Anthony Fenech

Detroit Free Press

LAKELAND, Fla. — Miguel Cabrera’s golf cart arrived in Tiger Town on Sunday.

It is orange, with chrome rims, leather seats and oftentimes during the early stages of spring training, you can find Cabrera cruising with his teammates around the Joker Marchant Stadium complex.

Parked outside the Detroit Tigers’ clubhouse, it was the latest reminder that the big man had arrived for this, the 15th spring of his future Hall of Fame career.

A day earlier, signs could be seen all over.

The wide eyes of younger Tigers, like right-handed reliever William Cuevas, who was sharing a clubhouse with Cabrera for the first time. The banter on the backfields during infield practice — at one point, Cabrera hopped on the mound and delivered a strike, saying to the pitching staff, “Just in case.” The batting practice balls he hit, which sailed into a construction zone.

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After the team’s first full-squad workout, Cabrera held court in front of his locker, touching on a number of topics, from longtime team owner Mike Ilitch to the unrest in Venezuela to this year’s Tigers, which he will try to lead back to the postseason.

“We’ve got a chance to play one more year together,” he said. “We know what we’ve got here. We know we didn’t go to the playoffs the last two years, but I think if we stay together, if we stay healthy, we’ve got a chance to compete every day.”’

Cabrera is well aware of the impending free agents on the team, like rightfielder J.D. Martinez and perhaps second baseman Ian Kinsler. He knows their talented core is not getting any younger.

“I think it’s like, ‘Let’s make one more shot,’” he said. “We have a chance to give it one more shot. We’ll see what happens.”

Cabrera spoke sitting on a chair still in his home uniform, which was made possible when Ilitch gave the green light to a blockbuster deal in 2008 and subsequently bronzed his Cooperstown bust in a Tigers hat with a pair of lucrative, long-term contract extensions that run through 2023.

He spoke somberly about Ilitch’s death on Feb. 11 and said it would serve as a motivating factor this season.

“We come into this spring training a little sad, but at the same time, we come in that we need to keep going and do this for him. He was always thinking about a World Series championship and we never gave him that chance, so we’ve got extra motivation. We need to do extra stuff to try to be our best this season.”

Cabrera is coming off one of the more quiet 38-home run seasons in recent memory. In 2016, he hit .316 while playing 158 games despite a minor ankle injury down the stretch.

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All is good with the ankle, he said, and at age 33, he doesn’t worry about how he will hold up in the future.

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I don’t worry about my age. God gave me the strength and the ability to keep playing. I’m going to keep playing to 40. My contract says to 40, so why you worried about it?”

One thing Cabrera is worried about is his native homeland of Venezuela, the economical and political crises that have hit, and his family who still remains there.

“We need to do something for our country because our country is in bad shape right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of problems in Venezuela. It’s like, two sides, you know? I think sport can help any country.

He was speaking about the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which he will compete in along with a few other Tigers. Back there, he is the Michael Jordan of the country. On the carpet to his left was a maroon first base glove, laced in gold — the colors of the Venezuelan flag.

“Sport can help any country together,” Cabrera said. “Not just baseball. Any sport can bring a lot of happiness to people and bring people together.”

It was a reflective interview, rare with the often-reserved superstar. He talked about the career numbers he’s quickly approaching — 3,000 hits and 500 home runs — and admitted those were goals earlier in his career.

“I was thinking about that when I was younger,” Cabrera said. “But right now, my first time in the big leagues, I stopped thinking about numbers. Numbers are good but if you start thinking about it, you might get pressure everyday and you won’t be able to play. I prefer to go out there and do my job and see the number afterward.

But the number that looms larger than all else is one.

That is the number of World Series titles he has won — as a 20-year-old rookie with the Marlins in 2003.

And when Cabrera arrived in camp over the weekend, he looked and sounded like the kind of leader the Tigers need to double that number.

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.