August 15: Cron has indeed elected to undergo knee surgery, manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters, including Jason Beck of MLB.com. That will end Cron’s season, and likely his Tigers tenure, prematurely. With Cron no longer available, Jeimer Candelario is poised to step in at first base for the remainder of the year.
August 12: Tigers first baseman C.J. Cron hit the injured list due to a left knee sprain yesterday, and the outlook on the slugger doesn’t appear good. Cron spoke with Tigers beat reporters today, revealing that surgery to repair a ligament in his knee will likely be required (Twitter links via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com and Jason Beck of MLB.com). Cron’s hope, however, is that he can strengthen the ligament enough to return to play this summer and undergo any necessary procedure in the offseason. For now, he’s in a brace and gathering more information while the swelling goes down.
The play that caused the injury saw Cron drop to one knee to field a sharp one-hop grounder (video link). The first baseman explained that during his crouch, he sustained damage to a stabilizing ligament in his left knee that caused his kneecap to pop out of place. Cron was helped off the field by manager Ron Gardenhire and athletic trainer Doug Teter. He did not appear able to put any weight on his left knee.
“It’s kind of just floating around in there, so it could pop out at any time really,” Cron said of his kneecap (Twitter link via Beck). “That’s why, if we do this, we’re going to have to be super smart about taping it, bracing it and trying to keep that kneecap as stable as possible.”
It’s a tough blow for both Cron and the Tigers. The 30-year-old is playing the 2020 season on a one-year, $6.1MM contract and had hoped to position himself for either a raise or a multi-year deal as a free agent this winter. He was hitting just .190 through his first 52 plate appearances, but that was largely a function of a fluky .182 average on balls in play. Cron had belted four home runs and already drawn nine walks — he walked just 29 times in 499 plate appearances a year ago — resulting in an overall .190/.346/.548 slash. He ranked among the league leaders in terms of walk percentage and (per Statcast) barreled-ball percentage in the season’s early stages.
For the Tigers, meanwhile, they’re now left with a hole at first base for the foreseeable future. Gardenhire said yesterday that he doesn’t expect Miguel Cabrera to return to first base with regularity, though he may get an occasional start there. For now, it sounds as though the plan is for Jeimer Candelario to line up at first base with Dawel Lugo seeing regular reps at third base. That figures to represent an offensive downgrade for the surprising Tigers, who’ve gotten out to a 9-6 start on the season.
Speculatively speaking, it seems possible that the Tigers could look outside the organization for some alternatives at first base. Veteran Logan Morrison and promising-but-oft-injured Greg Bird were both designated for assignment this week and could make some sense. As far as in-house options go, first baseman Frank Schwindel is already in Detroit’s player pool. Fans may clamor to turn things over to 2020 top overall pick Spencer Torkelson, but starting his service clock the same year he was drafted seems both unlikely and sub-optimal from a developmental standpoint.
Fans will scream “TORK!!!!” but that is probably the least likely thing the Tigers will do at this point.
I watched Torkelson’s at bats in the intrasquad games. He really didn’t look like he was ready yet for big league pitching. Maybe it was just nerves. No point in rushing him.
Tigers still have Brandon Dixon on their 60 man, he plays 1B and let the Tigers in home runs last year.
And Frank Schwindel. For now, Cron is stating he is going to try to rehab it and play. I have my doubts but while he is trying to do that, probably going to be Candy and Harold Castro at first, and maybe Niko from time to time. But Dixon or Schwindel likely get added if Cron does eventually opt for surgery before the end of the season.
LoMo to MoTown? LoMoTown?
Woah woah, slow down, you’re acting like a clown.
Man, CJ always gets hot and then something happens :/
get better sooner, cron!
That is a painful video to watch. The ball bounced a long way after striking Cron. Ouch!
Did you see Norris on that play? That was play of the week material.
Never been a fan of his. But still sad this happened to him. Wishing him a speedy recovery.
I like CJ, but he’s Mark Trumbo.
