Cabrera Says He's Ready, Hoping for Good Evaluation on Tuesday

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier 

After taking a wicked hop to the face off a solidly struck Hunter Pence hit, Detroit Tigers Miguel Cabrera feared the worse, not being able to play this season. Once the ball had hit his sunglasses he quickly tossed them aside and according to Brandon Inge, he "started to panic" when he saw the amount of blood coming from his upper cheek.

The Tigers trainer Kevin Rand sprinted to Cabrera to towel off the blood and calm the slugger down as they walked him off the field and into the Joker Marchant Stadium locker room. Once inside the club house the paramedics were called and Cabrera was transported to the nearest hospital to receive stitches and x-rays.

After being stitched up the doctors reviewed the x-rays and determined that Cabrera had suffered a fracture of the orbital floor of his right eye. This injury, while frightening, will not hold Cabrera out for the season and according to those in Lakeland, Fla. with the Tigers it isn't stopping the Tigers third baseman from attempting to get back into games already.

As much as Manager Jim Leyland would have loved to have penciled in Cabrera's name into one of his roster sheets this past week he followed the doctors orders and held Cabrera out of all team activities as to not aggravate his injury.

When he was taken to the hospital last Monday the doctors told Cabrera that he was not to participate in any physical activities with the team for one week and then be reevaluated, Mar. 27, to determine if he was healthy enough to rejoin the team.

If Cabrera would have had any say in things he would have been on the field days ago - with the swelling down Cabrera says he feels fine and wants to get back into the game as soon as he can. The Tigers and Cabrera can only wait and hope that the doctors agree with their slugger and he can trot out onto the field a few more times before heading north.