Moving Cabrera to Third

The Tigers moved Miguel Cabrera off third base after 14 games in 2008. Miguel’s play was horrible in those 14 games, and the Tigers happened to have a great defensive third baseman in Brandon Inge. The move made sense. Those 14 games, however, were too short a period to judge Cabrera. The 2008 season was a down year in general for him, and it’s tough to know how much his drinking hurt his game. In previous seasons, while Cabrera was by no means a good third baseman, he wasn’t horrible. His bat more than made up for the few extra runs he allowed. I bring this up because of the Prince Fielder signing. While designated hitter seems to be the place to move Miguel, third base should not be ruled out so quickly. His bat would be very valuable at the position. If you look at the FanGraphs positional adjustments, he’s worth a win more (10 runs) at third than at first. If Cabrera has indeed cleaned up his act and is more able to concentrate on defense than...