Jose Bautista, Victor Martinez, and Joey Votto. Three perennial All-Stars and MVP candidates with one thing in common; their average annual salary. In 2015, those three, along with the newly signed Melky Cabrera are slated to make around $14 million. Cabrera and the Chicago White Sox recently agreed to terms on a contract worth $42 million over three years, or an average of $14 million per year.
Cabrera, 30, is a 10 year MLB veteran, who in 2012, was named to his first and only All-Star appearance, and won the World Series in 2009 with the Yankees. Herein lies the first problem. Cabrera’s 2012 campaign, besides his .346 batting average and .390 on-base-percentage, was pretty pedestrian. Cabrera recorded 159 hits with 11 home runs, 25 doubles, 60 runs batted in and 13 stolen bases in 2012, certainly not All-Star worthy numbers.
His undeserving All-Star appearance is not the only problem with him, though. Let’s look at Cabrera’s last three seasons. Almost one third of his career strikeouts have come in the last three seasons. Cabrera’s defense has also been subpar over the last three years. His defensive metrics, be they Range Factor per nine innings or Defensive Wins Above Replacement (dWAR), have been bad. Particularly his dWAR,-1.1 last year, which is abysmal.
Now comes what may be the most glaring problem with Melky Cabrera, the fact that he is a former user of Performance Enhancing Drugs and received a 50-game suspension in 2012, keeping him off of the San Francisco Giants World Series roster. Who knows, maybe Melky had been juicing beforehand and just hadn’t gotten caught.
One final aspect that is weak in Cabrera’s game: Postseason hitting. In 22 postseason games (75 ABs), Cabrera is just a .213 hitter with a .244 on-base-percentage. In fact, in 2009 with the Yankees, Cabrera went just 2-13 and in 2010 with the Braves, he went 0-8. 75 at-bats is no small sample size, and if the past is at all indicative of the future, then leave Cabrera off the postseason roster.
Despite the negatives to the Cabrera signing, there are some positives. Cabrera is a switch hitter, which is always a useful thing to have on your roster. Chicago also needed a Left Fielder, which they got, Cabrera can also hit with some power, as he recorded 44 doubles in 2011 and 35 doubles this year, coupled with 18 home runs in 2011 and 16 this year.
Melky Cabrera is by no means a bad player, but with more cons than pros, he is certainly not a $14 million per year player.
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