The makings of a stunning deal
By MICHAEL J. HAPPY
FOXSportsDetroit.com
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — The message from Florida was initially unsettling, but not devastating.
A twisted left knee. They were going to run some tests on Detroit Tigers catcher/designated hitter Victor Martinez, but the first diagnosis was "not bad."
A few hours later on Martin Luther King Day, Tigers president, CEO and general manager Dave Dombrowski got a second, more upsetting, report from a team trainer on Martinez's knee:
"Could be bad. Looks like a torn ACL."
A third call, around 8 p.m., confirmed the tear — and a huge hole in the Tigers' lineup.
"My heart sunk," Dombrowski recalled Wednesday night during a public hot-stove forum at Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Martinez, who had hit .330 batting behind Miguel Cabrera in 2011, was likely lost for 2012 with one slip of the foot during offseason training.
"I hated receiving the news," Dombrowski said. "I hated calling to tell the owner (Mike Ilitch) even more."
So Dombrowski didn't spread the bad news that night. It was getting late, and he "didn't want anybody else to lose a night's sleep."
The phone calls began the next morning, starting with manager Jim Leyland.
"I asked him if he was sitting down," Dombrowski said. "He told me he was."
Leyland took the news like the warrior he is, actually comforted Dombrowski, said the Tigers still had enough to win.
The next call went to Martinez, whom Dombrowski said was "shattered."
Dombrowski did the comforting this time, ensured there would be a second opinion and the best care on the planet. (The second opinion confirmed the first, and surgery is coming soon.)
Finally, it was time to talk with Ilitch.
"This one really hurts," Ilitch told Dombrowski after receiving the bad news. "What are we going to do?"
What Dombrowski had to do next was tell everybody else.
He scheduled an afternoon conference call with the media and began working the phone, talking to agents of free agents who might be able to help the Tigers defend their American League Central title.
During his session with the media, Dombrowski sounded like he didn't want to rush into anything, that he would go through a meticulous process, take his time deciding what to do without Martinez.
“We need to digest the situation,” Dombrowski said that afternoon. “Then we’ll go from there.”
Ilitch, 82, wants a World Series title to add to his four Stanley Cups as Detroit Red Wings owner. He didn't seem to be in a wait-and-see mood.
Dombrowski got another "What are we going to do?" call the next day. To which he responded that the ball was rolling, he was collecting a list of names.
That bought Dombrowski another day to work on a potential deal, in addition to the grip-and-grin grind of the Tigers Winter Caravan, which had taken off from Comerica Park that very morning.
Twenty-four hours later, Dombrowski's phone rang again.
"What are we going to do?"
Dombrowski told Ilitch that the free-agent list wasn't all that, only one name on it was a "premium" player.
Prince Fielder, who didn't really fit the Tigers' needs because he wanted a long-term deal and played Cabrera's position, was the name Dombrowski gave Ilitch over the phone.
Dombrowski on Wednesday couldn't, wouldn't say what happened next as he recalled the previous 10 days or so.
The Fielder deal, reportedly $214 million over nine years, was still in the legal process, including a physical for the big first baseman who grew up watching dad Cecil hit monstrous homers for the Tigers in the 1990s.
An official announcement of Fielder's signing through 2020, without disclosure of the financial terms, came from the Tigers on Thursday morning.
Ilitch told the rest of the story during a Thursday afternoon press conference, introducing Fielder as a Tiger.
Ilitch said he felt "dizzy" thinking about all the scenarios being presented to him, the ones that had current Tigers trying to fill the void left by Martinez. Ilitch was concerned those players would feel too much pressure to do too much.
He then made the call to go after a guy the Tigers watched grow up, a player they coveted and nearly landed in the 2002 draft. The Brewers nabbed him one spot before the Tigers' first-round pick.
"We should go after Prince, make our best effort," Ilitch recalled telling Dombrowski.
Dombrowski did just that.