OT: Victor Martinez missing 2012 season

Submitted by ixcuincle on

Sucks for Tigers fans. :( 

 

http://twitter.com/beckjason/statuses/159370257713213441

#Tigers announce Victor Martinez has suffered torn ACL. Surgery would likely sideline him for the season.

http://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/statuses/159370940751421440

surgery on left knee is anticipated for v-mart, team says. if it is required as believed, he will likely miss '12 season. #tigers

Benoit Balls

January 17th, 2012 at 4:27 PM ^

as a Tribe fan, I always loved Victor. The day he got traded I was as sad as I have ever been as far as professional sports are concerned. He loved Cleveland and is a phenomenal guy by all accounts as well.

On the bright side, that's good news for the Tribe. (/ducks)

ChopBlock

January 17th, 2012 at 5:24 PM ^

Victor to me was the heart and soul of the Tribe, and I think that he woulda re-signed for less money. Crying at a presser? Who does that, unless they genuinely love the city and the team? I still root for him every time he comes up to bat.

 

MAgoBLUE

January 17th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^

I'm a Red Sox fan and even though V-Mart didn't play for us for very long, he was my favorite player on that team.  He's just a gamer and an excellent clubhouse guy.  This bums me out, man.  Big loss for the Tigers.

LSAClassOf2000

January 17th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^

They were playing snippets of the Dombrowski presser regarding V-Mart's injury, and I wonder if it might be feasible to try to squeeze another year out of Vladimir Guererro or go out and find a mid-range position player (like a David Wright, if you can find a player to balance out the salary). Dombrowski was pretty clear about not being able to pony up for another $20-million player, so it does limit the field a little bit. I think this also should cue the Tigers to redouble their efforts to get Cespedes. 

Yinka Double Dare

January 17th, 2012 at 5:15 PM ^

Not helpful in terms of winning a World Series, but the Central is truly awful.  The Indians were lucky last year and are more like how they played in the second half (a below-.500 team), the Royals are a year away I think, the Twins lost some of their bats and I'm not sure Morneau's ever going to be right again and their rotation still kinda sucks, and the White Sox need Dunn and Rios to bounce back to be decent, which is to say they're pretty unlikely to be decent.  Frankly, the Tigers could win 86 and still take the division. 

jethro34

January 17th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^

There's absolutely no way to replace the value of Martinez, but the Tigers have to make some moves for sure.  Moving Young to DH is the obvious solution.  Personally, I think the next move after that should be to sign Juan Pierre.  He bats left, plays LF, has more range and is a better fielder than Young (though not one you would accidentally award a gold glove to), and even at age 34 still would be the best lead-off hitter the team has.  He could certainly teach Austin Jackson a lot, not only because of his approach to baserunning but also because he has more walks than strikeouts for his career.  So you put him at leadoff, have Young in the V-Mart slot, and drop Jackson to 8th.

While their signing veterans, I think they should make a 2 year offer to Roy Oswalt.  Yeah, he's a 5th righty, but could have the influence Kenny Rogers had a few years back.  I think a solidified 5 man rotation and a better leadoff guy change the team to make it different to help make up for the loss of V-Mart.  If the team then performs well enough to return to the postseason and V-Mart makes it back by then, they just have more flexibility for the postseason roster.  I also hope Castellanos is ready for a September callup, if not sooner.