Detroit Tigers don’t have many options for a powerless Miguel Cabrera
By Bob Heyrman
The Detroit Tigers locked up Miguel after back to back MVP awards, plus he won the triple crown, so the organization decided to buy the stock while it was at its’ highest point. Now they will struggle to receive any benefit from doing so. At the time of the deal, the Detroit Tigers were relevant, Miguel was the best hitter in baseball, but he was already on the wrong side of 30.
It’s hard to give up on the best player in the league, but the Tigers would have had alternative options rather than rushing to lock up the star first sacker. The best option would have been riding out the deal and negotiate a new contract when the deal expired.
They could have re-evaluated the state of the franchise leading up to the trade deadline and considered trading him for a boatload of top prospects. I admit the Detroit Tigers were committed to spending to win a World Series so dealing him would likely be out of the question. What about merely just letting him walk at the end of his deal like the St. Louis Cardinals did with Albert Pujols?
Pujols has struggled to live up to his contract with the Angels, which pays him an average of $24 million per year throughout the entire commitment. During his time with the Angels Albert’s production had faltered compared to what we are used to seeing when he was with the Cards, but he’s still respectable at the plate even at the age of 39. With the Angels Albert has hit 30 home runs twice, and 40 once throughout his mid-30’s. Albert joined the Angels at the age of 32.