Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera inching closer to return

When we last saw Miguel Cabrera, he was limping off the field on July 3 in an 8-6 victory for the Detroit Tigers over the Toronto Blue Jays. We may once again be seeing the future Hall-of-Famer in the Tigers’ lineup very soon.

While he has been doing light hitting and infield practice the last couple weeks, the final barrier to a comeback for Miggy is to run the bases. The Tigers announced, prior to Sunday’s game with the Boston Red Sox, that this will take place on Tuesday in Kansas City prior to the second game of a three-game series with the Royals.

He will also take live batting practice on that day.

Next week would be the sixth week of the original 6-8 week recovery timetable given to Cabrera’s Grade 3 strain suffered while running from first to second base on a hit and run. Miggy acknowledged last week that he was feeling good and could have possibly sped up the recovery time to be back in the sixth week if the Tigers were more directly involved in the playoff chase.

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The Tigers have been three to four games out of a playoff spot for most of the second-half (but with four teams in front of them for the final wild-card spot) which promoted them to sell numerous key pieces at last month’s trading deadline. This made the decision easy to slow up his recovery process.

After Kansas City, Detroit heads to Houston and then Chicago to face the Cubs before returning home on August 20 for a four-game series with the Texas Rangers.

If all goes well on Tuesday, Miggy could be in the lineup at Comerica Park to face pal and ex-teammate Prince Fielder for the first time since the November 2013 trade.

That would be a fun game to be at.

Next: 5 Free Agents the Tigers should pursue