The Detroit Tigers are mired in a frustrating funk right now that’s seen them drop 14 of their past 16 games, combined with a maddeningly slumping offense.
Miguel Cabrera‘s .125 batting average might make you re-read the stat line to make sure you read correctly, but he’s hardly the only Tigers batter who isn’t producing. The Tigers are ranked dead last with a .200 team batting average, and have struck out 293 times.
And naturally, that will give manager A.J. Hinch pause from moving him back in the batting order.
“If it ever warranted that he needed to move down because you have so many guys that are performing at a level that need to be in front of him, then you have to have conversations along the way with all of your players,” Hinch said before Sunday’s game in New York. “There is great respect that comes with somebody like Miggy, and you want to optimize your lineup, but right now, there’s not that pressure to have those types of difficult conversations.
“There’s no need right now to talk about it.”
Still, it’s not easy to watch him having gone 0-for-13 with 13 strikeouts in his past four games.
“But it’s not difficult for me to put him in the lineup, expect good things. To see the work that he’s put in, he’s obviously pretty frustrated and hasn’t really produced yet. It doesn’t mean today can’t be the first start of a nice little run. … You trust the process and hopefully things start to turn for him.”
– – Quotes via Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press Link – –
