Replacing Victor Martinez

The Detroit Tigers recently found out that Victor Martinez had suffered an ACL injury, and would likely require surgery. It's a devastating blow to the team, as Victor is one of the Tiger's top offensive threats, and bats behind Miguel Cabrera in the order. He put up a .330/.380/.470 slash line in 2011, hits well form both sides of the plate, and is an all around good guy. One the surface, one would think that it'd be impossible for Detroit to replace Victor Martinez. A switch hitter, who protects your best player in the lineup, and hits for both power and average.

No one player can replace Victor Martinez for the Detroit Tigers, but they do have options to make up a lot of his production. The injury happened at a good time for the Tigers actually. If it happened earlier in the offseason, they wouldn't have signed a big free agent to a long deal, as they need a one year replacement at most. There haven't been any trades of a player who the Tigers would have been interested in as a designated hitter, and the bargain bin options are probably have been their target all along. With names like Johny Damon, Vladimir Guerrero, Hideki Matsui, and Carlos Pena out there among others, they have options. 

It all depends on how they choose to attack the issue. I see three different scenarios: 

1. Sign a full-time DH 
2. Sign a position player and move a defensive liability (read Delmon Young) to DH 
3. Wait until the midseason, and address the problem via trade

Hideki Matsui or Vladimir Guerrero would be options if the Tigers decide to go with option one. I don't like this choice because I like to keep the DH spot open to give guys the day off. I also have doubts about how much players in this class have left in the tank. These players lost too much to play a position years ago, and with no defensive value, and any offensive skills in decline, they aren't wise investments. 

Option two is probably my favorite, as I've seen Delmon Young play defense. Signing Jhonny Damon to play left, or a Carlos Pena/Casey Kotchman to play first while moving the incumbent first baseman Miguel Cabrera to DH would improve the team's defense while regaining some of the offense lost with Victor. Damon, Pena, and Kotchman are all left handed, which also fits the Tigers in that they could platoon with Ryan Raburn. Creating a situation where three of Delmon Young, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Raburn, and the lefty bat would shift between left field, first base, and DH defending on the opposing starting pitcher and who might need a day off. 

Option three isn't a bad option, and comes in as my second choice. The Tigers have enough reserve players that they could move Delmon Young to DH, and form a platoon of Ryan Raburn and Andy Dirks or Don Kelly in left field. Most people probably remember the post season this past year, when the Tigers were struck by injuries and could hardly field an outfield, but if everyone is healthy they do have options in the outfield. If things are working out, with Ryan Raburn coming into form and strides forward from either lefty, they wouldn't have to add someone, but if they needed to, they could start looking to for trade partners in early June. Usually early June is the earliest teams decide they're out of the running and are willing to sell off pieces. It gives the Tigers two months to evaluate what they have, hopefully eliminating the chances of a player having two bad weeks to begin the season and never seeing the field again. 

The main reason that option three wouldn't be my first choice is that I'm a proponent of the, "if you're not getting better, you're getting worse," philosophy. We saw the Reds fall into this trap during last offseason. On the other side of the coin, we see the Yankees contend every year, and try to fill their biggest hole every offseason. The Tigers want to win, they have been open to adding payroll this offseason, evidenced by their interest in Jose Reyes, Aramis Ramirez, and their attempts to add an established starting pitcher. The Tigers should look to add a player, even if the player only represents 1-3 wins above replacement, because Detroit is projected to be within the 85-90 win range, where one win could be the difference in making the playoffs and scheduling an October vacation. They won 95 games last season, but were six wins above their pythagorean expectation, and losing the three wins expected from V-Mart, come in around 86. We've seen in recent years with the Giants and Cardinals, who both got into the playoffs in the final days of the season, that once you get into October, anything can happen. 

Detroit won the American League Central by 15 games last season. This season, it should be much closer. The Tigers haven't done anything to get better, while the loss of Victor makes them worse. Their primary competition in the division in 2012 should be Kansas City and Cleveland. Kansas City added pitching in the form of Jonathan Broxton and Jonathan Sanchez. They're also looking for their group of extremely young but extremely talented players to develop and take a step forward at the Major Leauge level. The Indians only addition was Derek Lowe, but they're hoping Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, and Shin-Soo Choo all bounce back from injury, and are still actively pursuing another corner bat. It's on of the two weakest divisions in baseball, and any team getting above .500 has a chance, but Detroit should still be the favorite going into the season.