Dombrowski Adds Little to Cabrera Story

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski addressed the media in Lakeland today regarding the Miguel Cabrera arrest. Here are the highlights as tweeted by MLive’s Steve Kornacki.

Dombrowski: “I was completely shocked. I had no idea. I didn’t think there was a problem there.”Dombrowski on Tigers 1B Cabrera after DUI: “He was down…He feels bad and is apologetic.”

Dombrowski went on to discuss the possibility of Cabrera reporting to camp.

“Oh, yeah, he’ll be here. We fully support him on trying to get help in this situation.”

Dombrowski added that Cabrera is at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., and wants to be in camp Friday. Dombrowski is unsure when he will arrive, however.

Dombrowski said pretty much exactly what we could have expected him to say; pretty much what the players who have comments thus far have said. He was as shocked as anyone to learn of the incident. So far there hasn’t been anyone who has come forward and said that they had suspected that Cabrera had relapsed into his old habits.

Major League Baseball does not have a personal conduct policy to speak of and it doesn’t sound like the Tigers plan to suspend the player, either. Cabrera, I’m sure, would like to get to camp as soon as possible in order to begin dealing with the publicity and try to move past this as soon as possible.

From the sounds of things so far, it doesn’t appear that this incident will impact his availability for Spring Training games, much less Opening Day. That said, there’s a lot that needs to be worked out by Cabrera and the Tigers. How they proceed as far as additional counseling or even a rehab program will tell a much larger part of the story than anything Dombrowski offered today.

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