Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Baez is doing what he can for his home of Puerto Rico as the island deals with the destruction of Hurricane Fiona.

With many without power and the ability to cook or refrigerate food, TMZ Sports noted Baez offered free food at his restaurant, Taquiza, and said: "I know we're going through something very difficult. I'm with you."

Elizabeth Wolfe, Holly Yan and Melissa Alonso of CNN reported emergency crews rescued approximately 1,000 people by Monday.

More than 1.4 million people were also without power, and devastating flooding caused plenty of damage across the island.

President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in an effort to facilitate federal assistance for Puerto Rico.

As for Baez, he has represented Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in the past and committed to the team earlier this month for the 2023 tournament.

The Detroit Tigers will reportedly hire Scott Harris as the team's newest president of baseball operations, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Harris has spent the past three seasons as the general manager of the San Francisco Giants.

Al Avila had been the Tigers' executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager for seven years before being fired in August. Detroit has already been eliminated from the playoffs and entered Monday with a 55-91 record, fourth-worst in the majors.

It will be the seventh straight year without a playoff appearance for the Tigers, who haven't had a winning record since 2016.

Harris will try to turn things around after some up-and-down seasons in San Francisco.

The Giants missed the playoffs in 2020 and are just 69-77 in 2022, but the team had the best record in baseball last year at 107-55. Several unheralded additions like Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Darin Ruf and LaMonte Wade Jr. helped key the surprising success.

Prior to his time in San Francisco, Harris spent seven years with the Chicago Cubs and was in the front office during the team's World Series run in 2016. He ended his time with the team as the assistant general manager under GM Jed Hoyer and team president Theo Epstein.

The fast-rising executive will now look to turn around a Tigers franchise that has struggled at the major league level and has just one prospect (Jackson Jobe) ranked inside the top 50 across baseball, per MLB.com.

The Detroit Tigers announced Sunday that they placed designated hitter Miguel Cabrera on 10-day injured list with a biceps strain and called up infielder Josh Lester from Triple-A Toledo.

Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic reported Saturday night that Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the team hoped to have the future Hall of Famer back in 10-14 days.

Cabrera is one of the most decorated players of his generation, with 12 All-Star appearances, four American League batting titles, two AL MVP awards and a World Series title with the Florida Marlins in 2003.

The 39-year-old compiled a mediocre .701 OPS during the 2021 season. He's posted .256 average with four homers in 102 games in 2022, but he enjoyed a landmark moment when he recorded his 3,000th hit in April.

While the Venezuela native was highly durable for the vast majority of his career, injuries have started to become a bigger factor in recent years. He last played over 140 games in 2016, with his most extended absence coming in 2018 when he was limited to 38 games with a ruptured biceps tendon.

Last season, Cabrera missed 32 games, including time spent on the injured list with a biceps strain.

Detroit will likely use a committee approach to fill the void at designated hitter. Eric Haase, Kody Clemens and Willi Castro lead the club's reserve options.

Cabrera landing on the IL doesn't do much to impact the Tigers' outlook for the remainder of the season since they are last in the AL Central with a 51-82 record, but it could impact home attendance since seeing Cabrera at the tail end of his career is one of Detroit's biggest draws, although he plans to play next season.

The Detroit Tigers announced Wednesday that they have "parted ways" with executive vice president and general manager Al Avila, who spent nearly 22 years with the organization.

"Once I decided to make a change, I sat down with Al and thanked him for his nearly 22 years of service to our organization," Tigers chairman and CEO Christopher Ilitch said in a statement. "Al's loyalty and dedication has served as an example to all during his time as a leader in our baseball operations department.

"I will oversee the search process for our next baseball operations leader, in collaboration with several members of our baseball and business operations executive teams."

Ilitch added:

"I want to re-establish our momentum and progress towards building a winning team and I am driven to find a talented executive to help us do that. They'll be entering an organization with many foundational elements in place and an exciting path forward. Tigers fans deserve winning teams, and I'm highly focused and committed to deliver that to the people of Detroit and Michigan. With new baseball operations leadership will come a fresh perspective toward evolving our roster and maximizing our talent to reach our objectives. To be clear, our goals are to build a team that wins on a sustainable basis, qualifies for the playoffs, and ultimately wins the World Series."

