LAKELAND, Fla. — Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning, the top three pitching prospects for the Detroit Tigers, had a blast in the 2019 season. That’s when they were together in Double-A Erie, commanding headlines and respect in Pennsylvania.
Last season, the 23-year-old Mize and 24-year-old Skubal made their MLB debuts, but Manning stayed behind at the alternate training site in Toledo. This 23-year-old is awaiting his MLB arrival, and it’s likely coming soon.
Mize, Skubal and Manning have been reunited for spring training in Lakeland, and will attempt to make the necessary improvements — such as Skubal focusing on his new splitter — in preparation for the majors.
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Here is their pitching schedule for the early games this spring:
Mize: Starting Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton.
Manning: Pitching Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies in Lakeland. He will enter from the bullpen after Daniel Norris starts.
Skubal: Pitching Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota. Whether he starts or comes out of the bullpen will be determined by Michael Fulmer’s pending return to camp. If Fulmer is back from Oklahoma and cleared to participate, Skubal will likely piggyback off him.
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“They’ve got to find creative ways to continue to always tweak their stuff, tweak their approach,” manager AJ Hinch said last week. “Dig into the numbers or the mechanics or find reasons why they do what they do. We don’t have to push that near as much as you used to. … You don’t want to just be the average right-hander or left-hander, you got to figure out your stuff and use it creatively.”
Mize is the Tigers’ No. 2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, followed by Manning (No. 3) and Skubal (No. 5). All three of them are among the top 25 prospects in all of baseball.
Additionally, Kyle Funkhouser (Monday), Spencer Turnbull (Thursday) and Matthew Boyd (Friday) are penciled in for starts in the early spring training games. Left-hander Tyler Alexander started Sunday’s Grapefruit League opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Also, Hinch announced Sunday third baseman Isaac Paredes will join camp Monday after completing his physical. He has already finished the COVID-19 intake screening process.
“He’s been doing some physical stuff in the afternoon,” Hinch said, “so we expect him to be ready pretty quickly.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: When Detroit Tigers’ Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning will pitch