Casey Mize News: Hit hard Friday

Mize allowed six runs on six hits and four walks across three innings in Friday's Grapefruit League contest against the Pirates. He struck out two.

This was easily Mize's worst start of the spring slate, as he came into the contest having allowed three total earned runs across 8.1 Grapefruit League innings. He said after the contest that his "mechanics are off," per Jason Beck of MLB.com, which is somewhat concerning at this point during spring training. The righty should still be locked into a regular-season rotation spot, though the Tigers did bolster their pitching staff in the offseason with the additions of Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander, so Mize may be knocked down the pecking order a bit. He stayed mostly healthy last year and posted a 3.87 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 139 strikeouts across 149 regular-season innings.