The good news for the Detroit Tigers is that they’ve had a strong start to July, having won seven of their last 10 games and putting themselves 6.5 games back of first place in the American League Central Division standings after a miserable month of May.
But the bad news is that veteran reliever Will Vest is dealing with a stress fracture in his elbow, reminiscent of similar injuries to former Tigers pitchers Al Alburquerque and Joel Zumaya, both of whom missed several months of action.
Despite being projected not to miss that much time, Vest admitted that it’s still difficult not being able to help his team in the meantime.
“I’m trying to do everything I can to get back, but you can only do so much with a bone,” Vest said Sunday. “We’re at the mercy of that, waiting for it to heal. I’m drinking as much milk as I can, hoping and praying it gets better quick.”
“They say this injury is common in young players who aren’t fully developed,” Vest said. “So I guess I’m still a kid, still growing….It’s good that we’re not chasing our tails,” he said. “We know what it is. But at the same time, you never want to be hurt. The good news is we know what it is now. We can rest it and rehab it and see how it responds.”
Vest also said that his discomfort in his elbow isn’t something that just came about, and that he’s been dealing with it now for some time.
“Yeah, it’s been a while,” he said. “We managed it for so long, it just got to the point where I just didn’t feel good and the results weren’t good and I was kind of hurting the team. I’m glad we figured out what it was.”
So far this season for the Tigers, Vest has successfully completed two saves while racking up an ERA of 6.08 along with 27 strikeouts and a 1.43 WHIP. He had a team-high 23 saves last season.
In fact, Vest admitted that it’s difficult not to go a bit “crazy”.
“It’s the worst,” he said. “The first time I went on the IL this year, the first game, you go sit in the dugout before the anthem and you know you’re not playing that day. It hit me hard. You want to be out there. You want to compete. And when you can’t, it’s the worst.
“You kind of go a little crazy. I’m just trying to get through it day by day.”
Tigers Manager A.J. Hinch Revealed The Plan Of Action For Will Vest
According to Hinch, the club expects more clarity on Vest’s injury following the All-Star break.
“We have an action plan moving forward, is the good part,” Hinch said. “You don’t really know what’s going on and then you get a bunch of tests and now we can react accordingly. We do now have a plan that we can get him rest, get him back into a throwing program and get him back when we can. When you initially have a pitcher go out with an arm injury, everybody goes to the worst case scenario and the standard injuries that come with pitching.”
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Tigers’ Will Vest Makes Honest Confession While Recovering appeared first on HEAVY.