Hip inflammation sidelines Justin Verlander's return. Keider Montero ascends from Toledo, ready to seize the mound in his place.
DETROIT — Justin Verlander's long-awaited homecoming hit an early snag Saturday when the Detroit Tigers placed the 43-year-old right-hander on the 15-day injured list with left hip inflammation, the club announced before its game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The move, retroactive to April 1, makes Verlander eligible to return no earlier than April 16. To fill his roster spot, the Tigers recalled right-hander Keider Montero from Triple-A Toledo. Montero is expected to take the ball Sunday night at Comerica Park in the nationally televised game on Peacock — the very start that was supposed to mark Verlander's first home appearance in a Tigers uniform since Aug. 20, 2017.
Verlander made just one start before the injury shelved him. In Monday's season opener in Arizona, he lasted only 3⅔ innings, surrendering six hits and five earned runs while managing a single strikeout in a 9-6 loss to the Diamondbacks. Corbin Carroll tagged him for an RBI triple and a three-run homer by the second inning, and the Diamondbacks recorded seven batted balls with exit velocities exceeding 100 mph.
"Not the way you draw it up," Verlander said after the start. "Obviously, you spend all spring training working on stuff, feel OK, and then first game of the season felt like nothing was right. I hope it's not like last year, where I spent months trying to find it."
A homecoming derailed before it started
Verlander signed a one-year, $13 million contract in February to return to the franchise that drafted him second overall in 2004. The deal pushed Detroit's payroll to a franchise-record $240 million and was widely viewed as a move to replace Reese Olson, who is out for the 2026 season after labrum surgery. The three-time Cy Young Award winner, who is 34 wins shy of 300 for his career, was visibly moved during the home opener Thursday, when the Tigers beat St. Louis 4-0 behind Framber Valdez.
"Coming to the park, getting on the interstate and getting off at Mack and doing all the things I used to do, it's like, 'OK, this feels normal,'" Verlander said. "I grew up here. I was a kid when I came here. I left, and I feel like I'm just a totally different person now. Family, 43 years old, a lot of perspective."
The hip inflammation adds to a troubling pattern of injuries in recent seasons. Verlander underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2020, battled a neck injury that cost him two months in Houston in 2024, and dealt with shoulder inflammation and a pectoral strain during an up-and-down 2025 campaign with San Francisco.
Montero steps into the spotlight
Montero, 25, represents the Tigers' most MLB-ready rotation depth option. The Venezuelan right-hander appeared in 20 games for Detroit in 2025, making 12 starts and posting a 4.37 ERA with 72 strikeouts over 90⅔ innings. He earned a save in Game 1 of last year's ALDS against Seattle and threw 5⅓ scoreless postseason innings overall.
Optioned to Toledo in early March after the Tigers set their rotation, Montero threw four shutout innings in his lone minor league start this season, allowing just one hit and one walk.
Manager A.J. Hinch telegraphed the possibility of exactly this scenario when he sent Montero down. "We've got to protect our rotation," Hinch said in March. "Whether that's getting called up as a sixth starter, or God forbid anything happens, he's equipped to handle that, and the only way to do that is get him going and building him as a starter."
The Tigers' pitching depth faces an early reckoning
The IL move exposes a vulnerability that scouts and analysts flagged all spring. Detroit's rotation — anchored by back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and the newly signed Valdez — was considered among the deepest in the American League entering the season. MLB.com ranked the Tigers' pitching staff fifth in baseball. That calculus has shifted quickly.
Beyond Verlander, the Tigers are already without Olson for the year, top prospect Jackson Jobe as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, and Troy Melton, who is on the 60-day IL with elbow inflammation and not expected back until late May. That is four starting-caliber arms on the shelf before the second week of the season.
There is, however, a glimmer on the horizon. Sawyer Gipson-Long, a 28-year-old right-hander on the 40-man roster recovering from a left oblique strain, began a rehab assignment Friday night with Single-A Lakeland. Gipson-Long struck out the first two batters he faced and completed one clean inning before allowing two runs — aided by a pair of errors — in the second. He flashed the mid-80s slider that helped him record 11 strikeouts in one of his first two career starts in 2023, but his timeline for activation remains unclear after a 2024 lost to Tommy John and hip labral surgeries.
For now, the Tigers, sitting at 3-4 and third in the AL Central, will lean on a rotation of Skubal, Valdez, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, and Montero.
"He's very appreciative of where he is in this sport," Hinch said of Verlander earlier this week. "But he's more interested in how he can help the team be better. How can he help us win."
The answer to that question will have to wait at least until April 16 — and possibly longer.
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