Saturday, August 09

Carlos Sanchez, a 20-year-old Reds prospect just promoted to High-A a little over a month ago, dug into the batter's box against Alex Cobb, 17 years his senior. Anthony Stephan, a Reds pick from last year’s MLB Draft, edged off first base with hopes of adding to his stolen-base numbers against a 37-year-old pitcher with hip issues. Cobb caught the baserunner out of the corner of his eye, turned his focus to his hitter, then turned to first and whirled on his left foot as he fired to West Michigan first baseman Andrew Jenkins. The move caught Stephan, who grimaced on his way back to the Dayton dugout like he had just been fooled.

It might have been called a balk in the big leagues, Cobb said later, but as a veteran Major Leaguer making a rehab start from a hip injury, he might have gotten some leeway. A few pitches later, Cobb fanned Sanchez on a slider, finishing a scoreless first inning on his way to two innings with an unearned run on two hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

The pickoff probably felt better mentally than physically. But then, Cobb pitching at this point is a matter of pain management. He looks less labored now after five rehab starts, with another expected this weekend, but to call them free and easy would be optimistic. He has had injections in both of his hips this year, more than he wishes to count.

“Where I'm at, I'm going to have pain,” Cobb said last week. “It's just going to be dealing with it and seeing if you can do it effectively. I don't know at what point that mindset switched, but at a certain point I was like, 'OK, I'm not going to be pain-free, and I'm going to have to battle through pain.' The mindset is just see how it is tomorrow, see what you can do tomorrow.”

The Tigers signed Cobb last December to a one-year, $15 million contract, having liked what they saw from him in Cleveland last fall in a handful of outings following left hip surgery. But hopes of seeing that in Detroit took a hit when he reported to Spring Training dealing with right hip inflammation. He opened the season on the injured list, began a rehab assignment at the end of May, but clearly didn’t look right. He paused again for more treatment, including the other hip.

Several veteran pitchers signed one-year contracts for similar salaries last winter with mixed results, including former Tigers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, and new Tiger Charlie Morton. But while Cobb’s deal has looked like a sunk cost for a while, it is not for lack of effort from the pitcher sinking all his willpower into making it back, well after many pitchers might have shut it down.

Why do it? Cobb has a list of reasons to put himself through this.

“Obviously I had really high expectations for me going into the season, so first and foremost, you have a responsibility to try to fulfill that as much as possible,” Cobb said. “And then as the diagnoses [have] come in and the pain sets in and you realize the challenges that are in front of you, I think realizing where you are at in your career and the possibility of things being over, to think about never stepping on a big league mound again, I think it hits you pretty hard and gives you a motivation to want to be able to have that feeling again, just competing amongst the best. Once you're done, you're done; your childhood dream is over. And I don't want to have that feeling.

“I think that the most important [reason] is I've never been on a team with this type of potential. I've never been on a first-place [team] at the Trade Deadline, and obviously we have a real chance to do something really special. If we were the last team standing and we got a nice little trophy and a ring, I'd want to stare at that ring and feel like I did everything I could to contribute, even if it's just a little bit. I'd feel a lot more pride in that if I could stare at that ring and know that, even if it wasn't the expectations that I had for my season, knowing that I contributed some sort of way. I think all those kinds of thoughts go into the motivation to keep going and giving it a try. I've been very thankful that the Tigers have been understanding on that and giving me the opportunities.”

Dillon Dingler’s home run Monday against the Twins was his 10th of the season, marking the fourth straight year a Tigers catcher has hit double-digit homers, joining Jake Rogers from the previous two seasons and Eric Haase from 2022. Who was the last Tigers catcher to hit double-digit homers in four consecutive seasons?

A. Alex Avila
B. Lance Parrish
C. Pudge Rodriguez
D. Mickey Tettleton

All-Star Zach McKinstry was announced Tuesday as the Tigers’ winner of the MLB Players Alumni Association’s 20th annual Heart & Hustle Award, which recognizes players who exemplify a true passion for the game and embody its values, spirit and traditions.

McKinstry was selected last month by a committee of Tigers alumni. At season’s end, the 30 team winners will be up for the national award. No Tiger has ever won the national honor.

C. Rodriguez’s streak of 15 consecutive seasons with double-digit homers included four with Detroit from 2004 (19 HR) to 2007 (11).

To subscribe to Tigers Beat, visit this page and mark "Tigers Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Tigers or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.