Tigers prospect Gipson-Long resists the devil
Pitcher’s candor about his injury impresses Hinch
Of course, it was tempting.
When right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long felt a tweak on the inside of his left leg during his first bullpen on the back fields of TigerTown in Lakeland, Florida, there was a devil on his shoulder trying to convince him to keep it to himself: It’s not that serious. You can fight through it. Come on, you have a shot to make this team. You are still throwing low 90s. How bad could it really be?
Gipson-Long was in an unusual spot. He was invited to his first big-league spring training, but he had already pitched four games for the Detroit Tigers in 2023.
When he reported to camp, he said, the coaches told him, “Hey, you are coming in to compete for a spot just like everybody else.” Maybe it was an outside shot, just because of the pitching depth the Tigers have acquired. But it was still a shot because Gipson-Long had performed so well in 2023, getting five September starts and striking out 26 in 20 innings.
So, the devil tried his darndest: Shut up. Don’t tell anybody. How many shots does anyone get in their life? Nothing is certain.
But…
He couldn’t keep quiet.
“The devil is always trying to seduce you,” Gipson-Long said. “I decided to not push it and to not let my pride get in the way. I’d rather do something about it now than try and push it and either hurt myself longer or the team.”
He told the coaches, and an MRI revealed that he had strained his left groin.
Manager A.J. Hinch used it as a teaching moment.
“I’m glad he reported it to us early,” Hinch said. “We have to have our guys say something. He could have tried to get through it and make it way worse, and then it’s threatening the start of the season.”
Yes, this is a lesson for all the Tigers.
And guys like Gipson-Long matter greatly over a full season. Ultimately, the Tigers’ second-tier players will determine the franchise’s success in 2024.
Stuck in limbo
Something strange happens to an injured player during spring training.
They are there ... but not really. Not in the same way.
They keep their locker and are in the clubhouse, but they become focused on getting healthy, not getting better on the field.
So, instead of trying to improve his cutter — a new pitch for Gipson-Long in 2023 — he headed to the training room.
“I’m still involved with team stuff and talking to the coaches,” Gipson-Long said. “It’s not
like this is a vacation for me. It’s just something I have to work through. That doesn’t give me a reason to take a day off. I gotta be super-diligent in my work still and build up like I’m going to produce at the start of the season, or whenever I’m ready.”
As the rest of the pitchers went through bullpens and started to get action in games, Gipson-Long had to sit there, watching them, knowing he had blown his chance to make the Opening Day roster.
“It’s obviously upsetting and disappointing,” he said. “I’m missing a good portion of spring, but, at the same time, I’m glad I caught it early and did something about it early. So I have had time on my side and I’ll be back sooner now. I’m a glass-half-full guy.”
Still have an impact
A happy ending is right around the corner. Gipson-Long has been getting better. He has progressed from tossing the ball around off his knees to throwing on flat ground.
“It feels fine,” he said.
Barring any setbacks, he will throw off a mound Saturday.
“The extra load of going off a slope is a different animal,” he cautioned. “We’ll see how it feels on Saturday.”
If there are no setbacks, he said, he is on track to pitch in a Grapefruit League game before the Tigers break camp.
“I’ll be back sooner than I thought,” he said. “I’m hoping to be in a game before spring is over. I might not be built up as a starter completely, but if everything works out the way it should, I could be pitching in a spring training game.”
It seems likely that he will start his season at Triple-A Toledo, but that is hardly the end.
Last year, the Tigers used 28 pitchers (and four position players in blowouts), and 17 different Tigers started games.
So the lesson is clear: You can never have enough pitching, and it seems likely that, at some point in 2024, the Tigers will need Gipson-Long again.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team game,” he said. “It’s about the Tigers. It’s not about you. It’s about the Old English ‘D,’ and whether I’m a reliever or a starter in the big leagues or a starter or reliever in Triple-A, whatever helps the Tigers win is more important than what I might want.”
This time of year, there is a lot of speculation about the Opening Day roster. But it’s a shortsighted mental exercise, because it’s highly likely that any pitcher on the fringe of making an Opening Day roster will, eventually, get called up at some point during the season.
If the Tigers are to make a push for the playoffs this season, pitchers who don’t make the Opening Day roster — guys like Gipson-Long — will matter tremendously in the big picture.
The sooner Gipson-Long is healthy, the sooner he could help this team; and that’s why it was so important to discard the words of that devil on his shoulder; and just be honest with the coaches.