The Tigers’ rotation picture took another hit with Burch Smith undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his throwing shoulder, according to Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. No recovery timetable has been announced, but the move all but closes the book on Smith’s season. He’s already on the 60-day injured list, and it remains unclear whether the shoulder issue will affect his readiness for 2027.
Smith’s year with Detroit was brief but productive before the injury derailed it. He signed a minor league deal in the offseason that would pay him a $1.5MM base salary if he reached the majors, and his contract was selected on April 22.
In 13 appearances, he logged 17 innings and allowed six earned runs. The trouble started on May 22, when he went on the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation.
A month later, he was moved to the 60-day IL.
The right-hander is headed toward free agency, and the state of his shoulder will matter when he hits the market. His performance before getting hurt was encouraging.
In 10 Triple-A innings to open the year, he posted a 1.80 earned run average with a 44.4% strikeout rate, a matching 44.4% ground ball rate and no walks. Once promoted, the strikeout and ground ball numbers came back down, but they still played well: a 27.4% strikeout rate and a 53.3% ground ball rate, with a 9.6% walk rate that sat around league average.
Jack Flaherty, meanwhile, still has a path back, though not as a conventional starter. The calendar is the issue.
There just isn’t enough time left for him to build all the way back into a full starter’s workload. McCosky reported that Flaherty recently completed a 20-pitch bullpen session and will continue to ramp up, but the Tigers can only take that so far with a few weeks left.
“The reality is setting in,” manger A.J. Hinch said.
“It’s going to be hard to build him all the way back up to five, six, seven innings. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be more creative with him.”
That creativity could mean shorter outings or using Flaherty as a bulk arm in a bullpen game. Detroit hasn’t locked anything in yet.
Flaherty has been on the 15-day IL since July 21 because of flexor inflammation. He also missed time in June with a left peroneal strain. When this latest injury surfaced, the Tigers believed it was minor and expected only a short absence, but he’s now been out for more than six weeks.
The bigger issue for Detroit is that the urgency is starting to fade. The Tigers are 64-75 and six games out of a playoff spot. They aren’t mathematically finished, but they’d need to jump six teams over the final stretch to get back into position.
Flaherty still wants to pitch, telling McCosky he wants to get back out there and help his team. That matters for him too.
He’s also set for free agency, and after a season that has been uneven and interrupted, any chance to show he’s healthy again would help. He carries a 4.59 ERA over 19 starts, and his year had started to turn around before the injuries stacked up.
He had a 5.94 ERA in his first 11 starts, then a 2.97 ERA over his next eight. Heading into the winter with some momentum would be better than leaving the market with more questions than answers.
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