Teams have gotten a lot smarter since the Orioles decided to sign Trumbo for 37.5 million three years ago. Well… most teams.
for this season, he has high obp and high slugging. shouldn’t you like him?
poor man’s Trumbo. Cron isnt winning any HR titles
In before those Yankee fans try to argue trading Andujar and Frazier to the Tigers for Mize or Manning is what needs to be done.
try Mize *and* Manning
ScottCFA the injury actually happened when he twisted after the hit. Im sure the strike he took hurt like hell but it was the tork (no pun intended for Torkelson) afterwards that did the damage. I had a feeling he did some ACL/MCL damage. Sucks b/c even though he was only hitting .194 he played a great 1st base and more importantly he protected Miggy in the lineup. And as far as anyone calling for Torkelson to come up, dream on. The days if playing kids like a 19 yr old Pudge Rodriguez or Andrew Jones are long gone and will stay gone as long as we have the wonderful thing called a “service clock”. You’ll more likely see Mize/Manning/Skubal then anyone drafted just earlier this year. Get well soon CJ!
Unfortunate for Cron. The last two seasons he hasn’t been bad. Definite improvement from his days in the OC.
Is Matt Boyd still an ace? Asking for a friend.
He wasn’t an ace last year and that’s why he was still a Tiger at season’s end. Al Avila (one of the worst GM’s in baseball) chose to hold onto him because he wasn’t getting 2 blue chip prospects through a trade, only 1. From articles I’ve read, he was offered a top-100 prospect and also another prospect in that organizations top 20 prospects for Boyd at last year’s deadline. But he didn’t do it! This guy was NOT going to be on the next successful Tigers pitching staff, and now we’re stuck with a pitcher who’s ERA is now at 10.47 after today’s game. Way to go big Al! He will be the reason that the Tigers are still in a rebuild in 2023, if he’s not replaced by then.
@dtwarrior
One of the top minor league systems, but you think it’s in spite of the GM. Who is this top 100 plus another that you refer to? Boyd may not be the Ace but he is the Tigers no.1 coming into this year. He won’t be expensive to sign and can easily be part of the next successful Tigers staff. Giving him away is not how you build. The window starts to open next year.
Boyd was never considered an ace. I never heard of any offers for Boyd. I bet no one made an offer because they knew he would be expensive.
I like Boyd and had no issues with the Tigers keeping him if they were planning on signing him but he was always put out there as trade bait and nothing was good enough for an offer. And as far as Avila goes, you have to remember that Mize and Torkelson were both pretty easy to pick at the top of each draft (’18 and ’20) but as far as what he’s gotten back from trades for some pretty darn good players (Verlander, JD Martinez, etc) has been brutal. I’ll give him credit for a few moves like Tarik Skubal who’s a 9th round pick and a few others but as far as FA signings he’s made (Zimmerman, Mercer, etc) have left alot to be desired. Just an opinion.
I was kidding. Boyd hype last year was loud and proud. He’s a 3 at-best.
Once again, there was next to no market for either Verlander or Martinez then.
JDM was traded for more than any other OF brought back that deadline. Keeping him would have only netted a pick after the 4th round due to the level of payroll. Verlander was already signed for $24MM, which lowered his value, and his no trade limited who Avila could shop him to. Most of the players are still young, and it’s too early to write them off.
Because Avila doesn’t know how to market his players.ehen trading Both JD and JV were performing at high levels when they were traded. JD was top three in many stats and JV was finally healthy and pitching lights out. JD was traded a week before the deadline for three poor prospects. Quantity is not good need quality. Even one decent prospect would have been better. Still a week before the deadline. What if a team got desperate or a key injury happened?
With JV the Dodgers wanted him and he wanted to go to LA. Al should have said to the Dodgers if you want to win the World Series you need JV. With Houston, Tigers didn’t get Houston’s top hitting or pitching prospect and the TIGERS threw in 24 million! Just awful trades. Nick C and Shane Greene are not much better. Look what Nick did after his trade to the Cubs.
I made a comment last week on the rash of all sorts of MLB injuries, a large % seem to be muscle strains, etc. Unfortunately some are more severe.
One MLB writer talked about the stress of playing this season, along w/ 2 “spring trainings”.
Sure seems like an abnormal number of injuries after 2 + weeks into the season.
The stopping and starting is one of the issues. Not sure about the whole “two spring trainings” causing these injuries.
I dunno… The Tigers’ window of contention may be closing…
time for the Frank Schwindel show
Frank Schwindel is not winning any home run crown! Not even a poor man’s Cron.
Greg Bird
Cron’s disease