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SHAWN WINDSOR

Tigers have no choice but to baby Casey Mize's inflamed shoulder

Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press

He threw a changeup at the letters for Strike 1. Then didn’t move. Not his throwing arm anyway.  

Casey Mize just stood there last Thursday night in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he had been pitching for the Erie SeaWolves. His shoulder didn’t feel right.  

Catcher Kade Scivicque immediately knew something was wrong and jogged to mound to check on the Detroit Tigers’ top prospect. 

Within seconds, Scivicque was joined by other teammates, and by manager Mike Rabelo, pitching coach Mark Johnson and athletic trainer T.J. Obergefell. A few seconds later, Rabelo motioned for a reliever and Mize walked toward the dugout, his outing finished. 

An MRI later revealed slight inflammation in the shoulder. The team put him on the injured list. 

What this means for Mize’s future is hard to say. It may be nothing.  

Casey Mize pitches in his Double-A Erie SeaWolves debut Monday, April 29, 2019 in Altoona, Pa.

But considering Mize is the team’s top draft pick from 2018 — he was taken No. 1 overall — and the Tigers’ best pitching prospect since Justin Verlander, the SeaWolves — and, by extension, the Tigers — were smart to shut him down. 

After all, this is the era of sports science and load management, where athletes and front offices have more access to more physiological data than ever. 

It’s why starting pitchers don’t throw as deep into games as they once did. Why bullpens are used in de facto starting roles earlier in games. Why MLB front offices whisper that six-man rotations could be the norm at some point.  

Today’s pitchers throw harder than they ever have. Higher velocity can be related to higher injury risk. And while Mize isn’t a flamethrower by today’s standards — his fastball tops out at 97 mph — his mix of pitches and overall command make him a potential top-of-the-rotation centerpiece. 

Of course the Tigers are going to be cautious with him. He’s a critical part of their future. 

Before Mize left Thursday’s game in Reading, he’d been ripping through Double-A lineups. His 1.21 ERA over nine games is absurd for someone in his first full year of pro ball.  

Mize’s best pitch is a split-fingered fastball that violently drops as it enters the strike zone. He also throws a cutter that tails away from right-handed hitters and dips slightly over the plate. It’s like a slider. Only it blasts through the zone at close to 90 mph.  

Before he went down last week, he’d been working on a breaking ball that hovers between a curve and a slider. At the moment, this is his fourth-best pitch. 

Mize shows rare polish for a 22-year-old. His pitching is so mature, in fact, that some scouts wondered before he was drafted if he could get much better in that way. 

Coming out of the draft, Mize was compared to Stephen Strasburg, the Washington Nationals right-hander who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2009 and, like Mize, hadn’t been drafted in high school. 

Strasburg threw a touch harder than Mize then, but offered a similar collection of pitches. He was the most hyped pitching prospect in the last 20 years. 

He struck out 14 batters in his major league debut on June, 8, 2010, a franchise record. A month later, the Nationals placed him on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. 

He returned a few weeks later — with the Nationals not in the postseason hunt — got through two starts, then tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his third start and had Tommy John surgery that September. He returned to the majors 13 months later. 

A lot of time has passed since Strasburg went down. Time for more studies and more data and more experience in how to handle pitchers who throw in the upper 90s and suffer shoulder inflammation. 

Front offices are more cautious — and conservative — now. As they should be. As the Tigers were last week. 

It’s true that no executive or manager ever wants to see their potential ace stand on the mound motionless after throwing a changeup in the third inning of a Double-A game in June. But the accumulated science and experience should give Mize a better chance at navigating his career than pitchers had even a decade ago. 

Whether through fewer starts or innings restrictions or limited pitch counts, you can bet the Tigers will take no chances with the development of their superstar prospect.  

That was obvious last Thursday night, when Rabelo sent Mize to the dugout within seconds of meeting him at the mound. 

Too much is at stake.  

As Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said: "Baseball injuries happen. Now we just go through the process of trying to get him back out to pitch." 

That process has never been more complex. And that's good news for young phenoms like Mize.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.