AJ Hinch's pregame comments on Tigers' newcomer Rafael Montero aged terribly

Ahead of Rafael Montero's Tigers debut on Tuesday against the Twins, AJ Hinch said the right-hander would have to "pitch well to earn his innings ... if he deserves more innings and more opportunity, then I'm willing to use anybody in any spot."

Of all of the rather subpar arms the Tigers acquired at the trade deadline, Montero was the worst by a huge margin. He left the Braves with a 5.50 ERA over 34 1/3 innings, and left the Astros before that with a 4.50 ERA in four innings. The Tigers might've been willing to take guys like Charlie Morton as they are — not great, but veteran, playoff-tested innings eaters — but Montero was a very obvious reclamation project for Chris Fetter.

Hinch's comments were quick to age like milk. On Tuesday, after Chris Paddack had already given up four earned runs (including two homers) in four innings, Montero came in to make things worse in the fifth.

He got his first out without much issue, but then gave up a walk to Matt Wallner, who then scored on a Ryan Jeffers double. Jeffers would also go on to score on a Luke Keaschall single before Jake Rogers got Montero out of the inning by catching Keaschall stealing second.

The Tigers needed swing-and-miss bullpen arms. Montero has never really been exceptional in that regard, even in his career-best 2022 season. On Tuesday? He generated a single whiff.

AJ Hinch said Rafael Montero needed to "earn more opportunities" ahead of awful Tigers debut vs. Twins

Montero just tumbled straight to the bottom of the bullpen depth chart, if he wasn't there already. He certainly didn't pitch well, and Tigers fans wouldn't mind if we didn't see Montero on the mound again anytime soon.

He's the last of the Tigers' healthy, major league-ready trade acquisitions to make his debut, and it's not hard to figure out why. No doubt coaches and trainers were working with him to go over his mechanics and make some quick tweaks ahead before he pitched, but it's going to take the Tigers a lot longer to fix Montero, if they even can.

No one could say they didn't see this coming. Whether or not Scott Harris' conservative trade deadline approach will pay off in the long run needs a little longer to prove itself out, but it was immediately clear that Montero was going to be a tough fixer-upper, if not an outright loss for Detroit.