DETROIT — Justin Verlander is going on the 15-day injured list with left hip inflammation, a development that puts quite the damper on what was supposed to be a stirring Sunday start.
Verlander said he first felt tightness in his hip/hamstring area during his Monday start against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Verlander lasted only 3 2/3 innings and surrendered five earned runs in that game, but he worked through the soreness. He continued to go about his usual work, hoping any pain would subside. To a degree, it did.
“It’s been trending in the right direction,” Verlander said after Saturday’s 11-6 Tigers victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. “It was kind of like a wait-and-see game, if it can get good enough. To be quite frank, I think it probably is good enough if we wanted to push it. But A.J. (Hinch) and the front office — and I agree with them — it’s probably not the time of year to do that, unfortunately.”
The Tigers made the decision after Verlander’s Saturday throwing session, when he still did not feel 100 percent.
“Today was my best day, by far,” Verlander said. “It’s literally been getting better every day. But when I come off the field, I can’t sit there and tell them 100 percent that tomorrow is going to be the way it needs to be.”
Sunday’s game against the Cardinals is set to be broadcast on NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball.” The game was supposed to be Verlander’s first start at Comerica Park as a Tiger since he went eight innings against the Dodgers on Aug. 20, 2017. The Tigers promoted the night with a “Verlander Homecoming” ticket package and giveaway T-shirts that featured Verlander’s silhouette and the message: Welcome home.
Instead, the emotional return will have to wait. Verlander’s IL stint is retroactive to April 1, so he cannot return until April 16 at the earliest.
“It’s frustrating for me,” Verlander said. “I know a lot of fans were excited about tomorrow night. I also know a lot of people spent their hard-earned money to come to the game. I actually talked to the organization about that. I think they’re going to do something about that, so that’s nice. … But yeah, not ideal.”
Verlander did not use the injury as an excuse for how his first start of the season went. The good news is that despite a suboptimal start to Verlander’s reunion tour, there is still hope things can get back on track.
“We hope and think it’s minor,” Hinch said. “He’s going to keep his arm moving. He played catch today. But we need to put him on the injured list and just get this out of the way and get him back to feeling 100 percent and being himself. Having him alter his delivery or tweak this thing any further made no sense in April.”
Verlander said he has experienced soreness in a similar spot before, but never to the point it caused him to miss a start. Verlander did not go on the injured list for the first time until 2015 — 10-plus years into his career. Now 43 and the oldest player in MLB, Verlander has served at least one IL stint each year since 2020.
The Tigers will start right-hander Keider Montero in Verlander’s place. Montero, 25, had a 4.37 ERA for the Tigers last season and pitched four scoreless innings in his first outing with Triple-A Toledo.
“We just ran out of time on the clock,” Verlander said. “Not how I wanted to have my first start at home be. I was looking forward to it.”