Kyle Finnegan's infuriating injury reveal explains Tigers struggles but doesn't excuse them

When the Tigers placed Kyle Finnegan on the 15-day IL with groin inflammation last week, ending his season, fans couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. A lot went wrong with Detroit's bullpen, but Finnegan and Kenley Jansen are the unfortunate figureheads of its complete and total failure.

Finnegan may be the more disappointing of the two, given that his re-signing was almost unanimously well-received given what he was able to accomplish with the Tigers after the trade deadline. He only pitched 18 innings for them, but he was a guy who clearly bought into the Tigers' pitching ethos and believed in their World Series aspirations.

But his 1.665 WHIP kind of tells you everything you need to know. While he's always been a little prone to walks, this is a career-worst mark. His 98 ERA+ also puts him below league average for the first time in his career.

Finnegan admitted that he'd been dealing with discomfort for a few months but seemingly downplayed his symptoms. "Any player would be lying to you if they said they felt perfect every day," he said. "We all deal with things, whether they be minor or a little bit more. You try to fight through the best you can. I'd been feeling it for a little bit but I felt like I was still doing my job well enough to keep going."

Kyle Finnegan's injury admission just made his Tigers season go from bad to worse

That's an incredible amount of hubris for a guy who has failed to come up in key spots all season and is one of the least valuable relievers in the Tigers' bullpen. Was he really so comfortable with that WHIP and a 4.00+ ERA that he didn't think that i might be affecting his performance, and that the Tigers might be better off if he just took some time off?

He did end up admitting it, "I wanted to try to finish and get right. Ultimately, I came to the reality that it wasn't working for me or the team. I felt like I was really beginning to hurt the team."

"Felt"? Fans would probably take it a step further, but okay, man.

Looking at his month-over-month stats, it's clear that the wheels started to come off as early as late July, when he posted a 8.10 ERA on the month as a whole. Through August and September, his season ERA just kept going up and up and up.

That's unacceptable. If the Tigers take mercy on him and don't release him in the offseason, they can't let something like this happen again.

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