DETROIT – It’s been 15 years, nine months, and 22 days since the Tigers traded for Miguel Cabrera, and now, he’s in Detroit for the final time in his legendary career.
Even in their wildest dreams, the Tigers couldn’t have known what they were getting when they shipped Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo, Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, and Dallas Trahern to the then-Florida Marlins.
At the time, Cabrera was a burgeoning superstar, a 24-year-old with 138 career home runs already under his belt. But that was just a taste of what he had in store.
The very first year in Detroit, Cabrera led the American League with 37 home runs. He finished 13th in MVP voting -- the final time he’d be outside the top five in his 20s.
For almost a decade wearing the Old English D, Cabrera was unequivocally the best hitter in all of baseball, averaging 34 home runs and 38 doubles per season from 2008-2016, while batting .325 with a .405 on-base percentage and slugging .573.
That 13th-place MVP finish in 2008 was his lowest through the 2016 season. He won the award twice, made seven-straight All-Star appearances, and remains the only player in the last 56 years to win the Triple Crown in either league.
There will come a time to discuss what happened over the final seven seasons of Cabrera’s tenure in Detroit, but the culmination of his 21-year career is not that time. When he walks off the field Sunday evening at Comerica Park, all anybody will remember is one of the best right-handed hitters they’ve ever watched.
Cabrera was a unicorn during his prime. Few others could hit the ball out to all fields with such ease and also poke it through the right side of the infield on command. It’s no coincidence that Cabrera’s most dominant stretch coincided with the Tigers winning four straight AL Central titles and being perennial World Series contenders.
Baseball has evolved more than anyone could have imagined throughout the course of Cabrera’s 21 seasons. As unique as he was in the early 2010s, someone of his ilk is even harder to find in a world of high strikeouts and low batting averages. A player who could lead MLB in both home runs and average seems as likely to appear today as the Loch Ness monster.
The counting stats speak for themselves. Cabrera isn’t just a member of both the 3,000 hits and 500 home run clubs -- he’s one of only three players all time to do both while adding 600 doubles.
Cabrera will finish his career with a lifetime batting average over .300 and an OPS right at .900, despite falling well short of both in each of the last seven years. That’s a testament to how great he was for the first 14.
When Cabrera inevitably goes into the Hall of Fame with the Old English D on his cap, Tigers fans will remember the pennant chases, the home run off of Mariano Rivera, the standing ovation in Kansas City, and maybe even his Opening Day homer through a blizzard.
Whether he goes 0-15 or hits five home runs over these final six games at Comerica Park, this week is a celebration of an all-time great hitter. Cabrera was the face of the franchise and the emblem of many great summers in Detroit.
We’ll have plenty of time after the season to try to put his greatness into perspective. But for one last week, let’s just enjoy Miggy being Miggy.
