Miguel Cabrera left Tuesday’s loss to the Twins in the bottom of the third inning with what was initially described by the Tigers as a left biceps tendon strain. Cabrera took a looping cut on a Jake Odorizzi off-speed pitch and immediately winced and grabbed his bicep before walking into the dugout and out of sight.
Cabrera had an MRI done Tuesday night, and the news is about as bad as it gets. Cabrera is done for the season:
Cabrera has mostly been a remarkably dependable player in his career. He didn’t miss more than 12 games in a season for nine consecutive years starting in 2004; he missed more than 14 games for the first time in his career in 2015, in his 13th season; before 2016 he’d been on the disabled list just once in his entire career. He’s now in his 16th major league season, and though he’s been hit by hamstring and back injuries, it was shaping up as a rebound year, after a lousy, forgettable 2017. Last season he slashed a jarringly terrible .249/.329/.399 in 529 plate appearances; this season, despite missing a month on the disabled list, he was producing a much more recognizable .301/.394/.451, although his dinger count (just three in 155 plate appearances) is way down.
Even a diminished Cabrera is still the face of the Detroit Tigers, with whom he’s won two MVPs and a Triple Crown, and for whom this news truly blows. Injuries are the worst.