After departing the Detroit Tigers’ game on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, first baseman Miguel Cabrera will reportedly undergo season-ending surgery.
Cabrera out for the season. Surgery needed
— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) June 13, 2018
Cabrera left in the middle of an at-bat during the third inning against Twins starter Jake Odorizzi. Cabrera swung and immediately reacted by clutching his right arm in pain, walking directly towards the dugout and effectively removing himself from the contest. He was replaced by Niko Goodrum, who finished the AB for Cabrera and filled in at first base.
The Tigers ended up losing the series opener to Minnesota by a final score of 6-4.
Prior to their game on Tuesday, Detroit recalled catcher Grayson Greiner from Triple-A Toledo. He took the place of reliever Zach Reininger, who was optioned back down to Triple-A after the team’s loss on Sunday to the Cleveland Indians. Originally, Greiner was only being promoted to temporarily fill in for starting catcher James McCann, who missed a second straight game due to an apparent illness.
Now, with Cabrera being put on the shelf, Greiner is expected to be the Tigers’ go-to backup catcher moving forward. John Hicks, who caught on Tuesday in place of McCann, received the lion’s share of playing time for Detroit while Cabrera missed significant time earlier this season and is expected to jump back into that role again. The team will need to make another roster move before their game on Wednesday against the Twins but all signs point towards to it being Ronny Rodriguez.
Entering play on Tuesday, Cabrera was slashing .301/.394/.451 in 37 games this season. However, he had been hitting just .250 with a .662 OPS in the 11 games since coming off the disabled list on June 1. He will finish with just three home runs on the season, not having hit one over his final 12 games played in (last one coming April 28). This will mark just the fourth time that Cabrera lands on the DL due to injury. However, three of those instances have come since April of last season.
The 11-time All-Star and 2-time AL MVP, who just turned 35 years of age earlier this season, is under contract through the 2023 season (with vesting options for ’24 and ’25) and is guaranteed at least $154 million (aforementioned vesting options each worth $30M) in that span.
Gardy: "A big blow for our ballclub and for that young man. We have to help him get through this thing. This is a very sad day for our ballclub."
— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) June 13, 2018
Gardy: "(Cabrera) feels really bad. He feels like he let people down. This guy is a warrior. He's always gone out and tried to play through things. He feels terrible. I have total respect for that man. He's a helluva baseball player."
— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) June 13, 2018
JD Martinez texted Miguel Cabrera his well wishes postgame after hearing Cabrera will miss the rest of the season.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) June 13, 2018
Gardenhire asked about Cabrera's outlook for 2019:
"This is a serious injury. Understand that. I'm not a doctor, though. I can't tell you. Once they go in there surgically and look at this thing, we'll all know more about how it's going to come back and how he's going to heal."
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) June 13, 2018
