DETROIT (AP) — Dave Dombrowski could count on one hand the number of medical-related employees baseball
teams had when his career began.
Now, the Detroit Tigers president and general manager almost needs two hands.
The Tigers lean on Kevin Rand in and out of season to keep players as healthy as possible to compete for
championships. The team’s medical director and head athletic trainer leads a six-person staff that gets
assists from interns.
"There was just a trainer when I first started," said Dombrowski, who is in his 34th season of
professional baseball. "You might have nine people doing what one person did before. It’s a huge
responsibility and we’re fortunate to have Kevin because he does a great job."
Rand’s career began as a minor league athletic trainer for the Yankees in 1982 and was hired 30 years
later to be the Tigers’ head athletic trainer. Detroit manager Brad Ausmus, who has known Rand since the
Yankees drafted him in 1987, said a lot has changed about how ailing players are handled in the major
leagues.
"I think because of the money spent on the players, there’s a lot more delicacy involved in dealing
with injuries," Ausmus said.
Dombrowski agreed, saying taking care of players has become a bigger business because they’re making a
lot of money and franchises want to take care of them.
"You like to look at it from an asset perspective, but the dollars that are attached to the
contracts are extremely large," Dombrowski said. "So, dealing with the players is a huge
responsibility."
Keeping superstar Miguel Cabrera healthy is particularly important for the Tigers. They’re paying the
reigning two-time AL MVP $292 million over 10 years — the richest contract in American sports — and he’s
still recovering somewhat from having surgery on his groin shortly after last season.
While Cabrera was still among the league’s top 10 in batting averaging entering Tuesday night’s game at
Arizona, the former Triple Crown winner was tied for 19th in homers and tied for 23rd in RBIs
The slugger recently said he’s not as healthy as he was before having surgery, and Rand can see that play
out at the plate.
"Maybe some of those balls that would disappear, they’re falling just a little bit shorter,"
Rand said. "Now he’s got (a lot of) doubles so that tells you the power’s there, it’s in the gap,
it’s just not maybe carrying out. … Now you may see that in the second half, just like we saw with
Victor (Martinez) in the second half last year, he really turned things on. We may see the same thing
here with Miguel as well. To me, it’s just a matter of time before all that is right where he wants it
to be."
The public tends to only see Rand if he’s running on the field to make an evaluation, but players witness
what he does to keep or get them healthy throughout the year.
"Kevin and his staff does a good job of keeping our guys on the field, and I think it goes
unnoticed," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "It seems like we don’t have as many key injuries
— knock on wood — compare to most team, and I think that’s especially true with our pitching
staff."
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