped-for gain here? Whether Skubal comes back in late June, late July, late August, or whenever this season, he still will have to perform at a Cy Young-level to get that max contract. And if he comes out and pitches meh, will teams go back to Heyman's tweet and say, well, this here says the surgery was more than successful, so let's go ahead and give him the extra three years and $150MM? I don't see that happening. And if he were not to make it back at all this season, then Heyman's tweet will be exposed as a lie. So I'm struggling to see where the money in this tweet is for Skubal and Boras?

 I don't think it's a strategic move, but rather a psychological thing where he wants to keep news about Skubal as positive as possible at all times.  I don't know who he's trying to fool, but isn't that how marketing works? 

[chasfh]

15 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

 I don't think it's a strategic move, but rather a psychological thing where he wants to keep news about Skubal as positive as possible at all times.  I don't know who he's trying to fool, but isn't that how marketing works? 

And that's fine as far as it goes. If Heyman is tweeting this because he's Boras's boyfriend, then OK, have at it. But the implication on page 12 was that Heyman was working on behalf of Boras to presumably provide him some sort of bargaining advantage, and I just don't see how that would apply here.

[chasfh]

Talk about top flight dumpster diving: 

There are simply no good options a quarter of the way into the season.

[diaspora04]

I read that as Carls Jr.

[tiger2022]

On 5/7/2026 at 2:27 PM, monkeytargets39 said:

I'm sure surgery went well but I have never read a report like, "surgery was a failure and the pitcher will probably end his career now...."

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

I'm sure surgery went well but I have never read a report like, "surgery was a failure and the pitcher will probably end his career now...."

No, in fact IIRC - they kept that fact that there had been complications in Bonderman's outlet surgery under wraps for years.

Edited 16 hours ago by gehringer_2

[tiger2022]

8 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

No, in fact IIRC - they kept that fact that there had been complications in Bonderman's outlet surgery under wraps for years.

Yes.  They never say anything other than surgery was a success even if the pitcher can never raise his arm above his head ever again.

[Tiger337]

18 hours ago, chasfh said:

Talk about top flight dumpster diving: 

There are simply no good options a quarter of the way into the season.

I was surprised to see that he has been playing in the majors for 12 years.  I didn't think it had been that long.  He actually has a decent track record, but has not done anything for a couple of years.

[roarintiger1]

At this point, it would not surprise me if the Tigers would sign Jim Morris to pitch.  

[Tiger337]

How about Jack Morris? He can pitch to the score.  

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I was surprised to see that he has been playing in the majors for 12 years.  I didn't think it had been that long.  He actually has a decent track record, but has not done anything for a couple of years.

CJ was the guy who was supposed to be on the mound when the Cubs won Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, and he did get the first two outs of the inning in tough hitters Mike Napoli and Jose Ramirez. But then he gave up a walk to Brandon Guyer and a run-scoring single to Rajai Davis, bringing the Series-winning run to the plate in the person of worst-hitter-on-the-team Michael Martinez. Maddon trusted CJ so little to convert that out that he replaced him with Mike Montgomery, who induced the famous slipping groundout to end the 108-year drought.