Miguel Cabrera
The Detroit News headline puts it best: "With reported contract extension, Miguel Cabrera poised to retire a Tiger."
The News and multiple sports media report that Cabrera, 30, accepts a record 10-year contract that would give him nearly $300 million. The contract is expected to be announced today.
Lynn Henning of The News writes:
Five days after announcing, with scarcely concealed bitterness, they had lost their bid to extend Max Scherzer’s tenure in Detroit, the Tigers were prepared to announce that their hitting demigod, Miguel Cabrera, will play the remainder of his career at Comerica Park.
CBSsports.com’s Jon Heyman first reported news of Cabrera’s contract that is expected to extend through 2023 and award the most extraordinary Tigers hitter of the modern era nearly $300 million, which includes $44 million through the 2015 season. The reports were confirmed by multiple national outlets, including Jon Paul Morosi and Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com.
Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press Free Press notes that not everyone saw the wisdom in signing the long-term contract, including ESPN baseball analyst Keith Law, who said:
“Cabrera had two seasons to go to free agency, and the Tigers could just as easily have taken care of this next winter, perhaps after making sure that Miggy stays healthy through the whole season. The leverage wouldn’t have shifted; Cabrera would have been a year closer to free agency but a year older and perhaps a year heavier, too.”
