Detroit Tigers: Alex Faedo has timeline pushed back to 2022

Detroit Tigers prospect Alex Faedo will not make his major league debut until sometime in 2022 at the earliest.

The Detroit Tigers pitching prospects are the envy of baseball. Headlined by one of the top pitching prospects in the game in Casey Mize, and with five starting pitchers amongst their top ten prospects, the Tigers future on the mound should be in good hands.

However, part of that future is going to be on hold. Joey Wentz had already undergone Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2021 season. Then on Saturday, the Tigers announced that Alex Faedo will also be going under the knife and will miss the upcoming season as well.

There had been hope that Faedo would make his major league debut in 2020, but those hopes were dashed almost immediately. He had a late start in summer camp due to a positive COVID-19 test. He was then shut down in August due to a forearm strain that has led to this procedure.

Faedo has been relatively solid in his two minor league seasons. Despite struggling at AA in 2018, he showed signs of improvement the following year. Overall, Faedo had posted a combined 3.96 ERA and a 1.130 WHiP in his 236.1 innings, striking out 244 batters with 60 walks.

There are some concerns about Faedo long term. Although his velocity came back to normal in 2019, and his slider was sharper, his delivery could lead to injury concerns. His changeup is also a work in progress and may never be a viable third option, making it entirely possible that Faedo ends up in the bullpen.

Faedo will be 26 years old when he is ready to return. While he presumably has plenty of time to become the pitcher that Detroit hopes for, that time is going to start to run short. The Tigers are going to need to find a spot for him on the roster sooner rather than later.

But that time will not happen until 2022 at the earliest. The Detroit Tigers have lost another pitching prospect to Tommy John surgery.