In the back corner of the Detroit Tigers’ locker room, the king held court once again. In the long, beautiful, sometimes turbulent career of Miguel Cabrera, it was one of the oddest and most significant moments yet.
The whole air was strange, because Tuesday started with a sense of relief. Cabrera has missed the past two games with a lingering right knee injury, and the fear began setting in: that Cabrera was headed for another major surgery, that he would have a second consecutive season end before summer truly sets in, that perhaps this injury could be the one that wrecks him for good. Cabrera acknowledged he became worried when the pain felt amplified last weekend in Atlanta. He got an MRI and saw four orthopedic surgeons, including James Andrews. The final recommendation, as relayed by Tigers trainer Doug Teter, did not involve surgery. Instead, each doctor concluded it was in Cabrera’s best interest to treat his knee “symptomatically.”
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“Was surgery discussed? Absolutely,” Teter said. “It was discussed with all four, and all four thought it was in his best interests not to go that route at this time.”
This moment, while partially a relief, also serves as another landmark in the graceless, bitter process that is the slow decline of an all-time great. The underlying friction in the room came from the fact Cabrera might effectively be done playing first base. It’s not unusual in baseball — an aging American League slugger confined to the safety of the designated-hitter spot. And even though Cabrera was never known as a fleet-footed, highlight fielder like Ken Griffey Jr. or even Alex Rodriguez, he has always played this game with a prevailing sense of joy, and that joy is best displayed and explored when he is on the field. When he’s playing first base, Cabrera smiles and jokes and plays tricks on the baserunners who stop by. He chats and talks trash to opposing players in different languages. He has said he feels more engaged in the game and better at the plate when he is also in the field.
The Tigers have already been managing Cabrera’s workload carefully this season. His return from a torn biceps surgery last year was always fragile in so many ways, and now Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire says the recommendation is for Cabrera to strictly play DH.
“It doesn’t really change a lot for me, other than now I’m not gonna even think about putting him at first base,” Gardenhire said.
Gardenhire later left that idea a little more open-ended — it’s really all a matter of how Cabrera feels and how his knee responds. But there were moments of reality in the tunnels of Comerica Park on Tuesday, buckets of cold water in between splashes of encouraging news. Asked if this is something Cabrera will have to deal with the rest of his career, Teter nodded his head slowly.
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“Yes,” Teter said.
Standing in front of his locker, Cabrera fielded a question about his new situation — a first baseman who can no longer play first base every day.
“It’s sad,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera smiled and laughed when he said this, because that is his way, joy and turmoil always hard to distinguish from one another.
He continued.
“It’s really sad, you know?” Cabrera said. “It’s something yesterday I was thinking about. It’s sad because I like to be in the field.”
Cabrera seemed to struggle through eight months last year, when that torn biceps essentially limited him to the couch and rehab. This spring, he was thrilled to be back playing, and he talked of a return to prominence, complete with more MVPs and batting titles. And that is precisely why there was a tricky balance here. Cabrera, for now, avoids another span of months away from the game he has known for so long.
“He just loves baseball,” Gardenhire said. “He has a ball coming to the clubhouse and all those things. It’s not about anything other than this kid has done this his whole life. He’s played baseball. He’s put everything into it.”
As Cabrera talked Tuesday, he sounded a little different than the Cabrera who was rejuvenated and so confident in spring training. He seems to be learning and confronting and dealing with the fact he is 36 years old and on the tail end of an illustrious career.
“You’re getting older,” he said. “You can’t stop that. That’s a good thing. When you get older and you’re still in the big leagues, that’s a great thing, too. It’s been 17 years here, so you’ve got to be proud for that.”
In many ways, Cabrera is paying penance for his own greatness, baseball’s twisted way of humanizing even its greatest legends. Cabrera played through a slew of injuries earlier in his career. There’s no way to know if any of that — particularly the groin and foot in 2013 and 2014 — directly contributed to this knee injury. But Teter said the injury is absolutely a result of years of wear and tear.
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“It’s the only advice I can say to young kids: take care of their body when they have to,” Cabrera said. “When they have something, stop playing for one week, come back. Don’t play through pain on something like that, because you’re gonna pay the price later.”
It was a thoughtful thing to hear from Cabrera, and another idea that comes with layers. He is paying now for all that happened then. But all those years of playing hurt also helped make him the future Hall of Famer he is.
If he had it to do over again, would he change the fact he kept playing?
“I mean, no,” Cabrera said. “Because that’s the way I am.”
When the media dispersed Tuesday, Cabrera did what he has always done, perhaps this time with a little more appreciation. He grabbed a bat, and then he headed out to the field. He jogged onto the grass and stretched with his teammates. He saluted the grounds crew and hugged former pitching coach Jeff Jones. He chatted with opposing players, danced behind the batting cage, took pictures with children behind home plate. He took batting practice and seemed to display more power than he does in his usual, clinical BP. He still has only two home runs this year, and though he’s hitting .284, it is all connected in one way or another.
Cabrera, yes, is under contract through 2023, earning more than $30 million per year, with at least one knee that will ache every day. Even on an occasion such as Tuesday, when Cabrera shared good news, there was a stark reminder that greatness fades like all the rest. There is no big fall, no legendary tumble, no sudden ending as majestic as all the hits and home runs. Instead, most things and most careers end and wilt slowly, and damned if that doesn’t make it worse.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
