Tigers give Cabrera a massive extension, and it's a disastrous move

Years ago, Ilitch's general manager, Dave Dombrowski, would say that when you spend too much of your payroll on one player, it rarely works out. Dombrowski

Michael Rosenberg | Mar 28, 2014

Tigers give Cabrera a massive extension, and it's a disastrous move /

The Tigers gave Miguel Cabrera an eight-year, $248-million contract extension, and though he's one of the greats, it was a bad move :: Duane Burleson/Getty Images/Getty Images

Years ago, Ilitch's general manager, Dave Dombrowski, would say that when you spend too much of your payroll on one player, it rarely works out. Dombrowski did not get dumber. He surely knows how risky this is. But Dombrowski has learned Ilitch will overpay for anybody he really wants, and he wants Cabrera more than anybody he has ever employed. The contract does not make sense because the player will get old. It happened because the owner already has.

Published Mar 28, 2014

MICHAEL ROSENBERG

Michael Rosenberg is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, covering any and all sports. He writes columns, profiles and investigative stories and has covered almost every major sporting event. He joined SI in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, eight of them as a columnist. Rosenberg is the author of "War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest." Several of his stories also have been published in collections of the year's best sportswriting. He is married with three children.