Tigers won't rush Tarik Skubal timeline after elbow surgery

Kansas City, Mo. – Tarik Skubal is on his way to the Tigers’ facility in Lakeland to begin the rehab process following what appears to have been the best-case scenario coming out of arthroscopic left elbow surgery Wednesday.

“I know there is a lot of attention about Tarik and the procedure he had done,” manager AJ Hinch said. “He’s making his way to Lakeland to begin his rehab and all reports are positive and optimistic that it was the simple procedure we talked about. ... I just let him know I was happy for him and happy for us that the surgery went well.

"Now it's just one day at a time and conquer the next step in front of him. We will get him back as soon and as safely as possible."

Hinch confirmed that the surgery, performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, removed one loose body from Skubal’s elbow and, with minimal invasion, found no other structural damage in the elbow.

“The doctors gave us a pretty good idea of what we were entering into,” Hinch said. “And Tarik told me about the meeting (with ElAttrache) and what the procedure was going to look like. And it was what we expected. So I was optimistic on the front end based on the information I had.

“He still has a road to recovery. He still has to take steps along the way before being back on the field with us. But of course we are happy it was as expected.”

Hinch cautioned against trying to set timetables. There isn’t one now and there can’t be one, not a realistic one, until he resumes his throwing program.

“Everyone is going to want to talk about a timeline,” he said. “Everyone is racing to a lot of people who are throwing out timelines and the reality is, the most important step for him is the one right in front of him.”

He can’t resume throwing until the stitches come out and the area impacted by the scope heals.

“I don’t know when that will be,” Hinch said. “But the next step in his rehab is the one we’re going to focus on and not some random date in the future. That simply would be just a guess at this point.”

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