Tigers place J.D. Martinez on disabled list
By Jimmy Longo
As the Tigers look to break spring training this weekend, they’ll do so without the services of outfielder J.D. Martinez, who’s headed to the disabled list.
Spring training games seem to be a mix recently of injuries waiting to happen versus teams coming out unscathed and ready to go. Players tweak previous injuries or develop freak ones while playing. Nonetheless, they’re part of the game and are naturally bound to happen. For J.D. Martinez, that has become the case, as he was placed on Friday with what the Tigers are calling a “right mid-foot sprain”.
Martinez suffered the apparent injury on Mar. 18, sliding for a catch while playing right field, and coming up limping. An MRI a week later revealed that he had sprained the lisfranc ligament in his foot.
The move to the disabled list is retroactive to Thursday, and — if healthy enough — Martinez will be able to come off the DL on Apr. 9, which would only put him out the first six games or so. But that doesn’t appear to be in the cards and it’s reported that Martinez will need approximately three-four weeks of recovery time before heading back to the middle of the Tigers lineup.
After struggling in the early stages of his career with the Houston Astros, Martinez has enjoyed a nice little renaissance over his time in Detroit. Benefitting from hitting behind Miguel Cabrera every game might have done the trick while taking advantage of Cabrera’s baseball mind might have more to do with it as well.
Going forward, Martinez’ injury will certainly be something to watch for, as the slugger is coming off a season in which he missed 42 games. A full season-sized sample for Martinez came in 2015, when the right-hander hit .282 with 38 home runs and 102 RBI.