Tigers Full Pitching Plans, Skubal Debut Date for First Spring Games Announced
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The Detroit Tigers are set to kick off spring training action this weekend against the New York Yankees, and while it was already announced this week that Keider Montero would start the opener on Saturday, now more plans are known.
According to a report from Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, with Montero set to start on Saturday, the plans for Sunday and Monday go two deep.
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In Sunday's spring home opener against the Baltimore Orioles, Jack Flaherty will begin the game before being relieved by Bryan Sammons, who the team acquired on a minor league deal this offseason via Japan's NPB.
Monday's game against the Minnesota Twins sees a very exciting 1-2 combination that will begin with Tarik Skubal's spring debut before he is taken out of the game in favor of KBO signing Drew Anderson.
Tigers Plans Include Two International Signings
Given the moves Detroit has made since signing Anderson, it is unlikely he is competing for a rotation spot this year at least at the start of the season barring injury. The Tigers did pay him $7 million however, meaning they believe he is going to play a significant role at some point this year.
Whether that role comes out of the bullpen, as an opener, or more likely some sort of swingman combination of both remains to be seen, but he is certainly going to get his opportunities. This makes it not shocking for him to see a prominent spring role right out of the gate.
As for Sammons, given that he is on a minor league deal, it does seem to show some confidence that the team believes he could make the roster coming off an impressive campaign for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.
What Kind of Workload Can Fans Expect for Skubal?
Last year in spring coming off his first American League Cy Young, Skubal made five exhibition starts and threw 19.1 innings in total. Unsurprisingly, he pitched to a 2.33 ERA and 0.83 WHIP with a laughable 24 strikeouts compared to just one walk the entire camp.
Detroit will not run Skubal into the ground by any means during his first start of spring, but how many innings he throws likely depends on how quickly he is getting outs. Safely, fans in Lakeland can probably expect to see at least three frames for the best pitcher on the planet before an intriguing new face in Anderson takes over.
It should be a spring full of exciting action for the organization from top to bottom, and a ton of that excitement comes from who they have on the mound to get things started, and who will be taking over.
Things get started at 1:05 p.m. EST on Saturday afternoon against the Yankees.
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.