Detroit Tigers: What it means for Casey Mize to be shut down

The Detroit Tigers have plenty of talented pitchers developing in the minor leagues, and when it comes to their top young arm, they have made a decision to play things safe.

Detroit Tigers fans know Casey Mize as the organization’s top prospect and a hopeful future big-league ace. In order to help preserve those future hopes, the Tigers organization has made the decision to shut Mize down for the rest of the season, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday evening.

The Detroit Tigers selected Casey Mize out of Auburn University with the number one overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. The righty began this season with Single-A Lakeland but was quickly moved up to Double-A Erie after just six starts with the Flying Tigers and an ERA of just 0.88.

In his Erie SeaWolves debut on April 29th, Mize really turned heads by tossing a no-hitter in Erie’s 1-0 victory over the Altoona Curve. In his time in Erie, Mize went 6-3 through 15 starts with a 3.20 ERA.

At just 22 years old, Mize is currently ranked as the number two overall prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline. With his impressive minor league stats this year, some people may be wondering why the Tigers have decided to shut down Mize for the season, but it is a precautionary and smart move.

On June 13th, Mize was placed on the 10-day IL with minor inflammation in his throwing shoulder and did not return to the mound for Erie until July 10th. He was never quite the same after returning from his injury, going 0-3 with a 6.54 ERA in eight appearances since his return.

Being shut down for the rest of the season, in this case, sounds worse than it really is. When it comes to Casey Mize, it seems as though the Detroit Tigers want to make sure he doesn’t do anything to reaggravate his shoulder injury and further damage it, while also giving him the opportunity to come back into form with more time and less pressure.

With other pitchers like Matt Manning and Tarik Skubal, the SeaWolves starting rotation has enough talent to survive the rest of the year without Casey Mize. The time he spent on the IL this year was a bit of a scare for some Detroit Tigers fans, so the organization deciding to play things safe and give him more time to properly recover is not a bad choice.