The Tigers hired Avila as assistant general manager and vice president in April 2002. In August 2015, he was promoted to general manager and executive vice president after the club released Dave Dombrowski.

Avila said in a statement:

"For nearly 22 years, I have given my heart and soul to this franchise, and I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch, along with Chris, for the opportunity and treating me and my family as their own. We've celebrated successes and enjoyed great moments, and I'm proud to have worked with so many talented people in baseball operations and throughout the organization.

"I'll cherish our friendships and the successes we all celebrated together. To Tigers fans, you're the best and you deserve a winner. I wish the results would have been better this season but know there is a lot to look forward to in the coming years. God bless everyone."

Since Avila officially took over in 2015, the Tigers have not made the postseason, finishing only one campaign (2016) above .500.

The Tigers entered into a rebuild in 2017, trading J.D. Martinez, Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, Justin Wilson and Alex Avila midseason.

With the rebuild in full swing, Detroit hired Ron Gardenhire to replace Brad Ausmus in October 2017. After going 64-98 in 2018, the club went on to have a disastrous 2019 campaign, finishing last in the AL Central with a 47-114 record. Detroit hadn't lost more than 100 games since the 2003 season.

Gardenhire remained as the club's manager through most of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but he stepped down because of health reasons in late September. Lloyd McClendon took over on an interim basis before being replaced by A.J. Hinch in 2021, and the team finished third in the division.

That brings us to 2022, with the Tigers once again sitting at last place in the AL Central with a 43-68 record despite landing two of the best free agents on the market over the winter in Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez.

However, Báez, along with nearly every other player on the Detroit roster, has underperformed, and Rodriguez has stepped away from the team because of personal reasons, though he is expected to return this month.

The Tigers did see some solid prospects graduate from their minor league system over the 2021 and '22 seasons in Spencer Torkelson, Riley Green, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Matt Manning.

With those promotions, the Tigers have the 24th-ranked prospect pool in MLB, per ESPN's post-trade-deadline rankings. Now the franchise's next general manager will be tasked with not only building up the club's prospect pool but also fielding a contending team.

One of the greatest baseball players of his generation is coming back for a 21st season.

Miguel Cabrera revealed Friday to Chris McCosky of The Detroit News that he will return to the Detroit Tigers for the 2023 season.

"No way am I going to quit…Next year I’m going to be right here," Cabrera said.

This has seemingly been the plan for some time for Cabrera, who previously said he planned to play through the 2023 campaign.

"My right knee is really bad," Cabrera told ESPN's Sage Steele in August 2021 (h/t Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press) . "I need to take care of this in the offseason and prepare myself for next season. I say two more years. I think that's enough. I will be happy with 20 years in the big leagues if I can make it. Thank God for giving me this opportunity. Two more years and I'm done."

Retiring after 2023 makes sense from a timing perspective considering he is under contract through that season with mutual options for 2024 and 2025. He will make $32 million in what figures to be his final season at 40 years old.

Yet things seemed to change some during the 2022 season.

"I don't feel well right now," he said in August, per Petzold. "I'm trying to do whatever I can to go out there and play, but I don't feel really good right now."

Cabrera also said he planned on discussing his status with his agent, Tigers general manager Al Avila and "everybody" before he decided on retiring or returning for the 2023 campaign.

There also seemed to be a ceremonial passing of the torch to the next generation in July when he and Albert Pujols were named to the All-Star Game. The league even called the two legendary players "special All-Star selections" in its announcement, and the entire thing took on the feeling of a goodbye to two players who would be retiring.

Throw in the fact that Cabrera recorded the 3,000th hit of his career during an April game against the Colorado Rockies, and there wasn't much left to achieve.

He became the seventh player in league history with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, joining a list of all-time greats in Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.

Perhaps a retirement would have been natural after all that, but he will look to add to a resume that includes a World Series title, two American League MVPs, a Triple Crown, seven Silver Sluggers, four batting titles and 12 All-Star selections.

The championship came in 2003 as a member of the Miami Marlins when he was a rookie in the first of five seasons with the National League team. The final four of them were All-Star campaigns, although Miami traded him to the Tigers ahead of the 2008 season.

