Detroit Tigers' Justin Verlander shares promising update on hip injury after bullpen

Some live pitching will be required to get back, with Verlander likely to throw a simulated game and/or making a rehab start as he works back from the hip issues. Hinch said he will get back to throwing off the mound soon.

And the 43-year-old pitcher knows the longer that he’s on the shelf, the longer the road back to the starting rotation is.

“The longer you're out, the longer it takes to make the next step, though,” Verlander said. “So, kind of trying to do that dance where, you know, the last time, if that went really well, I think it was like, ‘All right, let's go.’”

Verlander threw all of his pitches during his bullpen, he said, and prodded himself for being unsatisfied with some of his pitching despite generally doing well in the rehab work on Wednesday.

“I'm a pretty harsh critic of myself,” Verlander said. “Lots of people say, ‘It looks great.’ I don't know, I beg to differ sometimes. You know, I think we — the team saw a lot of stuff that they needed to see.”

It’s also been a frustrating turn for Verlander, who largely has been sidelined in his return to Detroit, where he began his career and rose to stardom.

The hardest part, he said, after getting put on the injured list, is accepting that he’d miss his next start. He’s gotten over that hump, and is trying to push the envelope with his rehab to get back as soon as possible and not miss any more starts than necessary.

“The first time you kind of have to submit that you're not gonna be able to make your next start, that for me is always the biggest hurdle,” Verlander said. “You just wanna, like, fight through and battle and say, you know, ‘F--- it, I can do it. And I'm gonna pitch.’ And then when you come to the realization that you're quite not able to do that, that's the hardest step for me.

“So, like, once you make that decision, then I think I can reason with myself a little bit more clear-minded, to make sure that I put myself in a situation to come back healthy and not rush it or not do something to it. I don’t want to say rushing 'cause you're always kind of trying to push the envelope just a little bit, but not do anything stupid.”

So far, Verlander appeared in just one game for Detroit in 2026, starting on March 30. He got put on the injured list retroactively as his hip flared up following his lone start of 2026, to date.

With Verlander out, the Tigers have turned to Keider Montero to fill the slot in the rotation, and the young pitcher has served admirably in Verlander’s stead.

The Tigers are 2-2 in the games Montero has started, and he’s given up nine earned runs across 22 innings pitched with 18 strikeouts and three walks.

“I love his mentality just as much as I love his pitching because he doesn't assume anything and he also doesn't take anything personal,” Hinch said of Montero.

Montero originally didn’t make the Tigers’ opening day roster, something Hinch acknowledged was a tough deal for Montero.

“When we sent him down, there's a pit in your stomach because it — he's a major league pitcher who was, you know, had a unique spring with the WBC,” Hinch said. “But also, the long game of the season, we knew that we were likely going to need him stretched out. And sure enough, he's come up big in a stretch where JV's been hurt, and he's not just filling in. He's good.”

Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.

On deck: Cincinnati Reds

Series: Three games at Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati

First pitch: Friday — 6:40 p.m.; Saturday — 7:15 p.m.; Sunday — 1:40 p.m.

TV/radio: Friday — Detroit Sports Net/97.1 FM; Saturday — Fox/97.1 FM; Sunday — Detroit Sports Net/97.1 FM.

Probables: Friday — LHP Framber Valdez (2-1, 3.30) vs. LHP Andrew Abbott (0-2, 5.84); Saturday — RHP Jack Flaherty (0-1, 3.47) vs. RHP Brady Singer (1-1, 5.32); Sunday — RHP Keider Montero (1-2, 3.68) vs. RHP Rhett Lowder (3-1, 3.10).

Scouting report

Valdez, Tigers: Four of his five starts have been quality starts and his last two have been superior, limiting the Royals and Red Sox each to a run covering 13 innings total. One statistical abnormality, though. His ground-ball rate, still elite at 54.6%, is down 5% from last year. His fly ball rate, consequently, is at a career-high 19.6%. Could be just an early season anomaly. He’s still getting mostly weak contact (41% hard-hit rate).

Abbott, Reds: His recent outings have been messy, as his 1.743 WHIP would indicate. He hasn’t gone beyond five innings in his last two starts. He leans hard on his 92 mph four-seam fastball, throwing it 50% of the time. That could be because his changeup (.360 opponent average) and sweeper (.385) have been getting hit. When he’s right, though, he misses a lot of bats with those two pitches — 43% whiff rate with the changeup, 32% with the sweeper.

— Chris McCosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers' Justin Verlander shares hip injury update