3 Early Red Flags About the Detroit Tigers’ 2022 Season

Detroit Tigers Injuries

The first and biggest blow to the Tigers was when Riley Greene left Spring Training with a foot fracture. Around the same time Spencer Torkelson got his call up to the bigs, reports surfaced that Greene would have come up right beside him, something fans have been waiting to see.

After having such a successful spring where he slashed .429/.500/1.548 with two home runs, it would have been interesting to see if that success would have continued in the majors. You have to wonder how much of a difference him being in the lineup would have made so far.

Greene joins Jake Rogers, Javy Baez, and Derek Hill as some of the injured, but much needed offensive players lacking in the Detroit Tigers lineup.

Tigers pitching took a huge hit when they lost three starters and four relief pitchers. Spencer Turnbull, Jose Cisnero, and Kyle Funkhouser all have lengthy rehab assignments, but over the last few weeks it seems to have gotten worse. Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Rony Garcia, and Andrew Chafin are all plagued with injury, as the Tigers start to bullpen dive, shuffling players around to fill the gaps.

This could work to A.J. Hinch’s advantage, as he’s intent on using pitchers outside of the norm, but it could be problematic when trying to prepare for pitching matchups. With the recent call up of Beau Brieske from triple-A Toledo, we’re starting to see just what the depth of Tigers pitching is capable of and with Michael Pineda going scoreless through five innings during Thursday’s game, I’d say we have some reason to be impressed.

Let’s face it, the Tigers are one of the most injured teams in baseball. But at least we’re first in something.