There were two moments in the Tigers' 11-7 loss to Red Sox on Tuesday that were hard to come to grips with.
Both involved Miguel Cabrera.
The first came with the Tigers surging in the sixth inning, bringing Cabrera to the plate as the tying run. For those who hadn't been paying attention to the 2021 baseball season, it might seem like the perfect guy at the perfect time.
The 10-pitch at-bat resulted in Matt Andriese striking out Cabrera on a full-count changeup.
The next instance was in the eighth, with the Tigers' designated hitter once again representing the potential tying run with one out and the bases loaded. It took two pitches this time for Cabrera to end the rally, grounding into a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play.
In both cases, there was no temptation to pitch around or even walk Cabrera. Why bother? The guy who has a Triple Crown to his name, claimed back-to-back American League MVP's and owns 489 home runs is currently one of the easiest outs in baseball.
Cabrera has just six hits in 57 at-bats this season (.105), managing five RBI while striking out 21 times. While the guy he went toe-to-toe with for those MVP awards, Mike Trout, sits atop baseball with the best batting average, the Tigers DH owns the second-worst.
We've seen a struggling Cabrera before. During the 2013 American League Championship Series a hip injury limited him to one homer and five singles in Detroit's six games against the Red Sox, with then-Boston manager John Farrell bringing in Junichi Tazawa to pound the slugger with outside fastballs at key moments.
But it was nothing close to this.
Truth be told, Cabrera hasn't been a true middle-of-the-order threat since 2016, totaling a .260 average and .734 OPS with 43 home runs over the past four-plus seasons. He's getting paid $30 million this season, with two more years (at $32 million each) left after 2021.
Since 2010, Cabrera has hit either third or fourth in 1,418 games. Below that? There have been a grand total of 11 plate appearances. When asked about a possible lineup switch a few days ago, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said no one else in the team's struggling offense was worthy of moving up.
"There is great respect that comes with somebody like Miggy, and you want to optimize your lineup, but right now, there's not that pressure to have those types of difficult conversations," he said. "There's no need right now to talk about it."
Sorry, it is probably time for that uncomfortable conversation. Nobody likes to see this sort of regression take place, but it does and it is. And it's sad.
