Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull returns to Comerica Park tonight as a reliever for the Philadelphia Phillies, ready to face his old team. Reflecting on his complex history with the Tigers, including a tumultuous last season, Turnbull shared his thoughts.
Spencer Turnbull: Facing the Tigers Again
“Zero emotions, whatsoever,” Turnbull joked about facing the Tigers again, although he admitted the game would feel different. “I’m excited,” he said. “I’ll try not to put too much pressure on one game. I don’t want to give much credit to a revenge tour or whatever. I’m sure I’ll have some extra emotions and adrenaline. I’ll try to have fun doing it, but I’ll try to block out the noise. It’ll feel different.”
Reflecting on a Tumultuous 2023
Spencer Turnbull, who currently holds a 2.63 ERA with 18 walks and 56 strikeouts in 51⅓ innings this season, was non-tendered by the Tigers in November after a contentious 2023. “There was a lot of drama … but it wasn’t my choice for things to go down that way,” he said. “Last year was really hard, really tough, not a lot of fun. It wasn’t how I would have liked things to end here in Detroit, but it wasn’t my choice for things to go down that way. It was just kind of how it happened.”
The drama included issues with Turnbull’s performance, injuries, and disagreements over his MLB service time and roster status. Despite pitching a no-hitter with the Tigers in 2021, Turnbull expressed no regrets about his rough exit. “There’s a lot of things that were out of my hands, out of my control,” Turnbull said. “I didn’t really have a lot of say in a lot of stuff that went down last year. All the drama or whatever it was, all the negative press and things like that, nobody knows the real story. No one knows really what happened, but it was definitely not the spin that was maybe told about me. I try not to really worry about it. It is what it is. I don’t care too much about how that was framed.”
