In Sunday’s series finale with the Oakland Athletics, the Tigers lost second baseman Carlos Guillen with a strained calf.
Guillen was to have the calf re-evaluated Monday once the Tigers arrived in Kansas City where they will begin a two-game series with the Royals that begins Tuesday night.
Nothing yet is know about the severity of the injury or how long Guillen will be out however given Guillen’s injury history there’s a good chance that he could miss some time because of it.
With the uncertainty surrounding Guillen the Tigers are probably going to have to go with other options at second base for the rest of the regular season and for the playoffs.
Despite Ryan Raburn’s ability to hit for more power the Tigers should go with Ramon Santiago. He offers a better glove at the position and has the ability to hit the long ball himself, just not as consistently as Raburn. Plus Raburn has shown that the more playing time he gets the more his offensive and defensive production goes down.
The Guillen injury shouldn’t impact the Tigers too much. Sure if he’s out for a considerable amount of time they’ll miss his switch hitting capabilities at the plate. However the Tigers have been able to get things done with Guillen out of the lineup.
Re: MLB.com