DETROIT (AP) — Tarik Skubal’s multi-million dollar pitching arm feels better than it has all season.
Less than two weeks after having surgery to remove a loose body from his elbow, the Detroit Tigers ace is already freely throwing bullpen sessions.
“I haven’t had any symptoms since the surgery,” Skubal said Monday. “I didn’t realize how much it was impacting me day-to-day until taking that thing out of there.”
Skubal’s recovery has gone so well that he was called back from the team’s spring training facility in Lakeland, Florida, to continue his rehab program. He threw his full array of pitches “like a normal pregame bullpen” on Monday, prior to Detroit’s home game against Cleveland. It was his second bullpen session since the surgery but he didn’t throw at full velocity.
“The hardest part right now is I feel really good and I want to let it go (but) I’ve been instructed not to,” said Skubal, who has won the American League Cy Young Award the past two seasons.
He is expected to continue a steady progression until he’s ready for a rehab start, but there’s still no established timetable for his return.
“I’d love to sit here and give you an answer when I’m going to be back because I want that same answer,” he said. “I don’t have it but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.”
Manager A.J. Hinch said the team and its medical staff won’t skip any steps.
“Once you put your heads together, it’s just trying to give him more and more, to get him back into the regular routine,” Hinch said.
When the team first announced that Skubal would need surgery, there was a general belief he would be out 2 to 3 months. A NanoScope, which is designed to reduce the invasive nature of the procedure, was used to remove the loose body.
“The first thing they said was, ‘the recovery will be faster,’” Skubal said. “I think I stopped listening after that.”
Skubal, who will be the biggest name free agent on the market after the season, has undergone Tommy John and flexor tendon surgery. Once he returned to the mound after the latter surgery, he became one of the majors’ most dominant pitchers. During his two Cy Young seasons, he compiled a 31-10 record and racked up 469 strikeouts in 387 1/3 innings. He’s 3-2 with a 2.70 ERA in seven starts this season.
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