Rogers Placed on Disabled List

Today, was supposed to be a quiet day for Tigers fans as we all wait for the season opener next Monday. It turned out to be anything but quiet. First, I woke up this morning to the news that Carlos Guillen and the Tigers might be getting closer to a contract agreement. That was a good way to start the day but it was far from the bog story of the day.

Later, I heard that Kenny Rogers was being placed on the disabled list due to a fatigued arm. He would miss his first start and nobody was saying much about his ailment but Dave Dombrowski did not sound too alarmed:

``We don't think (it's going to be long-term),'' Dave Dombrowski said.

My first reaction was that Rogers is 42 years old and can't be expected to go 200+ innings again this year. He's bound to have little ailments from time to time. I would have been really worried if it was a young pitcher like Jeremy Bonderman or Justin Verlander but I wasn't too concerned about Rogers.

Now, I'm reading that Rogers may be suffering from a blood clot. No details are being given and nothing has been said publicly but John Lowe has a source who says it is a clot:

Dombrowski didn’t provide any other details on Rogers’ ailment. However, a person familiar with the situation said that a club official informed him that Rogers has a blood clot.

It is not known if the blood clot is in Rogers’ arm or how serious it might be.

Rogers left the team today to undergo tests by a specialist at an undisclosed location.

This obviously sounds much more ominous than "arm fatigue". There's no way to say how serious it is at this time. A clot could clear up by itself or it require surgery and turn into a career threatening situation. I'm sure we'll know more in the next few days.

What we do know now is that Chad Durbin will take his place in the rotation and Bobby Seay has been added to the 25 man roster. I'm a bit surprised that Will Ledezma or Zach Miner is not going to join the rotation but Durbin is the man for now. If Rogers' problem turns into a long term situation, it is possible that we might be seeing Andrew Miller sooner than expected. In fact, Jim Leyland said that Miller was the other option they considered before deciding on Durbin:

"We really only talked about two options, basically," Leyland said. "Those were [Andrew] Miller or Durbin. We decided to stay on our course with that. We checked with the Minor League people. Miller's throwing good. He's also working on some things, so we think that we want him to get some starts there under his belt. Durbin had a great year in Triple-A last year."

So what was supposed to be a slow news day has turned into something else. Only time will tell how big of a deal this will be.