The Detroit Tigers had to send superstar slugger Miguel Cabrera to the disabled list for a strained groin. At first glance, the timing couldn't be worse -- Miggy was getting red-hot at the plate, ripping three homers in his past eight games, and he has the kind of bat that can carry a club for weeks at a time.

However, here's what into the decision: When a star player goes down, the last thing you want is a lingering injury, where you potentially lose the guy for weeks or a month. It's Miguel Cabrera, and you want to nip this in the bud early, not ask him to play at 90 percent and risk worse damage. It's also important to remember that Cabrera had to play through an injury in that area down the stretch in 2013 before having surgery, and that injury hampered him in the playoff, and he said that recovery from that surgery had an impact on him in the first half of 2014. As a player, manager or GM, you don't want to risk any of that. So even though the severity of this particular injury doesn't initially seem too dire, this early in the season it's a sensible precautionary move.

The other factor in play here is the benefit of the new, shorter 10-day DL. With the benefit of counting the Tigers' day off on Monday, there's the possibility that Miggy will be back in action for most of their big home series against the Indians at the beginning of May, missing just nine games.

The problem for the Tigers is the timing of the injury. While Justin Upton is producing consistently and Ian Kinsler is getting on base and hitting for power, this latest injury hits them at a time when right fielder J.D. Martinez is still on the DL while nearing a rehab assignment. So in terms of the Tigers' offense, the concern you have to have right now is that they're very reliant on Kinsler and Upton and Nicholas Castellanos, while also waiting for DH Victor Martinez to heat up from a cold start.

That extreme reliance on a few key players is exacerbated by the organization's lack of depth, which is reflected in their loss of shortstop Jose Iglesias to a concussion, forcing him to the 7-day DL on Friday. To replace Miggy, the Tigers had to call up journeyman catcher/first baseman John Hicks. With J.D. Martinez out, they've had to rely on a platoon of Tyler Collins and Mikie Mahtook in right that is putting up a .522 OPS. To cover for Iglesias, they have to rely on Dixon Machado (.524 career OPS in the majors) and veteran utility man Andrew Romine (.591 career OPS). The Tigers are already carrying rookie JaCoby Jones in center for his defense, and he has a .540 OPS before Saturday's action. That's a lot of lineup slots producing very little offense.

This is a problem for the organization, because they just don't have players they can plug in when their major guys go down. That's a threat for their fragile bid to contend in the AL Central, but it is also a symptom of how they're built. The Tigers have invested in their biggest stars, with more than $130 million of a payroll pushing $200 million tied up in six players, including Cabrera, Upton, Justin Verlander, Martinez, Jordan Zimmermann and Anibal Sanchez. Those expenditures don't leave much for the Tigers to invest in the back end of their roster for when a Miguel Cabrera gets hurt, and that probably will hurt them now.

Making the move obviously makes sense, to avoid the potential risk to Cabrera's performance in May and beyond. But it also reflects how tough the situation is to contend with for a veteran ballclub without as much depth as might be desired.