20 Years of #24

 

Miguel Cabrera playing for 20 years is a wild enough concept to wrap one's head around. Miguel Cabrera playing in 2003 as well as 2023 is even wilder.

Here's a few people who played MLB games in 2003: Rickey Henderson, Benito Santiago, Barry Larkin, Terry Mulholland, Fred McGriff and Rod Beck. And, just for comparison's sake, here are a few people who played MLB games in 2023: Anthony Volpe, Michael Harris II, Gavin Williams, Elly de la Cruz, Gunnar Henderson and Henry Davis. Pretty much the only thing that bridges these generations of MLB talent together is Miguel Cabrera. 

When I started collecting in 2007, Cabrera was still one of the very young forces in the MLB. Still only 24, still only 4 years removed from the World Series win, still a mainstay for the Marlins. And that's the funny part about all of this. Before he left Miami, Cabrera was the biggest trendsetter of a very young and powerful team, surrounded by people like Dontrelle Willis, Dan Uggla, Jeremy Hermida, Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson. And I look at this Tigers team that he's on right now, and there's a similar glut of young stars, including Riley Greene, Matt Manning, Spencer Torkelson, Kerry Carpenter and Tarik Skubal. And Cabrera's lasted long enough to be the pillar of this team. As young as he was in 2007, he's now 40 and wrapping it up. And similar to Albert Pujols last year, Cabrera feels odd doing the whole 40-year-old victory lap thing.

Unlike Pujols, Cabrera's final leg is happening without any statistical relevance. Since 2017, Miggy's lost the ability to really help a team, and has just been handing in negative WAR seasons. It's not the ideal way to finish a Hall of Fame career, resting on mythology like this, but at the very least Cabrera has still rounded out some records, like hitting 3000 hits and 500 home runs, in addition to ensuring he'll finish his career with a .300 average. Though compared to Cabrera's heyday, just hitting .254 with 57 hits and 18 RBIs isn't much. Hell, Spencer Torkelson's got over 60 at this point with half the contact abilities. 

Miguel Cabrera not getting to win a World Series with the Tigers is...a little criminal. They got close in 2012, could have honestly gone in 2013, but it never happened. Cabrera really began his career with a ring and never followed it up. The real victory would be if the Tigers would compete with this backbone going forward, and he got to throw out a first pitch at a World Series game. It may be a long shot, but ya never know.

Like Pujols last year, it'll be weird thinking about an MLB without Cabrera. Then again, I also think the Tigers will be able to accomplish a lot more without needing to leave space for him. It is cool, though, that he got to finish out his career as a Tiger. I can't imagine it another way.

Coming Tomorrow- An innings-eating starter for a team that doesn't seem to have a lot left to do this season.