At least five teams have expressed interest in free agent outfielder Melky Cabrera, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. The Mets and Yankees are not two of those teams, however.
Cabrera, 28, is arguably the most unique free agent on the market this offseason. He was performing like a star (.346/.390/.516) with the Giants this summer before being suspended 50 games for a positive PED test, which he tried to cover up with a website scheme. Given his age and production, Melky would have been in line for a huge payday. Instead, he'll likely have to settle for a short-term contract in an effort to rebuild value.
MLBTR's Tim Dierkes ranked Cabrera as the 18th best free agent in his Top 50 Free Agents List, predicting he would sign with the Red Sox.
Blue Jays are all over this. He has the sort of makeup they covet.
would be a good fit.
Dominican and a left fielding switch hitter. Be crazy not to go after him.
I agree but as long as it doesn’t come at a great cost. His career has been defined by inconsistency and given his suspension, I think he could revert back to his pre-2011 form next season.
I bet the Nationals are in on him. As they are in on everyone now a days ! lol
I think you’re getting them confused with the Red Sox.
Nope phillies on a 3 year 50 mil deal with a vesting option at 100 plate appearances. Amaro strikes again!
I don’t think Monty would allow for that kind of “Silliness” to occur.
Heck them and the Phillies too !
As a mets fan beggars can’t be choosey i would take a shot
Good fit for the Tigers
I agree
He’s gonna be looking short contract to rebuild his value. He could be the perfect RF stop gap til Castellanos is ready
Wouldn’t Melky play left and rf now is between castellanos Garcia and boesch. Also if we got Melky what do we do with Dirks?
I would assume so, and Dirks would be a platoon type guy.
Dirks could also play rf. could use dirks in rf with Garcia and give Castellanos a full year at aaa
The next Marlon Byrd?
He fell off because of age.
Uh huh.
Short-term deal? I think the Reds should make a run at him, sign him 2-3 years, and then trade him when he regains his value and Billy Hamilton is ready for the bigs. Could get nice production in the first year or two, and end up getting some good prospects in the end.
If it were not for Melky, the Giants would never have made the playoffs. They should sign to a redemption deal filled with performance based bonuses. One year performance based $7 mil min., and then club option for a two year extension at $11 mil per year min.
No, he lied directly to the players faces. They don’t want him back. Thank God!
I agree he could have handled the situation better. I think he was just extremely embarrassed about the whole situation. We all make mistakes, this was his first time getting caught, hopefully he will learn from this. I think the coaches and players will come around and accept an apology if he were to be given a chance.
He had two chances to say something to his teammates and he didn’t. Then he and his friends tried to make a fictitious website to fool investigators. We played better without him in the 2nd half of the season.
All that said I would offer him a 1 maybe 2 year deal (team option). He is an idiot though. You know when you are going to be tested, yet he still found a way to test positive.
the website was setup well before he got busted.. and you can’t really comment on what he said to his teammates and when since you (nor I) are in the clubhouse.
as to the “we played better without him comment”, that also bothers me.. for all we know, if he hadn’t been suspended, we would have been even better than we ended up being, and potentially have the best record in the NL. The team overcame his suspension, but we have no idea how good they would have been if he had played the entire season. Pretty sure he was/is better than Blanco at the plate.
but in the end, if the Giants were to sign him, I agree with a 1 yr (but not 7M) contract. though I believe they’ll pass on him from a PR stand point more than anything.
It’s already been reported that Angel Pagan asked him directly and Melky denied it.
I’m very skeptical with all that talk. It’s been speculated by former players that at least half of them are dirty and not getting caught, Conte says more than that even. I have to believe the players are more upset that he got caught and handled it poorly than the fact that he was doing it.
Testing is random- you don’t know precisely when you’ll be tested, you only know when it’s possible, before and after games at the park. Given that synthetic testosterone is not showing up on tests at low volumes it’s more a matter that he was careless with the amount he used. Most likely players are doing it when they get home at night as the time before they come to the park is enough to lower the testosterone to below 4:1 ratio; provided you haven’t had too much.
I’m sure 55 has never once lied to a coworker
What does that have to do with the San Francisco Giants signing a roider to a multi-million dollar contract?
The sentiment is split between the players and you can see it in their interviews. Posey was obviously was angry but a lot of the Latin players and Sergio Romo were in favor of him coming back. Some more than others said it more indirectly.
If the players were so mad at him they wouldn’t have given him a full share. They saw the talent on the field and apparently he was a great clubhouse guy.
If the Giants want to make a great baseball decision that will help their team next season they sign Melky for a value based contract. Who cares about the PR. Melky has one year to prove himself once again if he wants any sort of big contract in the future.
pretty sure they gave him a full share because they were legally obligated in virtue of the rules of the CBA.
Was unaware of the rule, thanks. But it still doesn’t change my stance on Melky coming back to the Giants.
Melky was going to get a big pay day all while taking a spot in the batting order where a guy like Posey could boost his MVP stats more. Posey was obviously in competition with the guy judging by comments.
