There's one obvious sacrifice in impending Tigers, Ty Madden roster crunch

There was a brief pocket of time in which Tigers fans were still optimistic about returns from injury. Sure, things were looking pretty bad by mid-May, but it was easy to assign at least some blame to the length of Detroit's IL, at times the longest in baseball. So many absences must've taken a mental toll on the clubhouse on top of hurting the actual quality of play.

But every time the Tigers recovered a player from the IL, they lost another. Returners weren't the saving graces fans hoped they would be. Almost all of those that have stayed healthy have underperformed.

So when Chris McCosky of The Detroit News reported that Ty Madden will be reactivated from the IL on Monday, fans' reactions could've been summed up as a shrug. After starting the season in Triple-A, the Tigers called him up on May 4 as Tarik Skubal went onto the IL, then he made all of three appearances before going onto the IL himself, the same day Will Vest came off of it.

But at least Madden's return will force the Tigers to make a roster move that should trim some fat. With the 26-man currently full, Ricky Vanasco should be heading back to Triple-A.

Ty Madden's return to Tigers on Monday should mean the end of the road for Ricky Vanasco

Vanasco is currently in the midst of his second major league stint this season, having been called up on May 24 when the Tigers DFA'ed Connor Seabold.

Tigers fans had no great love for Seabold, but even he would've been a better choice to keep around than Vanasco, who has a 15.63 ERA in 6 1/3 innings so far this season. His last time out, he pitched two innings against the Angels and gave up four runs as the Tigers suffered their seventh consecutive series loss.

Sending Vanasco back to Triple-A will not be a magic fixer, but at least it'll get one of the no-name reclamation projects that Scott Harris has bet and lost so much on off the roster.

Tigers fans could go on and on about the players who do not belong on a major league roster — some of the more pessimistic among us would probably name half of the 26-man — but we'd arguably start at Vanasco.

The fact that we're more excited to get a guy off the roster than to get one back onto it is a sad indictment of the Tigers' current state, but that's just the world we live in right now.

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