That said, Tigers skipper Jim Leyland backed the slumping Avila as the team's everyday catcher. They are not yet ready to annoint Brayan Pena into that role. 

"I don't want to indicate that Alex isn't our catcher," said Leyland. "He is our catcher."

Avila hasn't hit higher than .227 all season and his average hasn't been above .200 since April 11 except for one day. He's hitting just .155 since April 11 with two homers and eight RBI over 84 at-bats. Avila is hitting .053 against lefties but just .198 against righties. 

"I did this with Pudge (Rodriguez) toward the end," said Leyland. "I played him, then sat him out, played him, then sat him out. He didn't particularly like it, but it actually worked pretty good. I'm not saying I'm trying that with Alex, but I have to do something. We'll get through it together, but right now you have to go with your gut. There's no magic formula. I've talked to him, but if one nice conversation could solve all the problems, it would have been solved a while back. But I don't have the answer. The kid is struggling — and as the manager, you feel sorry for him. Trust me."

It's the first time since April 11 that Avila has owned a batting average over .200.

Avila was initially slated to catch Sunday's finale against Houston before the illness came up. Long-term effects are expected to be minimal. Brayan Pena will suit up in his place.

Is it time to trust Avila in Fantasy? It's tough to say for sure since it's just a small sample size and Avila had a similar run earlier this season that didn't last. But I'm still not ready to give up on Avila for the season because there are still some indications the best is yet to come.

Avila's contact (72.9 percent) and swinging strike rates (11.3 percent), per FanGraphs.com, have been a little disappointing through the first month of the season. But Avila has just a .231 BABIP through 22 games, which is well below his career average of .319. Even though Avila struggled last season, he still had a .313 BABIP, so if he makes a little more contact, then the hits might start to fall. Also, Avila's home run to fly ball ratio is at 22.2 percent. It's definitely high and likely to come down, but when Avila has gotten under the ball, he's had good success at clearing the fences.

Look, you are not going to miss the boat if you have to drop Avila. I'm not totally convinced yet myself Avila will return to the form he had during his career year in 2011. But I'm willing to keep Avila on the radar because there is some hope for a turnaround.