Tigers Deal for Verlander More Clear After Nightmare Reese Olson Injury Update
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The Detroit Tigers made a shocking move on Tuesday afternoon when it was announced they were bringing Justin Verlander home for his 21st season on a one-year deal for $13 million.
Following the big contract for Framber Valdez, not many expected another significant pitching move, so bringing in Verlander was a bit of a shock. It made a little bit more sense why Detroit was nudged in this direction when they revealed a devastating injury update just a couple of hours later.
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According to an announcement from the team, young right-hander Reese Olson, who has flashed some incredible potential when he's been healthy over his first three years in the big leagues, underwent surgery to repair his right labrum on February 2 and is going to miss the entire season.
For as exciting as the Verlander deal was, the Olson news puts a bit of a damper on things for the rotation as a whole.
Do Tigers Get Better Essentially Swapping Olson for Verlander?
The short answer here is probably not.
Though Verlander was terrific down the final stretch of the season, Olson has the ceiling of being an All-Star caliber player if he can stay healthy for a full campaign. With a 3.15 ERA and 1.7 bWAR over 13 starts before the injury issues started in 2025, the 26-year-old looked like he had found his stride.
Verlander meanwhile took most of the first half to get going, but he did prove he still has something left in the tank down the stretch and can absolutely help this rotation, especially in the wake of losing Olson.
For the youngster though, it's an extremely troubling update in terms of his career forecast in Detroit.
Olson's Tigers Career May Be in Jeopardy
For as much as it looked like Olson may be a star especially early in the 2025 season, he now will have made just 53 starts in four seasons, with a season-ending labrum surgery which could cause problems in the future.
He would hardly be the first promising pitcher to not be able to climb over the injury hump and thus never reach his potential, and it's not to say that is definitely what's happening here, but things may be trending that way.
As for the Detroit staff, the moves they have made in the last two weeks should make it so that they are able to weather the storm much better than when he was lost for the year in 2025, but this still stings quite a bit.
With spring training now officially getting started, the Tigers are going to have to move forward without the talented young right-hander in the fold, and instead with the veteran team legend who hopefully can fill the gap.
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Michael Brauner is a 2022 graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in Sports Media. He covers various MLB teams across the On SI network and you can also find his work on Yellowhammer News covering the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers as well as on the radio producing and co-hosting 'The Opening Kickoff' every weekday morning on 105.5 WNSP FM in Mobile, Alabama.