Hours before the first pitch of the American League Championship Series, the Tigers announced that their hottest hitter during the American League Divisional Series, Delmon Young, will not be on the roster vs. the Texas Rangers. Utility infielder Danny Worth will replace him.
Delmon Young, who hit three solo homers and .316/.381/1.170 vs. the Yankees, was left off of the roster due to a mild left oblique injury. As of Friday, Young was going to test the injury, but ultimately the Tigers decided to take precautions and use Young’s roster spot on Worth, hopefully resting Young enough to have him fully healthy for the World Series, should the Tigers make it.
Of course, a big bat that could’ve helped propel the Tigers into the World Series will now be missing in the lineup. In addition to Young’s historically hot start to the playoffs, he is a career .321/.358/.897 hitter with eight home runs and 36 runs batted in vs. the Rangers over 42 games.
With Young out, the Tigers will need another bat to step up. The common misconception is that this bat will be Ryan Raburn’s, but his bat (which is hitting .423/.464/1.080 in eight games vs. Texas this year and has a career 1.151 OPS vs. them in 22 career games) was already going to be in the lineup with a healthy Young seeing as the Rangers have three lefty starters. It’s not Raburn who will have to step up in place of Young, it’s actually whoever will replace Raburn at 2B while he moves to LF to replace Young, like Ramon Santiago (who is hitting .077 vs. Rangers’ LHPs this season) or Danny Worth (.333/.400/.844 with three RBI in four games vs. Rangers this year). Leyland is going with Santiago in Game 1.
Young’s injury is also affecting the rest of the lineup, as Leyland has decided to move Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez up to three and four, respectively. Cabrerea has been the Tigers four hitter since being traded from the Marlins in 2007 and Martinez has hit behind him all this season. Despite the clamoring from most Tigers fans to move Cabrera up to the three hole, Cabrera is actually worse as a three hitter than he is a four hitter — a .305/.386/.924 three hitter compared to a .331/.410/.990 career line as a four hitter. Martinez has been much better as a five hitter in his career, as well — .321/.381/.877 as a five hitter vs. .298/.368/.844 as a four hitter, where he has hit most of his career.
There’s no sugarcoating it, Young’s injury is a major bummer to the Tigers’ lineup. However, at the same time, this will be the Tigers’ 6th different lineup in six playoff games, so if there’s any team that can adjust to the loss of Young, it’s certainly the Tigers.
