Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal didn’t call his morning workout a bullpen session.
“I would say more of a start, a one-inning start,” he said.
Skubal threw 35 pitches in the Comerica Park bullpen on Thursday, May 21, in what would have been a start day, mixing in his full arsenal of pitches and building up his stamina just 15 days after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove a loose body in his pitching elbow.
The lefty ace said he felt “healthy” after the session, celebrating at the end when he reached his velocity target.
“You gotta prove to your body that it’s okay to throw hard again, especially it being 15 days from surgery,” he said. “There’s a velocity number I was trying to hit, and I hit it … it comes out a little bit slower than a game, but it’s relatively close.”
The surgery Skubal underwent, performed by renowned Dr. Neal ElAttrache, was a relatively new procedure that used a nano-needle to remove a bone chip – less invasive than a typical arthroscopic surgery.
That has Skubal on a much quicker rehab timeline than many analysts expected before the surgery. Skubal is crossing off his rehab checklist much faster than he has in the past – especially for a flexor tendon surgery in 2022 that knocked him out for much of the 2023 season.
“The other ones, it’s six months off [with] no throw, and that sucks,” Skubal said. “This one was six days off, so there’s a big difference there, and you go through the same process six months for six days in terms of trusting everything again. It’s weird to say, but your brain needs to understand that the thing that was causing the discomfort is no longer in your elbow, so it doesn’t need to protect itself. Just go throw.”
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Skubal will be throwing a regular bullpen session at some point during the upcoming weekend series in Baltimore, adding that the team can “ask more out of him” over the next five days.
“His velocity was at the highest it has been since his throwing started,” Hinch said. “It’s full stuff, which is the step that he needs to now tackle whatever is next.”
Neither Skubal nor Hinch provided a target date for return, but Skubal reiterated Hinch’s remarks from Wednesday denying a rumored return for next week.
“I want to be back as fast as possible, but I also need to be back and healthy,” Skubal said. “It does me no good to come back fast and then something happens, and I go back on the shelf again.”
Justin Verlander ‘inching forward’
Hinch provided an update on starter Justin Verlander’s progress after the 43-yeard-old righty threw a simulated start on Wednesday.
“He’s inching forward more than sprinting forward, and that’s okay,” Hinch said. “You see flashes of him regaining that spring training form where we really liked where he was at in the spring, but also some cautionary tales that we just got to stay disciplined to do a little bit more.”
Verlander gave up three solo home runs in four simulated innings against batters Wenceel Pérez, Jahmai Jones and Zack Short before Wednesday’s Tigers loss, with his fastball velocity falling from around 93 mph in the first two innings to around 91 mph in the final two.
Verlander made one start this season for the Tigers before landing on the 60-day injured list with left hip inflammation retroactive to April 4. He is available to be reinstated on May 31, and though Verlander’s outing was not a step back according to Hinch, no target date has been given for his return.
“Is he ready for competition? No,” Hinch said. “We’ll get through the Baltimore series, he’ll probably touch the mound at some point there, and then [we’ll] reset another live bullpen session.”
Troy Melton ‘fully ready to go’
Hinch said starter Troy Melton is “fully rehabbed” and “ready to go” in his pregame press conference on Thursday.
Melton, who performed well in 2025 for the Tigers out of the bullpen as a rookie late-season call-up, has been out since spring training with a right elbow strain and completed a 64-pitch rehab assignment for Low-A Lakeland on Wednesday. Melton is available to start for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, but the team has yet to make a decision on whether to start Melton or scheduled starter Keider Montero.
A return by Melton, 25, could provide a big boost to the Tigers, who have been using bullpen games and spot starts to fill gaps with Skubal, Verlander, Melton, righty Jackson Jobe and righty Reese Olson all currently rehabbing from injuries.
But with starter Casey Mize back, Melton ready to go and Skubal ramping up quicker than expected, the Tigers starting staff may look a lot more formidable in the coming weeks.
Melton said his rehab start felt good and he is focused on getting to the finish line.
“[I’m] always looking forward to getting to the end of it, because it’s more fun when you’re not in rehab,” he said. “I’m ready to go for whenever it ends, and hopefully it’s soon.”
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal throws ‘really positive’ bullpen 2 weeks after surgery
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
