Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
Once he does hang up his spikes, Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera will go down as one of this generation’s best right-handed hitters. The past couple years haven’t been what we’ve gotten used to seeing from Miggy, though. After playing in at least 145 games on 12 occasions between 2004 and 2016, he’s appeared in just 168 total over the past two years (just 38 in ’18).
His power has also been disappearing, and the man with 11 different seasons of at least 4.0 fWAR has been worth a total of 0.6 fWAR since the start of 2017. This past season was actually going pretty well for Cabrera through 157 plate appearances — he had hit just three homers, but was slashing .299/.395/.448, good for a 128 wRC+. It all came to a screeching halt when he tore his left biceps tendon, prematurely ending his season.
But it’s not like there weren’t concerns on how sustainable that pace was. Miggy did post familiar numbers with regard to line-drive rate (25.0%) and hard-hit rate (46.3%), but his ground-ball rate (54.6%), fly-ball rate (20.4%), and BABIP (.352) didn’t exactly match one another.
As he approaches his age-36 season, we’ll likely never see the Miggy of old again, but he still may have some occasional magic left in that bat.
Miggy's (and our) favorite sound. #TigersST pic.twitter.com/GgRDf0rTje
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) February 21, 2019
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