Victor Martinez Is Probably Out For The 2012 Season ...

... as Jon Paul Morosi and others are reporting that Martinez has sustained a torn ACL in his left knee, and will require corrective surgery that will almost certainly knock him out of action for the entire 2012 season. Apparently something went horribly wrong during one of his winter conditioning sessions, and, well, that's that. 

Martinez, who turned 34 in December, signed a four-year, $50 million deal with the Tigers last off-season, and ended up logging a little over 75 percent of his playing time last season at DH, with only a few appearances coming at catcher and first base. He hit a very sturdy .330/.380/.470 (130 wRC+) over the course of the season, and produced 2.9 fWAR and 2.9 bWAR, meaning that he did technically "live up to his" $12 million salary last year ... but with Martinez now likely being done for the entire 2012 season, and with his future beyond that point being very much up in the air, this contract now appears to have quite a bit more albatross potential today than it did yesterday.

There was some talk last off-season about the Rangers being interested in Martinez -- talk that existed only before Mike Napoli was acquired and Adrian Beltre was signed. That, clearly, all worked out ot the Rangers' benefit.

The Tigers will now be pounding the pavement looking for a new DH, and going off MLBTR's list of still-available DHs, it may be that they end up signing one of Johnny Damon, Vladimir Guerrero, or Hideki Matsui to fill their DH void.