The Day the Offseason Really Started

It may be difficult and painful to extract from our collective memories, especially with all that has happened this offseason to the roster, but there are some issues of major importance that occurred on The Day the Offseason Really Started.  That day was October 2, 2009.  Miguel Cabrera, knowingly or not, sold out the Tigers' chance at the postseason, disrupted what had been thought of as a solid clubhouse chemistry, and defamed the concept of 'team' right before the biggest week for this baseball club last year. 

It is plausible that this singular event trapped the Tigers in a way.  Without a playoff appearance, they lose playoff revenue.  Without playoff revenue, but being that close to a playoff appearance, they are forced into a mode of improving the club while reducing salary.  In order to balance those two extremely delicate constraints, they make moves to attempt to improve (acquiring high quality available pitching talent) while reducing salary in a productive way (skimming high-dollar proven leadership through trade and free agency while trusting unproven youth to key positions).

However, the move they could not make was to trade the one player whose very presence on the roster paradoxically throws the entire offseason formula out of balance.  Miguel Cabrera is paid the team's highest salary.  He carries the strongest and most productive bat in the lineup.  His personal demons directly contaminate the winning formula needed for postseason glory.  And as a result, the clubhouse is left without a leader who takes the field in every one of the 162 games they will play.  "Curtis Granderson: Detroit Tiger" may just be a casualty of Miguel Cabrera's carelessness.  Justin Verlander will need to be ace stud pitcher 35 games this year, and ace stud cheerleader for the other 127.  Maybe this is the value of a Jose Valverde - an excitable clubhouse leader who the players can get behind.  Whoever it is, the team needs to rally around one of their own. 

Because of the events of October 2, 2009, and until it's proven otherwise, Miguel Cabrera is not truly one of their own.  He sold the team out in its time to shine, leaving only a shadow of what could have been.  The real question for 2010 is not "who will step in for Curtis Granderson on the field?"  The question is whether Cabrera is willing to be a member of this team, or a highly paid pariah that forces Justin Verlander to think twice about what team he is willing to commit to once he has that choice.