With Keider Montero on baby watch, Tigers tentatively juggle rotation

DETROIT — You'd never know it. He continues to go about his business with a carefree smile on his face. But Keider Montero has a lot of his plate these days. His fiancé is pregnant and expected to deliver soon.

There was some trepidation, even, over whether he'd be able to make his start in the series finale against the Twins on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Which, even as rain delayed the start of the game, he was prepared to do.

His fiancé is in Venezuela with no visa. So, Montero's only contact with her has been through FaceTime. The separation has also stalled their wedding plans.

The expectation is Montero will take paternity leave soon. The Tigers have already tentatively juggled their rotation in anticipation of his absence. Manager AJ Hinch said that Framber Valdez will start the series opener against the Rockies on Friday and Jackson Jobe will start Sunday.

"Keider is on baby watch and that's great," Hinch said. "We don't really know exactly what day that's going to happen. We're trying to anticipate and prepare our guys to potentially cover the back side when Keider would pitch again. But I don't know quite yet how that's going to play out."

The off day Thursday gives him some room to maneuver the rotation. Montero's next start after Wednesday would be Monday in Toronto . By pushing the rotation back an extra day, Troy Melton , Drew Anderson and Valdez could start in the three games in Toronto Sept. 14-16.

As for Saturday's start, if Montero goes on the paternity list, the Tigers could recall lefty Andrew Sears from Toledo, even though he was optioned on Sept. 5.

None of that has been decided. What has been decided, though, is that the workloads of both Montero and Melton will be under scrutiny in these next two-plus weeks.

Montero went into his start Wednesday having thrown a career-high 143 innings and more than 2,000 pitches. Melton, who missed spring training and the first two months of the season with an elbow injury, is at 108 innings. He threw 54 big-league innings last season, including 8.1 in the postseason, plus 75 innings in the minors.

Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter are trying to balance health and safety with conditioning pitchers to run the full race. Which, as Hinch pointed out, isn't supposed to end in September.

"We're going to be careful," Hinch said. "But it's important for guys to go start to finish. We talk about workload right now and the nervousness that comes when pitchers get to uncharted territory. But we're only in early September. We're not even to the hard sprint to October which is when we want to play. You have to be really careful not to condition young players that now is the time to be guarded."

Hinch said with the off day Thursday, he can be a little more wary Montero, especially if he's going on paternity leave. And by leaving the Saturday start date open against Colorado , Melton will get two extra days, or more if Hinch wants to push him to the end of the Blue Jays series.

"I want to be very clear with them, the goal isn't just to finish at the end of September," he said. "We have to train for an extra month. October baseball is as intense as it gets."

The message is the same for position players.

"If Dillon (Dingler) is tired or Kevin (McGonigle) is beat up, yes, it happens in September," Hinch said. "But we want these guys preparing to play another 40 days, not another 15. That mentality has to be pushed on all of us."