Why would signing Miggy to an extension that would obviously be huge in salary and possibly, if not career-encompassingly long be a problem going forward? UNLESS Mr. I passes away within the next several years and his family or whoever the franchise might possibly be sold to decides to act like Pohlad or Loria. Apparently the franchise is on the verge of collecting mega-millions in increased revenue from broadcast permissions and contracts.
There is of course some risk involved that Miggy could become injured more often and for longer periods as he ages, as well as going into decline as a hitter, especially once he is a year or two past prime, but even if so, he likely will still be measurably better than most other elite batters, his past postseasons notwithstanding (with the lone exception of the '11 ALCS vs TX, not very Miggy-like overall)
There is no guarantee that whomever the Tigers would obtain in exchange for Cabrera in trade, be it some combo of blue-chip prospects, ML-ready studs, and/or established young 5 tool talented stars with potential would pan out or not, much less suffer injury(s) requiring stints on the DL or become injury-prone themselves.
The one future problem that I do envision is both Fielder and Cabrera needing to DH due to age and/or injury recovery, when it is very likely that Prince will need to become FT DH and soon, if he doesn't try to get himself in better physical (and mental) shape, lose weight or worse, gains even more lbs.
There is of course some risk involved that Miggy could become injured more often and for longer periods as he ages, as well as going into decline as a hitter, especially once he is a year or two past prime, but even if so, he likely will still be measurably better than most other elite batters, his past postseasons notwithstanding (with the lone exception of the '11 ALCS vs TX, not very Miggy-like overall)
There is no guarantee that whomever the Tigers would obtain in exchange for Cabrera in trade, be it some combo of blue-chip prospects, ML-ready studs, and/or established young 5 tool talented stars with potential would pan out or not, much less suffer injury(s) requiring stints on the DL or become injury-prone themselves.
The one future problem that I do envision is both Fielder and Cabrera needing to DH due to age and/or injury recovery, when it is very likely that Prince will need to become FT DH and soon, if he doesn't try to get himself in better physical (and mental) shape, lose weight or worse, gains even more lbs.