ST. LOUIS — The Detroit Tigers need a starter for Sunday’s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, and to fill the void, right-hander Alex Faedo will be promoted from Triple-A Toledo.
Faedo, 2017’s No. 18 overall pick, arrived in the clubhouse Saturday morning as a member of the taxi squad. The Tigers will activate him before Sunday’s game and need to clear a spot on the 26-man roster.
“He’ll get the start,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
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Faedo, 27, didn’t receive a spot on the Tigers’ Opening Day roster coming out of spring training. He reported to Triple-A Toledo, and in five starts, he logged a 2.50 ERA with four walks and 19 strikeouts across 18 innings.
For the Mud Hens, Faedo’s pitch mix consisted of 54% four-seam fastballs, 35% sliders and 11% changeups.
“The numbers are good,” Hinch said. “We’ve been conservatively using him pitch-count-wise to get him through April coming off the injury. He’s been controlling the strike zone. I know it’s another day of talking about the strike zone, but he’s taken it to an extreme and done very well with multiple pitches. He’s been in attack mode.”
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Faedo started 12 games for the Tigers last season and posted a 5.53 ERA with 25 walks and 44 strikeouts across 53⅔ innings, but he landed on the injured list July because of a hip injury that required season-ending surgery.
He has maxed out at four innings and 73 pitches at the Triple-A level this season, averaging 55 pitches per start.
“When we’ve given him the ball, he’s taken it,” Hinch said. “When we’ve taken him out of games to preserve some usage, he’s accepted that as well. He’s done a good job of getting into (leverage) counts and getting outs.”
Faedo will be the Tigers’ seventh starting pitcher this season, joining Eduardo Rodriguez (1.81 ERA in 44⅔ innings), Matthew Boyd (5.28 ERA in 30⅔ innings), Joey Wentz (6.67 ERA in 28⅓ innings), Spencer Turnbull (6.84 ERA in 26⅓ innings), Michael Lorenzen (5.14 ERA in 21 innings) and Matt Manning (4.63 ERA in 11⅔ innings).
The Tigers needed 17 starters in 2022, tying a franchise record.
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Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.