Miguel Cabrera is out for the season with a ruptured left bicep, but what does his future hold?
There isn’t much to watch for this season for Tigers fans, and arguably the brightest light to look at was Miguel Cabrera. Unfortunately, that light was extinguished this week when the future Hall of Famer suffered a ruptured bicep that will end his season in June.
Detroit is in the midst of a rebuilding effort and this is very much the twilight of Miggy’s career. That leads to the question: What does his future look like?
The downside to this is that we’ll have to wait until 2019 to see if he can do anything for Detroit. The slugger still has $171 million owed to him through the 2023 season, which means someone is going to pay him that. Whether it’s the Tigers or someone else is yet to be seen. In reality, it seems as though this is going to end up like an Albert Pujols situation, where Miggy twists in the wind amid rumors of being DFA’d, while the team plugs him in where it can.
To add to that, both have gigantic contracts on teams with championship windows closing (sorry Angels fans). Cabrera only hit 3 home runs in 157 plate appearances, so that’s a concern. Although, he did hit .299 in that span. Miggy has always been a huge power threat, and when the round-trippers aren’t there, it’s something to look into. Maybe something was wrong with his left bicep the whole season, and the swing and miss was the death blow.
This might be a blessing in disguise for Cabrera and the Tigers, as he could come back stronger than ever in 2019. Also, that gives the club a long time to assess what they have to possibly replace Miggy.
With that said, in the short term, this is tough to see as a Tigers fan. But in the grand scheme of things, this gives the franchise more experimental time with youngsters for the next great Tigers team. Sorry Miggy, you probably won’t be apart of it.