After the bad luck incident of getting injured with one out to go in Spring Training, newly re-acquired pitcher Todd Jones should be back by this weekend, according to Jason Beck:
After throwing about 23 pitches on Wednesday afternoon in his second simulated game, Jones' work was finished. Assuming he feels fine on Thursday, he'll be activated for this weekend's series at Seattle, probably as soon as Friday.
Of course this may cause some controversy as to when to throw him back into the closers role as soon as he is activated, specifically because Fernando Rodney has done nothing to hurt his case as the Tigers full-time closer. He is 3 for 3 in save opportunities and has not surrendered a run yet this season.
Jim Leyland has a plan for this:
Whenever he makes his first appearance off the DL, it'll be his first game since re-signing with Detroit last December. Most likely, it will not be a save situation. Jones said manager Jim Leyland told him that he'll throw one inning starting out to "get acclimated."
The Tigers signed Jones to be the closer, so the closer he will be. But it has been a good sign to see a bullpen that has looked very good so far (Zumaya, Rodney, etc). Perhaps the thought of Rodney one day being a full-time closer for the Tigers isn't that far off. At least we know now that if Jones struggles the Tigers will always have a backup closer plan.