But when Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera moved across the diamond this offseason, giving up his first base spot to Prince Fielder, it was permanent. With Fielder given a nine-year stay in Detroit worth $214 million, wherever the infield pieces landed was likely where they would stick for a while.
The Tigers opted to send Cabrera, whose career began in the outfield and third base before he moved to first, back to the hot corner. Fielder, a regular first baseman his entire career, would be expected to hold down first.
A third of the way into this season, the transition seems to be working for the Tigers. Both players have been in all 48 games this year, with Cabrera batting .306 with nine homers and 40 RBI. Fielder has hit seven bombs and driven in 28 runs with a .315 average. While both have had the usual infield missteps, it hasn't been an error fest (just 13 miscues between the two).
And, in light of Gonzalez' somewhat strange foray into the outfield, both Fielder and Cabrera say they would even accept another position change — if it helped the team.
"Yeah, it's hard, you know," Cabrera said of what Gonzalez did for Boston, and what Cabrera himself did for Detroit — moving from third base a month into his debut season with the Tigers, in 2008, and then bouncing back to third this year. "They asked me for a lot, this team, when I played here."
But, adjustments aside, Cabrera said he wouldn't shy away from another switch — even if he was sent to right field.
"If you ask me, yeah," he said. "If you're able to play good, yeah. You just need to out there and play, to go perform."
Cabrera said his focus at the new position this year has been just on making the "routine plays" and not causing "extra work" for his teammates.
"I want to feel comfortable," he said of getting used to playing third again. "I feel like I can make the plays, I can do it all — the routine plays so well, and the non-routine plays. [I] don't try to make it into something else."
Some people questioned whether the move to third base would upset Cabrera, a six-time All-Star and perennial MVP contender whose batting average lives well above .300. But Cabrera has been putting more effort into nutrition and staying in shape in the last year. He even asked for a few more reps at third coming off of last season.
The way he sees it, as long as he's producing at the plate, he can try a few new things in the field. The same goes for Boston's Gonzalez.
"No matter what, he's going to play," Cabrera said of Gonzalez.
The sacrifice isn't lost on Fielder, who got the job at first pretty much on default.
"It's a big move because Adrian, like Miguel — they're both All-Stars and MVP-type players," Fielder said. "For them to move is a big deal, because they don't have to if they don't want to. It just shows how much they care about the team and how much they just love playing baseball."
But don't count Fielder out for a similar move. Despite what his scouting report says, the jovial slugger insists he would jump at the chance to help his team anywhere on the diamond.
"I'd go anywhere!" he said. "As long as I get to play, I'll go anywhere."
Unlike some American League teams that take advantage of the designated hitter option to shuffle their infielders, Detroit sticks with Fielder at first most days. That provides another level of stability for Fielder, who played with Milwaukee for his entire career before this season and has never had the DH option.
"I've only gotten to once," he said of being in the lineup as a designated hitter. "… None of our DHs can play first. I don't want to DH and leave anybody out of the game."
The Tigers have the luxury of two All-Stars who can play every day at first base and third, just as the Red Sox have stellar options on their infield corners. Now, the only question is whether to send those overeager team players to the nether regions of the field when others go down with injury.
It's a problem plenty of teams would fight to have.
