Tigers’ Matt Moore to have knee surgery on Wednesday

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Matt Moore will undergo surgery on his sprained right knee on Wednesday, according to MLB.com’s Jason Beck. The injury was originally sustained in the third inning of his start against the Kansas City Royals last weekend. Moore’s initial efforts at rehabilitation to avoid the surgeon’s knife appear to have been in vain.

Before the injury, Moore had pitched three scoreless innings allowing only one hit and collecting three strikeouts against the Royals in his second start of the season. His line so far for 2019 reads ten innings pitched, allowing three hits, no runs, walking only one batter, and striking out nine along the way.

There is hope that Moore’s recovery time will be in the area of four-to-six weeks, but that is assuming a minimally-invasive arthroscopic procedure. It has not yet been established whether or not he will need a complete reconstruction of the meniscus, which would probably sideline him for the rest of the year. That decision will likely occur during an exploratory procedure that precludes his surgery this week.

While the Tigers have already replaced him with Drew VerHagen on the active roster, Moore could move to the 60-day injured list, opening a spot on the 40-man roster. It is unclear who within the farm system the Tigers would add to fill in that void — they could keep that slot open for an acquisition from outside of the organization. Regardless, the news is a significant blow to the Tigers’ hot start to the season, as well as Moore’s attempt to re-establish himself as a quality major league pitcher.