"Magglio Ordoñez says he is ready. "It's way different now," he said of his injured ankle. "It's stronger. I don't feel any pain, discomfort. I'm ready to play."

He is not lying. But even he may not know if this is the real truth. Athletes rarely know how much they have left. Ordoñez may feel healthy. He may think he is capable of a hot streak. But we just don't know. He is 37 years old, young by almost any standard except the only one that matters for him.

Ordoñez lined out twice and got hit by a pitch in his return from the disabled list Monday. Manager Jim Leyland said, "He looked fine, he didn't really scald them but he looked fine."

Three plate appearances mean very little, but in the last three seasons, Ordoñez has had 989 plate appearances and had a .423 slugging percentage. Before that, his career slugging percentage was .520. Ordoñez has managed to keep his on-base percentage up — it was .371 through 2008 and has been .361 since.

Now Ordoñez is sandwiched uncomfortably between what he has meant to the franchise and what he can do for this year's team. In a best-case scenario, they are one and the same: Ordoñez, one of the team's signature players of the last decade, will be a productive hitter during this pennant race.

The real test for the right-handed Ordoñez is not even his numbers. He will have to show he has the bat speed to drive the ball to leftfield. There is a real possibility that he still thinks of himself as the Magglio of old, but the Tigers might be better off without him. We don't know yet. But it could be an untenable situation for the man who batted sixth against the Rays."