Will Vest to undergo season-ending elbow surgery

Vest, who saved 23 games for Detroit in 2025 before struggling in a setup role in the first half of last season, needed a stress fracture repaired at the tip of his elbow. “He looks good. He feels good,” GM Scott Harris said. “All the reports we’ve gotten have been really positive, and so we’re expecting him to be good to go.”

Nothing has changed in the prognosis for Vest, who is dealing with a stress fracture in his right elbow. This was done as a procedural move to clear a spot on the Tigers’ 40-man roster for the addition of Troy Watson on Sunday. Vest won’t be eligible to return until early September.

Hinch noted that no surgery is expected to be needed, just extra rest and recovery time. The Tigers are still hopeful that Vest will be able to rejoin the bullpen at some point before the regular season concludes. If he is able to return, it probably won’t be until late August or early September.

Vest last pitched on June 27th and allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits in one inning. He clearly wasn’t right during that outing, and now we know why. He will undergo further imaging to determine how long he will be sidelined.

Vest came on with a two-run lead and two on and two outs in the eighth inning. He struck out Jasson Domínguez to end the inning and retired the side in order in the ninth inning. Vest has just two saves this year with one of them coming while Kenley Jansen was on the injured list. While Vest is one of the Tigers’ most trusted relievers and in the mix for saves, expect Jansen, who didn’t pitch Monday, to continue to see most of the save opportunities.

It wasn’t the smoothest of frames, as he allowed a leadoff single to Josh Naylor before picking him off for the first out of the inning. He then plunked Randy Arozarena before Dillon Dingler picked him off of first base. Vest then took care of Luke Raley on strikes to end the inning and became the beneficiary when the Tigers scored twice to walk it off in the home half of the inning. Vest continues to operate as the Tigers’ closer while Kenley Jansen is sidelined.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Kyle Finnegan came on to put out a sixth-inning fire and recorded four outs earlier in the contest while Detroit was leading by four runs. Vest was summoned to get the final two out of the eighth inning before coming back out to toss a perfect ninth for his first save of the year. It seems like Kyle Finnegan will be Detroit’s preferred closing option while Kenley Jansen (groin) is on the injured list, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Vest got a few chances as well.

Vest was brought in to get out of the seventh inning and he did just that, retiring Jorge Soler and Wade Meckler in order to end the inning. Vest even got two of the first three batters out in the eighth inning before things went off the rails. A double by Logan O’Hoppe drove in a run, cutting the Tigers lead to a single run. Zach Neto singled on the ninth pitch the at-bat before Mike Trout walked on six pitches. With Vest now over 30 pitches, he was inexplicably allowed to face Vaughn Grissom with the bases loaded. Grissom’s grand slam was just his third home run in his last 206 at-bats. Vest’s blown save was his third, the loss was his second and his ERA sits at 7.88.

This wound up being a strange situation because Tigers manager A.J. Hinch opted to use closer Kenley Jansen against the heart of Cleveland’s lineup to protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning before giving the ball to Vest to face the bottom of the order. That gambit backfired as Vest surrendered back-to-back singles to Daniel Schneemann and Travis Bazzana before Patrick Bailey delivered a game-tying ground out a couple batters later. He managed to strike out Brayan Rocchio to preserve a tie ballgame, but the damage was already done. Cleveland went on to score a couple runs in extra-innings and close out a comeback win.

Vest will rejoin the Tigers’ bullpen on Sunday after missing a couple of weeks due to inflammation in his forearm. Before he was shelved, Vest posted an unsightly 6.17 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and a 13/6 K/BB ratio over 11 2/3 innings of work. Ty Madden (forearm) was placed on the injured list in a corresponding move on Sunday.