Tigers Won't Shut Down Miggy After Injury: 'The Guy Wants To Play'

The Tigers had to be holding their breath when Miguel Cabrera left Tuesday night's game with pain in his left biceps. They'd seen that movie before. 

It ended with Cabrera missing most of the 2018 season. 

The injury this time proved to be far less serious -- just a strain. Cabrera, who took batting practice on Thursday, is ready to return to action this weekend. 

Still, considering his history, and the fact the Tigers are doing everything they can to preserve his long-term health, it's fair to wonder if they thought about shutting Cabrera down for the rest of the season. 

"No, not at all," Ron Gardenhire told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. "Miggy is a competitor and the guy wants to play. He's just got a little soreness in his bicep. We'll just let him have a day or two and see how he feels.

"We're not going to shut Miggy down. He wants to play baseball, he wants to be out there with these guys. He'll be just fine. He just strained himself a little bit, and he'll go back in there in another day or two." 

The injury last year was a ruptured biceps, which required surgery and extensive rehab. Cabrera admitted he didn't feel like himself in spring training, and he's rarely looked like himself this season. (Of course, several factors have contibuted to that.) 

Fortunately for Cabrera and the Tigers, there doesn't to be any overlap with his injury Tuesday night. 

Miguel Cabrera told Ron Gardenhire after the game that he felt fine, just a little tightness in the bicep and not in the same place where he suffered the tear in 2018.

So Cabrera, who's hitting .279 with a .729 OPS this season, will keep on swinging as the Tigers head for the finish. 

Other highlights from Gardenhire's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:

Is he excited for next season: "Well, you're going to have some experience with these kids. Who knows what the team is going to look like next year, but the good thing is these guys are going to have some experience underneath them. If we can just get a healthy team out of spring training it could be fun, because these players are going to have a little bit better knowledge about the game and know what to expect. It could be fun for next year. We're seeing some pretty good things from some of these young players right now, and this is valuable for them. They're going through the tough times of learning against major league pitching and really good teams that we're playing, and hopefully next year it'll be a little bit easier for us all."

Has he like what he's seen from Willi Castro: "Fun kid. He's going to be good. He's got talent and he's got all those things we were hoping he had. He's going to learn, he's going to see a lot of good pitching here for the last month and get some valuable experience. We're working defensively with him right now, throwing the ball and things like that, doing a lot of drills out there pretty much every day about controlling the baseball and slowing things down. He's going to be fine. Talented kid, very excited. He can swing it, I know that. I've seen his approach and everything is good at the plate. He's a good-looking player. Whether he can play every day at shortstop, that's what we're going to find out. We're going to get a small sample size here the last month of the season, but he's a talented kid."

What adjustments does Jake Rogers need to make at the plate: "This league is pretty good as far as seeing what a guy can and can't do, or the weaknesses of him. His swing plane, we all see, he's got a lift swing and he can hit the ball a long ways. We saw that early. But these guys figure it out pretty quick in the big leagues, and they're spinning him an awful lot and throwing the ball on the outer half of the plate. He has to make some adjustments. We talked to him about it and he's working on it now. He has to catch up to the league. They're going to catch up to you, I can promise you that. If they find a weakness, they're just going to keep attacking it. There's so much video and so many reports out there now that it goes from team to team, and that's kind of where he's. He's striking out an awful lot, they've figured him out, and now he has to try to figure out the league and how he can get better.