Miguel Cabrera is headed to the DL after suffering a groin injury. What is the fantasy impact for the Tigers and fantasy owners?
Friday was a house of horrors in terms of fantasy baseball, as multiple star players were injured. Tigers’ star Miguel Cabrera, joins Madison Bumgarner as the two new most high profiled attendees to the DL list this season. What is the fantasy fallout moving forward?
Cabrera is undoubtedly a fantasy behemoth and will go down as one of the best fantasy producers to ever play the game. With over 2000 games played under his belt since he debuted as a 20-year-old, Cabrera has been on the field more times than not in his career. But, Cabrera seemingly tweaked his groin stretching for a ball at first against the Twins on a routine play.
Now 34, lower half injuries have methodically become an issue for him the last few seasons. Even with that in mind, fantasy owners picked Miggy in the early rounds this season because of the reliability of his production. Fantasy owners and the Tigers alike will hope that that the DL stint only lasts ten days, as even though he got off to average .268/3 HR/9 RBI start in 2017, he is still one of the best hitters in the game.
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In terms of the impact for the Tigers, it is pretty clear. They now are without Cabrera, Jose Iglesias, and J.D. Martinez, offering them a shell of the lineup that they thought they would have. Victor Martinez is off to a pedestrian start as well, so it is not a surprise to see them struggling at the moment.
They team recalled John Hicks today, a catcher/first baseman who has bounced around a few teams in the minors. He has decent bat skill, he is off to a blistering start in the minors and is a career .288 hitter, but he will surely be platooned.
Hicks can be ignored in fantasy and it is obvious that no one on the waiver wire can match Miggy’s production rates. But, the good thing is that there are plenty of first basemen or CI available on the waiver wire.
Over the last two weeks, there has not been a hotter hitter than Yuli Gurriel from the Astros. He is hitting .438 over that span, with a homer and four RBI. The Astros are rolling and have a deep lineup so Gurriel could be a great add moving forward regardless and even more so now as a Cabrera replacement.
Jedd Gyorko seems to be heating up at the plate as well, notching 3 HR/5 RBI over the last two weeks. We have seen what he can do if he heats up at the plate, so if he is available, make the move. For those in deeper leagues, you could even give Yonder Alonso a look now that he is hitting more fly balls than he has ever before.
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Losing Miguel Cabrera sucks for the Tigers and fantasy baseball owners. Hopefully, the groin injury was just a twinge and he can get right back to mashing soon. But, in the meantime, fantasy owners should jump on one of the hot hitters on the wire and ride them till Miggy’s return.