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The Detroit Tigers’ Anibal Sanchez is a very underrated starter as he has to pitch third behind the reigning Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and the team’s ace Justin Verlander. Sanchez, however, is very good. In 2013 he led the American League in ERA just beating out the Oakland Athletics’ Bartolo Colon (2.65) with an ERA of 2.57. He also finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting last season.
So the Tigers losing their third starter, a would-be ace on any other team, might be an issue. Luckily for them Sanchez’s stint on the disabled list is only going to be 15 days due to a lacerated middle finger. Hopefully. It is not Tommy John surgery or even elbow soreness which is a great sign for the Tigers of course, but other pitchers have had issues with finger problems in the past that have lingered. Josh Beckett is a good example. He once spent several stints on the DL with a finger issue early on in his career. Really though, the chances are that the right-hander will be back on schedule.
Sanchez left Saturday’s game against the Twins after just 2 2/3 innings and 53 pitches because of a blister on his right middle finger. Tigers’ manager, former catcher Brad Ausmus, said of the blister,
“It looked nasty. It really did. As soon as I went out there and saw it, I was caught between throwing up and pulling him out of the game. It looked gross.”
Assuming Sanchez is back in 15 days the Tigers will need to fill his spot in the rotation three times. This week’s start will not be a problem as Detroit’s fifth starter, Drew Smyly, was going to be skipped and pushed back into the bullpen because of this week’s schedule. The Tigers have two days off. Sanchez was going start Friday and Smyly was set to start on Saturday. The Tigers, theoretically, should be able to make it through May 6th on a four man rotation but Sanchez is not scheduled to be back until May 12th. This means that the Tigers will have to find someone to fill in for Sanchez’s next two starts. Ausmus has not yet given any indication as to who that might be.
Sanchez has yet to get his first win in 2014. He is 0-2 in four starts but he has an ERA of 3.54 with 22 strikeouts in 20.1 innings pitched.
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Filed under: Anibal Sanchez, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Tigers Starting Rotation, Injury Update, MLB, MLB News Tagged: 15-day disabled list, AL Central, American League, Anibal Sanchez, Bartolo Colón, Brad Ausmus, Detroit Tigers, disabled list, Drew Smyly, finger injury, injury, injury update, josh beckett, Justin Verlander, lacerated finger, Max Scherzer, MLB, MLB News, Sports, Sports News, Starting Rotation, Tommy John Surgery
