Victor Martinez Injury: The Next Step For The Tigers Is?

Read More: Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs

Over at Bless You Boys, the SB Nation site for the Detroit Tigers, Kurt Mensching is doing yeoman's work and transcribing quotes from Dave Dombrowski in a teleconference he's giving to Tigers reporters. The first question, of course, had to do with the Tigers looking for a hitter, to which Dombrowski responded with ...

We’re open to it by all means. Victor is a quality hitter, a key guy in our lineup. we do have some flexibility with positions players play with us. We’re in a spot where we could maneuver from within.

I’ve received numerous phone calls from agents in the last hour looking to place their players. We need to digest the situation, it all happened in the last day. We need to know what’s going on, and we’ll go from there.

You have a guy like (Ryan) Raburn who can play numerous positions, (Ramon) Santiago can play second and short, Andy Dirks can play a lot of outfield spots. We’ve got outfielders who we feel can DH. you’ve got all sorts of possibilities.

But the smart money is on the Tigers getting someone from outside the organization. They've invested too much in the 2012 season to fix this with bandages and popsicle sticks. MLB Daily Dish looks at some of the options the Tigers might have:

Two other possibilities outside of Cespedes could be free agents Johnny Damon and Carlos Pena, as Jim Bowden of ESPN notes. Signing either one would give Detroit a veteran bat to insert into the lineup, but they're both pretty limited defensively. Pena would certainly provide a bit more pop.

There isn't a shortage of DH candidates out there. If the Tigers could convince the White Sox or Cubs to eat a whole lot of money, Adam Dunn and Alfonso Soriano would be dropped off at the airport by their respective general managers. Dave Cameron suggests Casey Kotchman as a possibility. Mike Cameron suggests Mike Cameron. The Tigers still have options. That's about the only consolation they can take from this awful news.