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Tigers' feel-good comeback story crushed by brutal, but familiar injury news

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Motor City Bengals

Baltimore Orioles v Detroit Tigers - Game One / Duane Burleson/GettyImages

For the most part, things have gone exceedingly well for the Detroit Tigers to start the season. They have already begun to build on their lead in the AL Central and have been one of the best teams in the entire league through the first quarter of the season. A big reason why the Tigers have performed so well is a newly stabilized rotation thanks, in part, to the successful return of Casey Mize.

The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft has been a revelation so far this season. Through his first seven starts, Mize boasts a 2.53 ERA, 3.93 FIP, and 1.3 rWAR and his emergence, along with continued brilliance from Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, and Jack Flaherty, has made Detroit extremely difficult to handle, even you can keep their lineup in check.

Unfortunately, a familiar problem has struck Mize, and the Tigers are going to be without him for a while.

It was revealed on Saturday that Mize is being placed on the injured list with a hamstring injury with Chase Lee being recalled to take his place on the roster.

Tigers just placed Casey Mize on the injured list with same injury that cost him huge chunk of 2024 season

The good news is that manager AJ Hinch went out of his way to say that this hamstring strain Mize has is considered mild. However, it is hard to get too excited when, just last season, Mize missed around a third of the season with a hamstring strain to the same leg.

As for Lee, he has performed well in a small size of appearances for Detroit in late April and early May. With a 1.42 ERA in six appearances and the ability to miss bats, he was a pretty easy choice to call back up without needing to do too many roster machinations. Seeing the bullpen get a boost is little consolation when a guy like Mize gets hurt, but there is at least a small silver lining.

Given how much time Mize has lost to injuries since getting drafted, it is really unfortunate that his strong start to 2025 is being interrupted here. Fans just have to hope that Hinch was telling the truth about the seriousness of the injury. Otherwise, everyone could be waiting a while to see Mize in action again.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.