I think if Tellez had been hitting at all earlier in the season, they would have tried Vlad at 3B and Tellez at 1B for a bit. Biggio was crap at 3B but they had no reason to try moving Vladdy off of 1B.
If signing a guy like Freeman is a real possibility, I think you gotta at least try to make it work.
Miguel Cabrera was able to move back to 3B and play adequately enough for 2 seasons at a much older age with a lot less skill there than Vlad has.