Al Avila didn’t make any predictions.
And speaking recently at the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association’s “Detroit Tigers Day,” he didn’t have to.
Tigers’ starting pitchers will get hurt this season. They will miss starts and maybe even weeks and months. That’s where young pitching depth will come into play.
“It is our belief that we will need these guys to get through the season,” Avila said. “We felt we needed that depth, which we haven’t had in past years to get through a season. We feel we now have that depth to get through it.”
The top shelf of that depth is right-hander Michael Fulmer, left-hander Matt Boyd and even right-hander Shane Greene, who is fully recovered from off-season surgery on a nerve in his pitching arm.