Tigers Top Startling List of Pitchers Used That Have Had Tommy John Surgery

The Detroit Tigers were at the top of a list of teams that have had pitchers that had Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers.

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The Detroit Tigers know the pain of Tommy John surgery all too well.

Their top pitching prospect, Jackson Jobe, missed half of last season after he suffered an elbow injury and needed Tommy John surgery, something that will likely keep him off the mound until either late in 2026 or at some point in 2027.

When it came to the Tigers’ roster of pitchers in 2025, Tommy John surgery was an all-too common theme. Detroit may not want to look at the numbers from the 2025 season.

Detroit’s Tommy John Data

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Jon Roegele is a baseball writer and analyst who does league-wide research on a variety of topics. Recently, he posted data on the pitchers in the Majors in 2025 who, at some point in their career, had Tommy John surgery. The data was startling.

He tracked every player that pitched at least one game or were on an MLB roster in 2025 and found that 39.1% of all Major League pitchers have had the surgery at some point in their career.

In addition, his past research showed that the Tigers set a record as they used 21 pitchers that had the surgery at some point. The Los Angeles Dodgers matched the Tigers’ 21 pitchers used.

Per the Tigers’ baseball-reference.com statistics page, they used 39 pitchers in 2025. That means that more than half of their pitchers had the procedure at some point in their careers. The list is headed by their two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. The left-hander had the procedure while he was playing in college at the University of Seattle in 2016. The Arizona Diamondbacks still drafted him in the 29th round in the 2017 MLB draft, even though he was still recovering. But he went back to college instead.

It’s proof that pitchers can pitchers can still find greatness after a procedure that typically requires anywhere from 12 to 18 months to recover.

Along with Skubal and Jobe, the list included Charlie Morton, Deitrich Ennis, Will Vest, Bailey Horn, Tyler Holton, Rafael Montero, Brant Hurter, John Brebbia, Tommy Kahnle, Brennan Hanifee, Kenta Maeda, Codi Heuer, Sean Guenther, Luke Jackson, Chris Paddack, Casey Mize, Tanner Rainey, Sawyer Gipson-Long and Jose Urquidy.

Morton and Paddack were acquired at the trade deadline to help augment the starting rotation with the loss of Jobe. Vest emerged as the bullpen’s closer, and he’ll have help from Kenley Jansen and Kyle Finnegan this season. Montero has been a quality swing starter while Maeda turned into a free agency miss.

The list isn’t an indictment on how the Tigers handle pitchers. It’s more an indictment of how the game is handling pitchers, how ubiquitous the surgery has become and how so many pitchers have overcome it to find success.