Tigers utilityman Niko Goodrum has been diagnosed with an adductor strain, as Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reports. He’ll require at least a ten-day to two-week layoff, which puts the remainder of his season in jeopardy.
Fortunately, the strain doesn’t appear to be serious, so there’s no reason to believe Goodrum’s offseason program will be impacted. It is still possible that he will recover quicker than expected and have enough time to ramp up to a return. But the lack of minor-league rehab opportunities won’t help, and there’s not much upside to forcing the issue for the cellar-dwelling Tigers.
Goodrum has been one of the more effective players on the Tigers roster this year. He has plugged gaps wherever need in the field, logging time at every position except the battery spots and seeing significant action in the middle infield, corner outfield, and first base.
On the offensive side of the spectrum, Goodrum’s chief asset has been his legs. He has graded as one of the most valuable baserunners in the sport in 2019. At the plate, he’s slashing a slightly below-average .248/.322/.421. If he can trim back the strikeouts and continue to boost his walk rate, Goodrum might conceivably tick up a bit further offensively.
While he’s not exactly a budding star, Goodrum has established himself as a solid MLB piece over the past two seasons. The 27-year-old could be discussed in trade talks over the winter, not that the Detroit organization has any urgency to move him. Goodrum will have 2.031 years of MLB service when the current season ends, meaning he’ll be shy of qualifying for arbitration. With cheap control rights and ample defensive flexibility, he’s a useful player for the Tigers with a bit of upside to boot.
It seems most of the baseball public view the Tigers as a development team for the rest of MLB. When a player has any positive attributes, his destiny will be that he’s traded away and not used as part of the new Tigers. It works for me that DET has the fastest 1B ever, at least since Rod Carew.
who’s that?
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The Late Al Avila and his Dollar Store ringmaster Chris Ilitch congratulate themselves for unearthing this unpolished gem. Goodrum played at least one game this season at every position except P and C, and thus became key to their master plan.
Inspired by The King and His Court (Eddie Feigner’s act hired by his father back in the day), Ilitch has ordered The Late to reduce Detroit’s roster to 3 players next season – pitcher, catcher, Niko.
Tiger fans are on board if this is the only way they never again have to endure watching Ronny Rodriguez try to play baseball.
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So we’ll be using the shift a lot next season?
This is a chance for the Tigers to call up somebody like IF Isaac Paredes
This team, after 9/1/2019, should be better than what we saw all season. For the first time in recent memory, it will be worth attending a game in September.
Doubtful. Might see paredes or maybe a guy like funkhouser called up, but none of their top prospects are gonna be called up. Mize is shut down, manning and Faedo and Perez are all staying put, and daz Cameron isn’t having a good enough year to warrant any sort of call up
I doubt we’ll see Paredes in September. I’m thinking the return of Candelario, Stewart, Reininger, Eduardo Jimenez, Mikie Mahtook, nobody really new, nothing all that exciting at all.