Detroit — The Tigers Friday reversed their course on pitcher Spencer Turnbull.
Instead of being optioned to Triple-A Toledo, which he was after his start last Saturday in St. Louis, the club has placed him on the 15-day injured list with what they’re listing as neck discomfort, retroactive to May 7.
The option has been rescinded.
As Tigers president Scott Harris explained before the game Friday, the neck issue was revealed to the team after the decision was made to option Turnbull.
Turnbull gave up five runs in 4⅔ innings against the Cardinals and later was summoned into manager AJ Hinch’s hotel room. Harris and pitching coach Chris Fetter were also in the room.
“I spoke to Spencer about his performance over his first seven starts of the year,” Harris said. “We talked about some of the things he was doing well and we talked about some of the adjustments we’d like him to make on the mound.
“We also talked about how the big leagues might not be the right environment for him to make those adjustments. The big leagues is not always the best environment for targeted work and in his case, we felt he could benefit from some time away from the major league team.”
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Harris said Hinch and Fetter mapped out exactly how the time on option would be spent. Turnbull left the room and later called Harris directly.
“I got a call from him and that’s when he disclosed some discomfort,” Harris said. “As soon as we heard that we set up an appointment with our doctor and we had him see a specialist out of state. We had those doctors discuss what was going on with his neck, confirmed the injury and we placed him on the IL.”
Turnbull also changed agents this week, hiring Scott Boras. Boras arranged for Turnbull to have an MRI.
Turnbull is coming back off Tommy John surgery. He was out for 19 months. His performance wavered, often within starts. In his last start against the Cardinals, his fastball was hitting 94-95 mph in the first inning, with his slider hitting 88-89. In the second inning, he labored to hit 92 and his slider dropped 3 mph.
He was frustrated and confused after the game. He didn’t want to make excuses publicly and he wanted to keep trying to build from start to start. But going back to his second start of the season, he’d been dealing with neck and shoulder pain. He was getting treatment just about every day. He even bought himself a special electronic stem machine to work out some of the discomfort.
“It goes back to the Boston game (April 6),” Boras said. “There was a line drive back to the box (by Kiké Hernandez) and he whiplashed trying to get out of the way. To Spencer’s credit, he tried to pitch through it. Then in the Milwaukee game (April 25), he heard a pop.
“He went through treatment for a few days and felt like with medicine, he could get through it and maybe it would recede. But he wasn’t pitching to the normal Turnbull form. Finally they had a meeting and we got the MRI, which showed a medical injury.”
The situation seems to be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
“Right now our primary concern is resolving the issue with his neck and getting him back on the mound as quickly as we can and starting the process of tackling these adjustments we want to see him make,” Harris said.
The recovery process is expected to take several weeks. Turnbull most likely won’t pick up a ball for a couple of weeks.
“The biggest thing we can do is get him healthy, get him feeling good and get him back on the mound,” Hinch said. “His health is the No. 1 priority right now, getting him back to 100 percent.”
Mariners at Tigers
▶ First pitch: 1:10 p.m. Saturday, Comerica Park, Detroit
▶ TV/radio: BSD/97.1
SCOUTING REPORT
▶ RHP Bryce Miller (1-0, 0.75), Mariners: Heck of a start to his big-league career. He went six innings in each of his first two starts, allowing just one run and four hits total with 15 strikeouts and one walk. He’s got five pitches, but he has used a 95-mph four-seam fastball and a wipeout slider to do most of the heavy lifting. He’s getting a 34% chase rate.
▶ RHP Alex Faedo (0-0, 3.86), Tigers: Paul Goldschmidt marred his season debut last Sunday with a pair of moonshot home runs. Otherwise, though, Faedo soldiered through 4⅔ innings. He said afterward he didn’t have his best slider and yet he got six whiffs on 13 swings and five called strikes with it.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky