Jones done, possibly for good

Jones done, possibly for good
Former closer, fighting sore shoulder, bids an emotional farewell to his Tigers teammates.
Tom Gage / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Feel the breeze?

They aren't yet gusts of change blowing tumbleweeds across the wasteland of the Tigers' season. But the whirlwind is coming.

It involves names we know and people we like, such as Todd Jones and Kenny Rogers.


It also involves those we don't know well, a rookie and veteran trying to make it back, Chris Lambert and Freddy Garcia.

But September creeps closer, and it's third place the Tigers continue to play for, not first. The inevitable transition this club will experience after such an abject disappointment has started.

Todd Jones returned home on Wednesday.

His sore shoulder landed him on the disabled list and prevented him from making the previous trip, to Texas and Kansas City. The shoulder is only slowly improving, if at all.

Jones called a brief team meeting before batting practice, hugged his teammates, was emotional because he always is, and returned to Pell City, his Alabama home, to see if his rehab program will allow him to pitch again.

"At this point," said manager Jim Leyland, limiting the scope of his comments to the rest of the year, "I don't foresee him pitching."

Jones is 40, no longer part of the Tigers' future. He gave it everything he had this year, saved 18 games -- pretty darn good for someone admitting to doing it with "smoke and mirrors".

But it was everything he had.

We'll see Jones again. We'll hear from him again. As a pitcher, though? Unlikely.

Rogers hasn't returned anywhere. He hasn't gone home to Texas. He hasn't even heard he has being traded. But at 43, this is his swan song as a Tiger.

Some songs are short. Some drag out. By the trade deadline on Sunday, at the latest, we'll know if this one will stretch across September as well as these waning days of August.

If it does, the end result will be no different. Rogers has had some wonderful times as a Tiger, pitched some excellent games. He proved the video ball-and-chain with which he arrived in Detroit -- that footage of him pushing a cameraman in Texas -- was never a correct portrayal of how he would behave as a Tiger.

He has been nothing but friendly, nothing but cordial, nothing but approachable

But his time here is nearly done.

A club that has looked too old this year can't bring back a pitcher who'll be 44 next year. It has to go forward. It must at least attempt to get young.

Plus, and this is the simple financial truth: Rogers has made at least $8 million in each of the last three years. Why, at this point, would he be interested in anything considerably less?

Lambert is a bit player in all this, someone who started on Tuesday because Nate Robertson is in the bullpen attempting to solve the riddle of his slider.

The rookie's first start wasn't a success. The blunders the Tigers made behind him weren't back-to-back but the home runs he allowed in the third were.

The Tigers could have plugged Robertson back into the rotation next Tuesday against Kansas City. But the uncertainty they already face with their pitching next year is pronounced, and they must him back on track so they can count on him as a returning starter next year.

Even if it means giving a rookie who got shelled another start.

As for Garcia, it's not such a long shot he'll pitch for the Tigers this season, after all.

On his off day, Leyland will make the trip to Toledo to watch Garcia's four innings against Columbus, the only innings Garcia will work for the Mud Hens before their season ends. If the Tigers like what they see, Garcia could start. But that's part of the same breeze.

A good ol' closer went home, an even older starter awaits word, a rookie will be down and back, and a pitcher hopes to be viable pitcher once again.

The transition has begun.





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