Detroit Tigers Pitcher Tarik Skubal Nearing Return From Injury

After getting some positive news on Tuesday on injured outfielder Riley Greene, the Detroit Tigers got some positive injury news on injured pitcher Tarik Skubal.

The lefty has been out all year but appears to be getting ready to make his season debut.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Skubal (elbow) worked 2.2 innings in his latest rehab start Wednesday with Triple-A Toledo, striking out four while allowing two earned runs on two hits and one walk.

ANALYSIS
Making the fourth start of his rehab assignment and his second with Toledo, Skubal built up to 52 pitches (32 strikes, eight swinging strikes) and sported a fastball that averaged 95.9 miles per hour, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Given the workload he handled Wednesday, the Tigers may want to have Skubal make at least one more start in the minors to get further stretched out before he makes his long-awaited return from the 60-day injured list.

Whether it's one more rehab start or not, the fact that he's close, and appears healthy is a huge development for Detroit.

As the Tigers dove into a rebuild a few years ago, they prioritized pitching but Casey Mize, Skubal and Matt Manning haven't been able to stay healthy and Detroit has had to cobble together starting rotations. Veteran Eduardo Rodriguez is also on the injured list.

Skubal is a lifetime 16-24 pitcher with a 4.15 ERA in 60 career games. He went 7-8 in 2022 in 21 starts, striking out 117 in 117.2 innings.

The Tigers enter play on Wednesday at 31-41 and in third place in the American League Central.