Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his left biceps tendon.
Cabrera left in the bottom of the third inning Tuesday night against the Twins, with what the team initially said was a left biceps tendon strain. An MRI later on determined it was ruptured and his season was finished. Cabrera, 35, will have season-ending surgery later this week.
“He feels bad, he feels really bad,” Tigers’ Manager, Ron Gardenhire said. “He feels like he’s letting people down.”
Cabrera suffered the injury when he swung awkwardly at Jake Odorizzi’s slider. He immediately walked toward the Tigers’ dugout with his left arm hanging at his side. When he was joined by team trainers, Cabrera gestured to his biceps and continued walking into the Detroit clubhouse.
Cabrera has played through numerous lower-body injuries in the past few years, even while winning a Triple Crown, two MVP awards and four batting titles, but it started to catch up with him in 2017. He played 130 games, but hit a career-worst .249 with 16 homers.
This year, he missed three games with spasms in the same biceps tendon that ruptured Tuesday, then was out for 26 games with a hamstring strain and back tightness. He returned on June 1, hitting .244 with no home runs and one RBI in 12 games before the latest injury.