Detroit Tigers: Anibal Sanchez and Cameron Maybin Injury Situations

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez and outfielder Cameron Maybin have both recently been injured. The team will likely be hoping that both are at the center of a hugely successful season in 2016. Here are some updates on both players’ respective injuries.

Updates, people. We have updates!

As Spring Training continues to role along for the Detroit Tigers, a couple of injuries have already occurred.

While seemingly not severe, it was still a likely concern that two of the team’s more important players went down with an injury early. Anibal Sanchez and Cameron Maybin may not carry the same importance as say Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, but both are still vital to the Tigers.

Sanchez will slot in behind Verlander and new signing Jordan Zimmermann in the rotation. The hope is that he can once again limit his home runs allowed and be the pitcher he was in 2013. Sanchez won 14 games and led the league with a 2.57 ERA and a 2.39 FIP that year.

Meanwhile, Maybin will operate in some sort of a time share with Anthony Gose in center field. Detroit will be hoping that the outfielder continues to perform like he did with the Atlanta Braves last season. With the National League East club, Maybin hit .267 with 10 home runs, 59 RBI and 23 stolen bases.  

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Originally, Sanchez (per a tweet from MLB.com’s Jason Beck) “said he felt tricep flare up when he cranked up fastball in bullpen session.” Detroit has obviously played it cautiously with the starting pitcher given how important he will be to the team’s chances of contending this season.

Against the Yankees on Wednesday, Maybin was hit in the left wrist by a pitch. He initially stayed in the game, but soon exited.

Injury Updates

Earlier in the week, Beck reported that Sanchez had begun playing catch and “felt good.” In a sign that the injury isn’t to severe, the starter (per the Detroit Free Press’ Anthony Fenech) “will throw a bullpen session tomorrow, Brad Ausmus said.”

This is obviously a promising sign that Sanchez can get back to throwing. Hopefully the injury is just a minor setback and he can resume getting ready for the regular season soon.

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In terms of Maybin, MLive.com’s Chris Iott tweeted that the outfielder was “getting a CT scan on his left wrist…Ausmus said Maybin doesn’t seem concerned.”

Initially, this seemed like good news, but the Tigers official Twitter account tweeted out a statement saying that Maybin “suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist… His wrist will be immobilized for two weeks at which time he will undergo an X-ray to evaluate healing. He is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.”

This is certainly a blow for the Tigers, who expected Maybin to pair with Gose in center. Should Maybin miss four weeks, he would return right around Opening Day. Should he miss the full six weeks, he would return sometime in mid-late April.