The valuation of this site predicts Melky won’t take a value based contract. No matter how you dissect his #’s there’s some juice added to that 18th ranking. I don’t disagree the Giants should take Melky back for 1 year and less than he made this year but I’m highly skeptical that’s going to happen and that’s fine by me.
From what I’ve read from Schulman and Baggs, the players don’t want him back. I don’t either. Rather have Ichiro for a year.
You acting like hes the only player who has lied. Everybody deserves a 2nd chance.
There’s a difference from a player lying to a reporter than a player lying to a teammates face.
Just because they’re all teammates doesn’t mean they’re friends. It’s not like the clubhouse takes a poll and has a list on the wall of who uses PED’s and who doesn’t, it makes sense for a player not to say anything unless they want to be caught.
how do we know other giants(or any team) players aren’t using PEDs (or other banned substances)?
Given that they only have $12 M to play with, I doubt the Marlins are involved…. but they should be. A budget short term solution in LF would be an excellent bridge to Christian Yelich.
The #orioles and their LF is a perfect fit for Melky. He’s slot in in the 2-hole and we’d have a 1-2 with Markakis with high OB %. High reward, low salary risk.
Giants won a World Series trophy without this guy, he is not a team player. 28 years old and passed on by the Yankees, Braves, Royals, and now Giants. He’s developing quite the reputation.
Without Melky though the Giants would’ve had to beat the Braves in the wildcard game to get into the playoffs
Please look up the definition of unique – something can’t be more unique than something else – i.e. I’m more one-of-a-kind than you are? You mean distinctive or rare.
The Giants won’t be interested unless Posey is ok with it. He sets the tone for the clubhouse and was visibly angry with how Cabrera handled the situayion.
My HUGE suspicion is that Melky was using in KC as well. So when you throw out these last 2 seasons even those who argue the BABIP isn’t affected can’t argue he’s that extraordinary, it falls to under .290. The argument for Melky is that he’s a pure contact hitter but the juice had something to do with that without a doubt imo. His K/BB ratio is a better indicator and even on juice it was over 2:1 and about that for his career- without much power.
So the question remains can he do it without the juice? Will he try to get around the testing as Verducci’s article in SI points out is a rampant problem. Will he try to do the “new” rigorous training that supposedly made him better these last 2 seasons and if he does will he be able to hack it without the juice which was obviously allowing him to recover from the intense workouts? All of these questions make Melky a big risk as a starter, bigger than the Giants can really afford imo.
steroids help you make contact??
Testosterone; boosts eyesight and increases muscle memory to start with. Some users like FP Santangelo have said their best gain was the eyesight improvement- so yes, it would help you make more, better contact.
Behavioural issues aside I think that Melky would be perfect for the Jays. A switch hitting, good on base hitting top of the order bat to fill a position of need for a reasonable price and short term…He would look great hitting second and maybe pushing Lawrie down in the order in more of a RBI role. I would support the signing although it would be a bit of a PR disaster for Toronto considering the issues we had in 2012 with Yunel and company. Beggers can’t be choosers and I think this would be a smart signing.
Be careful with the OBP. His K/BB ratio was terrible in KC, nearly 3:1, and his OBP .339. If he’s not raking he will get pitched to and the K’s will go up again, as well the OBP will go down significantly.
He hasn’t had an OBP below .300 even pre-breakout, and even pre-breakout, except for that year in KC, his BB/K rates haven’t been that bad (he’s not disciplined but he’s not King on everything).
1 year of OBP higher than KC and there’s a good chance he was on juice there in 2011. He doesn’t take BB so you’re relying on him to hit his way on base and he’s less likely to do that now than he was in KC.
If his game is about OBP and he doesn’t take BB, has declines in power, than a 2:1 K/BB ratio isn’t going to cut it.
BABIP means less for a hitter than it does for a pitcher (although his 2012 one will probably regress, PEDs or not).
he doesn’t do one thing really well or at an elite clip, but he’s a decent but not great corner outfielder who’ll come cheap.
I felt like the Mets, Braves, Reds, Rangers, O’s, Blue Jays, Tigers,Indians were the only fits for him. The Braves wont go down that road again, and I’m not sure a couple of those teams would want to do something there. I honestly thought he would end up with the Mets
The Yankees would be dumb to not look into him for one year in RF (after they can be sure he won’t get further suspension from MLB for the website stuff).
If I was the Yankees I’d look to bring him back for 1 year. I don’t think he is really as good as he was this year, but I think he is better and cheaper than hunter will be. Need to keep your options open if you don’t want to spend on swish or hamilton.
No roids, no stick!
I think the Giants are going to resign him.
Based on this article i don’t. If there’s 5 teams willing to bid on him the Giants are going to have the lowest offer most likely. They’re definitely not going to outbid anybody for exactly the reason that he hasn’t really been seen off juice for some time and they know enough to likely know if he was using in KC.
It is possible the Giants sign Milkey. The Giants won’t comment on Milkey. So it is unknown at this time.
And he was prolly already on testosterone in 2011.
Great fit for the tigers. A guy that can be put into the 2 spot or number 5 providing some protection.