No games for Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize in 21 months. He 'can't wait' for real competition

LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers right-hander Casey Mize hasn't pitched in a competitive game since May 12, 2022. On that day, with Triple-A Toledo, he faced seven batters, allowed three runs and recorded two outs in the only outing of a failed rehab assignment.

Mize underwent Tommy John surgery on June 15, 2022, followed by an unspecified back surgery to fix an issue he had been dealing with for years, and then he spent all of 2023 rehabbing from those surgeries.

Twenty-one months after his last game, Mize is throwing bullpens in front of coaches and teammates at the Tigers' spring training facility in Lakeland, Florida. The 26-year-old is preparing for the 2024 season like every other healthy starting pitcher in the big leagues.

"It feels really good to be healthy," Mize said. "I don't want to be the player that's viewed as always hurt, and I don't think that's really the case. I missed a lot of time, but I had a very major yet very common surgery. ... I'm not sure what this year is going to bring me, but I've been able to see a lot of guys go through it. I just love to compete, and I can't wait to be able to compete."

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Everything has to be earned, but Mize should break camp as part of the Tigers' Opening Day roster if he stays healthy throughout spring training.

In the offseason, Mize and the Tigers were on track for an arbitration hearing because the two sides couldn't agree on Mize's salary for the upcoming season. The Tigers filed at $815,000; Mize filed at $840,000. But Mize and the Tigers managed to avoid arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $830,000 contract with a club option — worth $3.1 million with a $10,000 buyout, essentially guaranteeing Mize what he asked for in his filing — for the 2025 season.

"Tons of players go through this," Mize said, "and there's nothing personal to it. I love being a Tiger just as much today as I did when I was drafted or two years ago or whatever. I love it here, and there's no bad blood with anybody here."

Mize expects the Tigers to decline the $3.1 million club option, which would make him arbitration-eligible for the second of a possible three times before reaching free agency after the 2026 season.

But that doesn't mean Mize expects to perform poorly in his return.

"It's unlikely that it's exercised, so I think that was just a way out," Mize said. "Based on the data and the variables, it would be really tough to get to 3.1, especially with everything that this year is going to entail. That number is just really high. I expect to plug back into arb-two and do this thing all over again. Maybe it'll go smoother, maybe it won't, who knows? I'm glad it's behind us."

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Mize's biggest challenge will be the workload restrictions he faces in his comeback season. He threw a career-high 150⅓ innings with a 3.71 ERA in 2021, followed by 10⅔ innings with a 5.40 ERA in 2022 and zero innings in 2023.

He hasn't talked to the Tigers about the specific restrictions.

"I think we all know that's a potential thing that could happen," Mize said. "I'm not sure if there's a sense in making a decision right now anyway when you can play it by ear and see how things are going. I'll throw as much as they let me. I just want to play. That's pretty much where I'm at."

Mize, a resident of nearby St. Petersburg, completed his rehabilitation from elbow surgery at the Tigers' facility in November 2023. He took a break from pitching before jumpstarting his offseason program.

Mize spent the past three or four months training at Summers Method Performance Center to get ready for spring training in Lakeland.

"Now I'm ready to hop into whatever they ask of me here," Mize said.

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His pitch mix and mechanics will look different in 2024, at least compared to 2022, but he is still throwing the splitter that got him selected No. 1 overall in the 2018 draft out of Auburn.

Mize won't change his splitter grip, but he plans to talk with new starter Kenta Maeda — whom the Tigers signed to a two-year, $24 million contract — about how to optimize splitter usage throughout a game. Maeda has weaponized a dynamite splitter for his entire professional career, which began in Japan in 2008.

"I've watched Kenta pitch for a while," Mize said. "The way he can stick a four-seamer at the bottom of the zone and put the split right below it, I think that's something I need to really improve on. A lot of times, I'll throw a really nasty split, and guys will spit on it because the fastball has been elevated a little bit, so that visual is a little bit different. I need to talk with Maeda about sequencing."

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Catcher Jake Rogers, who underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2021 and missed the entire 2022 season while rehabbing, caught Mize's bullpen session at the Tigers' facility on Tuesday morning.

The Tigers have a surplus of MLB-ready starting pitchers.

Rogers expects Mize to help the Tigers in 2024, regardless of his role or workload.

"I think there's going to be some competition, but I think he can help," Rogers said. "I know he can help. I've seen him pitch when he was healthy, and I'm just excited that he's healthy and back again. I know he's ready to play, kind of like I was. I know he's going to be thankful to be back on the field and healthy, and I think that's really going to help him succeed."

Mize is eager to step on the mound for his first appearance in spring training. The Grapefruit League schedule opens Feb. 24 against the New York Yankees at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.

The 21-month wait is almost over.

"I'm itching at the opportunity to compete," Mize said. "That's what I've been missing the past couple of years, just the competition aspect. The competition is what I can't wait for, and with competition comes fear and nervousness and excitement, so I'm sure all of those emotions will come up, but I have to handle that like normal. But I can't wait."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize on IP: 'I'll throw as much as they let me'