Prince Fielder is the off-season’s No. 1 issue for the Tigers, Lynn Henning reports in the Detroit News.
His numbers were, by Fielder standards, mediocre even before he all but disappeared in the post-season. His and the Tigers’ issues, beyond the $168 million yet owed him through 2020, are multi-faceted.
A man’s already enormous heft added even more weight in 2013. It seemed not a coincidence that Fielder was being beaten badly by fastballs as his problems mounted. Those problems included off-the-field issues, heaviest of which is a divorce.
Tigers fans are already targeting him. And the divide will grow worse, perhaps untenably so, if Fielder does not hash out the physical and psychological handcuffs that are plainly at work. It will take a serious off-season effort to turn around a hitter who is only 29 and whose remaining paychecks almost match what the Ilitch family spent on Comerica Park.
Fielder’s agent, Scott Boras, might need to team with the Tigers in realigning Fielder. With his gigantic contract, he is virtually impossible to trade.
