DETROIT -- The next wave of Tigers starting pitching is working its way up the system. Before it arrives, the club has some decisions to make. Daniel Norris is giving them something to ponder, even before Thursday’s 2-0 loss to the Indians at Comerica Park.

“He's definitely a Major League pitcher, whether it's starting or whatever,” manager Ron Gardenhire said last week. “We're still trying to determine whether he's ever going to be able to go through that for a full season and make it. I think he can.”

• Box score

The innings limit the Tigers have on Norris have weaned his starts down to three innings at a time, yet it’s just enough for him to make an impression going into a critical offseason. He was an out away from a ninth consecutive scoreless inning, spread out over three starts, when Francisco Lindor tagged a high fastball and sent it out to right field for an opposite-field home run.

It was enough to doom Norris (3-11) to a 10th defeat since his last win May 12. But the record isn’t going to tell the story of Norris’ first full season in the Tigers' rotation. For starters, his diet of three innings per start left him ineligible for wins in his previous two starts, duels against Cy Young candidates Justin Verlander and Charlie Morton. Even if he was cleared for nine innings Thursday, it wouldn’t have helped the Tigers shake their struggles against the Indians and Mike Clevinger, who allowed just four hits and one runner in scoring position over eight scoreless innings.

“This wasn't about our pitching at all. Our pitching was great,” Gardenhire said Thursday. “We just didn't score, and that's because their man shut us down.”

Still, for all the difficult matchups Norris draws, he’s keeping the Tigers in low-scoring games, allowing five hits over nine innings with three walks and nine strikeouts. Add in his handful of starts before that, and he owns a 3.27 ERA over his last eight starts.

The innings limit is knocking out Norris these days, not opponents. That shouldn’t be an issue next season. The bigger obstacle before that will be the arbitration process, and how the Tigers want to handle it. The 26-year-old is eligible for a second time, having agreed to a $1.28 million, one-year contract in January.

The Tigers made difficult decisions on arbitration-eligible players last winter with catcher James McCann and reliever Alex Wilson; McCann’s resurgence with the White Sox has bit the Tigers there. But considering the $8.25 million the Tigers invested last winter in free agents Tyson Ross and Matt Moore, who made just nine starts combined before going on the injured list, Norris might present a wiser investment.

Gardenhire wants to see him compete.

“It depends on who we sign and everything on where he might fit,” Gardenhire said last week, “but I'd like to give him a chance to start. But I also think that he could be really dominant in the bullpen, too. But I want him to be a starter. I like his stuff. I think he's athletic. He's a high-anxiety guy. He puts it all upon himself, and he's gotta learn to calm down.”

While his innings are down, his emotions are not. He can’t hide his reaction each time a ball gets in the air. He threw his glove hand in the air as Lindor’s home run flew out, and he has actually apologized to Gardenhire for throwing some other home run balls. But as much as Gardenhire tries to temper it, he can’t help but admire the enthusiasm. He just wishes Norris could find a balance between the two.

“That's the way he is,” Gardenhire said. “He really cares, and I just want him to learn, 'Hey, it happens.' You're not going to throw a no-hitter every day. You're going to get your butt beat every once in a while. You just have to move on. It's over with.

“He's a high-maintenance guy as far as his mentality goes. He wants to be perfect with everything he does. It's just impossible with this game. But I like him. I like the way he competes. I like the whole package.”

Norris is high-anxiety without being high-velocity, but he’s improving in the latter. He averaged just under 92 mph with his fastball on Thursday, according to Statcast, drawing no swings and misses but a half-dozen called strikes. He set up three strikeouts on changeups, another on a slider, as he worked through the Indians’ lineup with only a walk allowed the first time through.

“If anything, it's just more confidence in attacking,” Norris said last week. “I think the biggest part is when I lost all the velocity, I was like, 'Man, I can't throw my fastball, because it's going to get banged.' And then as it crept back up, it was like my confidence in it came. I still use it semi-sparingly. I pick and choose my moments to attack with it, but of late I've just been attacking with it.”

Lindor stepped to the plate with two outs in the third and hit his third homer at Comerica Park this season.

“Honestly, it was the pitch I wanted, up and away,” Norris said of Lindor’s first career homer in 20 at-bats against him. “He just kind of went with it, eight rows deep. He’s a phenomenal hitter, no doubt about that, and I’ve faced him enough to where he knows my tendencies and I know his.”

The Tigers are learning more about Norris.