During the early weeks of spring camp, Franklin Perez had been further charming a Tigers team that sees in him a potential top-tier rotation starter.
Strong body. Strong starts. Bright year ahead, the Tigers forecasters said, for a right-handed prospect, only 20, who is perhaps the most talented youngster Detroit’s farm system, and who was set to begin the 2018 season at Double-A Erie.
The timetable has, at least for now, slowed. Perez will miss the next three months due to a strain of the latissimus dorsi (LAT) — the triangle-shaped muscle that extends from the spinal column, to the armpit, and for a pitcher is in the physiological wheelhouse.