Casey Mize to the IL with a hamstring strain, RHP Chase Lee recalled

All things considered this should be just a minor hiccup for the rotation.

The Detroit Tigers announced on Saturday afternoon that RHP Casey Mize has been placed on the 15-day injured list retroactive to May 9. Mize is dealing with a left hamstring strain. As a result, reliever Chase Lee has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo.

While it’s unfortunate to see Mize’s breakout season interrupted, every team has injury issues and at least in the pitching department, the Tigers have been very fortunate early this season. In the long run, this might be a blessing by giving him a break now and setting himself up to be a little fresher in September and hopefully October. It’s not an arm injury, and so as injuries go this is basically the best case scenario.

Mize holds a 2.53 ERA through seven starts and 42 ²⁄₃ innings of work. He got off to a great start and apart from his starts against the Royals and then the Angels on the recent road trip, has sustained that performance. Mize has given up his share of home runs, and had a few starts where he didn’t have good command of his splitter and as a consequence was getting more balls put in play against him. However, while the Rockies are quite bad, Mize thoroughly dominated them with eight strikeouts in his last start on May 8.

Working with a revamped splitter and a pair of sliders of different speeds and shapes that he redesigned over the offseason with input from the Tigers and Driveline Baseball, Mize has been very impressive overall. A little inconsistency in command is not unexpected considering the new stuff he’s working with, and his command has been a strength for him going back to his Auburn days. He still isn’t walking many hitters and holds an excellent 5.4 percent walk rate. It’s entirely possible that the best is yet to come. Either way his resurgence has been another piece of the puzzle in the Tigers outstanding start to the season.

As for the side-arming Lee, he’s done a nice job in his first look at the major leagues. A.J. Hinch threw him right into the fire in his first outing against the San Diego Padres on April 22 in the middle of a jam, and he handled it well. Through six appearances, he’s allowed one run. Presumably he’ll be up for a few games and then head back to Toledo when the Tigers need to recall RHP Keider Montero to spell Mize for a couple of starts.