DETROIT -- An injury has ended the season for a 10-year veteran, and a strong season it was: .301 batting average, .351 on-base percentage, 54 extra-base hits, 81 runs. He is 30 years old and a switch hitter, and he will have suitors.
But the extent of the market for Melky Cabrera, who suffered a finger injury Friday and will miss the last three weeks, may be largely defined by what has happened in the past rather than what he did in 2014.
Club executives speak privately of the guessing game they must play when a player has a history of using performance-enhancing drugs, and Cabrera, of course, was suspended in 2012 after testing positive while with the San Francisco Giants.
He managed to get a two-year, $16 million deal from the Blue Jays that offseason, and he'll probably do better than that this time around.