He became the face of the Tigers during the next 15 years with back-to-back MVPs in 2012 and 2013, a World Series appearance and a Triple Crown. The Triple Crown came in his first MVP season when he finished with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI for a team that lost to the San Francisco Giants in the Fall Classic.

It will all be enough for an all-but-guaranteed spot in the Hall of Fame once he hangs up the cleats, but that will apparently be on hold through at least the upcoming season.

At 39 years old, Miguel Cabrera's career in Major League Baseball is undoubtedly winding down, and the Detroit Tigers veteran is unsure if he'll return for the 2023 season or retire.

Cabrera intends to meet with his agent, Tigers general manager Al Avila and others before making a decision about his status for 2023.

"I don't feel well right now," Cabrera told reporters Thursday. "I'm trying to do whatever I can to go out there and play, but I don't feel really good right now."

Cabrera is set to earn $32 million with the Tigers in 2023, which is the final year of his contract.

The Venezuelan was diagnosed with a chronic right knee injury in 2019. At the time, he consulted four surgeons, but surgery was not recommended and he has been trying to manage the ailment since.

That management resulted in Cabrera shifting from first base to designated hitter, but he's still been experiencing issues with his knee, especially of late. Since July 8, the veteran is hitting just .132/.231/.206 with one home run and five RBI in 20 games.

For comparison, from April 8 through July 6, Cabrera was hitting .308/.347/.372 with three home runs and 31 RBI in 70 games.

With his production having plummeted, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch recently told reporters that he was going to try to give Cabrera some extra days off here and there.

"I've talked to him about playing time moving forward and trying to get him a few more regularly scheduled days off," Hinch said. "We want to take some at-bats and give them to some guys. I may sprinkle in a few more off days and be careful with him."

Hinch also mentioned that Cabrera has been "fighting" through the pain and that it's something the team has been monitoring.

Detroit is fourth in the AL Central with a 42-64 record. With no chance to make the playoffs, per FanGraphs, it would be wise to give Cabrera some much-needed rest.

If the star slugger's career comes to an end after the 2022 campaign, he'll undoubtedly be a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Cabrera has spent the last 15 seasons of his career in Detroit after beginning his career with the then-Florida Marlins from 2003-07.

In five seasons with the Marlins, he was a four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and helped the club capture the 2003 World Series title.

Since joining the Tigers, he has been selected to eight All-Star games, including seven straight from 2010-16, was named MVP in back-to-back seasons in 2012 and 2013 and has earned five Silver Slugger awards.

In addition, Cabrera won the Triple Crown in 2012, which, at the time, was baseball's first in 45 years. He has also won the Batting Title four times, including three straight from 2011-13, with the fourth coming in 2015.

In 20 seasons, he is hitting .309/.385/.526 with 3,074 hits, 506 home runs and 1,840 RBI. He is one of 33 players in MLB history to have reached 3,000 hits and one of 28 players to have hit 500 home runs.

While sitting in last place in the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers appear to be willing to tear down their roster in hopes of building toward the future.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported Tuesday that the Tigers are indicating to teams "just about everyone is available" ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, including promising young starting pitcher Tarik Skubal.

Skubal has been one of the few bright spots in a dismal season for Detroit. Through 19 starts, he has a 7-8 record with a 3.88 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 106.2 innings.

The 25-year-old started the year with a 5-2 record and 2.33 ERA in his first 11 starts. He stumbled with losses in his next five outings before bouncing back in his last three appearances. Skubal will be back on the mound Wednesday for the Tigers' series finale against the San Diego Padres.

Skubal is under club control through 2026 and is over a year away from salary arbitration. Rosenthal added that he's heard speculation that the Tigers "are trying to be opportunistic and extract a big return for Skubal" from teams that don't land more proven starters prior to the trade deadline.

Detroit improved to 39-58 with a 12-4 win over San Diego on Monday. It was the team's third win in its last 10 games. Entering Tuesday, the Tigers averaged a major league-low 3.22 runs per game. The team's pitching hasn't been much better, ranking 21st in the majors with an ERA of 4.17.

Moving Skubal would likely garner a strong package of prospects, so teams might not be willing to meet Detroit's asking price. However, the Tigers have a slew of relievers they can deal, including two-time All-Star closer Gregory Soto.