Asdrubal Cabrera’s strong start for the Mets is building an interesting test case in free agency, writes Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The 32-year-old is the type of player who was immensely devalued last offseason — a longtime solid but not star-caliber regular on the wrong side of 30 — but is also in the midst of perhaps his best start to any season. Cabrera is batting .329/.376/.552, and I’d add that dating back to last September, he’s actually slashing .345/.398/.573 in 260 PAs. Cabrera has upped his line-drive rate quite a bit in 2018, but his fly-ball, ground-ball, strikeout and walk rates are all in line with his career marks. The uptick in liners and hard contact does prompt xwOBA to view his early work favorably, but it’s not clear he can maintain that pace. A .383 average on balls in play is a huge factor in Cabrera’s surge, and that doesn’t appear especially sustainable.
That said, Cabrera looks to have plenty left in the tank after a solid two-plus years with the Mets. Davidoff, though, points to peers like Neil Walker and Eduardo Nunez in suggesting that the market hasn’t been favorable to Cabrera’s skill set and wonders if he’ll be able to top the two-year, $18.25MM deal he initially landed from the Mets.
More from the division…
- Former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro (now the Mets’ first base coach) chatted with current Phillies GM Matt Klentak when the Mets played the Phils at Citizens Bank Park over the weekend, Amaro tells Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Amaro notes that he already knew Klentak somewhat from Klentak’s days with the Orioles and Angels as well as in the Commissioner’s Office, and the former GM expresses some appreciation for Klentak’s acknowledgment of the trades he made before being dismissed. As Salisbury notes, a significant portion of the Phils’ roster was drafted or acquired under Amaro’s watch near the end of his run. Amaro also caught up with rookie manager Gabe Kapler and discussed Kapler’s rough first week on the job. “I told him, ‘Hey, just like any other place, and maybe more so than others, if you guys keep playing well the fans will really appreciate it and things will turn around,'” says Amaro. The former GM speaks fondly of the city and of Citizens Bank Park, noting that Philadelphia will always feel like a home to him.
- The Marlins had some injury scares on Sunday when both Brian Anderson and Miguel Rojas exited the game early, but Joe Frisaro of MLB.com writes that X-rays on each player came back negative. Anderson felt some discomfort in his right middle finger when hitting a fly-out in the sixth inning, he revealed, while the source of Rojas’ injury was far more obvious: he was plunked on the left wrist by a 93.9 mph fastball from lefty Sam Freeman. Skipper Don Mattingly acknowledged that there’s no guarantee either will immediately rejoin the lineup Tuesday following today’s off-day, but it doesn’t sound at present as if either will require a trip to the disabled list.
I clicked on that Amaro article and after reading it made the mistake of opening the comments. Those are the dumbest, most ignorant, ineducable baseball fans on the planet.
I believe they call themselves Philadelphians.
White Sox fans on here seem to really want to take a shot at that crown (referring to taking Dustin Fowlers lawsuit as a personal shot at their fave team).
And don’t forget loyal
There’s something just off when guys like Walker and Nunez can’t get solid contracts (admittedly both have not exactly bolstered my point this offseason). Both of those guys, and Cabrera, are the kinds of guys you need to win, versatile with enough bat.
I understand in some cases teams are realizing they are better off letting the young talent fill out the back or rosters. And, I also understand that the defensively challenged 1b or corner OF who hits for power and nothing else has been devalued. But that doesn’t describe any of these guys.
Doesn’t the evidence suggest that Nunez and Walker WERE valued properly – or even overvalued? There is nothing to like about Walker so far. K’s are up, BB’s are down. No pop. Defense is awful and he can’t run. You could say just about ditto for Nunez. I’d take the over on both guys improving but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see them sitting around 0 fWAR by year end.
As for Cabrera – the guy is playing out of his mind. Pre-30 Cabrera was a guy that could count on for around league average production. Some years better, some a little worse. Never a superstar but never a scrub. This new Cabrera is a superstar. No way anyone expected this type of production … just like there is no way he will continue to hit like this. He’ll settle in around 10-20% better than league average offensively (vs his current 56% pace). We’re already seeing that decline. In March/Apr he was posting a wRC+ of 167. First few weeks in May, it’s down to a still solid 127.
If your point is that the reason that Walker and Nunez didn’t get bigger deals was a consensus around the league that they weren’t going to be good this year- then ok. But that feels like a little bit of hindsight.
As for Cabrera- I agree he’s a league average bat. But a league average bat who can play reasonably well at 2b and 3b and can play ss in a pinch should be worth more than it is currently valued at.
I don’t know if this is the case, but it seems odd that someone was once the top decision maker, but is now a first base coach. I always thought fired GM’s would move into different front office roles with other organizations.
Amaro was slandered by the corporate media to the point where he was too toxic to hire in a front office position.
Everything Amaro was blamed for was the work of the owner John Middleton. The media who slandered Amaro knew this.
Look, amaro made some good moves, but also some boneheaded mistakes. That resigning of Howard was chief case in point. The guy is a class act and I wish him well, but your comment that he was slandered or scapegoated is hyperbole and patently false. Just like ed wade, it’s just how it goes sometimes in this business, where you win or else.
Clelopis, the Phillies ownership caused the problems including the new owner John Middleton by not starting the rebuild sooner and getting better trade value for their stars. David Montgomery(one of the owners) admitted that he forced the resigning of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley because they won a WS together and were great community people. The ownership only started getting into analytics, latin american player signings and more player development at the end of his term.
Amaro wants to try to be a MLB manager one day and is taking the correct path to reaching that. goal. He prefers the field side of the game.
Here’s where east coast bias comes into play, Jed Lowrie is a FAR more interesting case than Cabrera, as he always had a high ceiling and is only just now, after injuries and sleeping troubles, is playing to his full potential and hitting more like Daniel Murphy and Brian Dozier. He hasn’t had any health issues since 2016 where he took time to figure out his sleep issue and he’s been an everyday #3 hitter 2B ever since. Being that he’s taken so much time away from the game, he probably does had a lot left in the tank to be a highly productive player until he’s 37/38 or so.
Jed lowrie is 34 years old. His high ceiling he was tabbed for as a young player is irrelevant. He’s done very well in Oakland but I’ll be surprised to see him top 2/20.
Even if he somehow goes top 5 MVP this year? I think he’s a more interesting case than Cabrera because he hasn’t hit this level before.
He’s doing great but he won’t be top 5 mvp voting this year.
Oh great, totally ignore my “somehow” and then totally predict the future. Tell me, who wins the WS? We can bet on it now, genius.
If somehow Matt Harvey wins the cy young this year the Mets will be sad.
Amaro cannot help himself to cone across as a hopeless self promoter
Ruben Amaro was a casualty of well meaning but old style ownership that rewarded existing players for past performance and did not invest in player development at all.. The Phillies did win 5 straight NL East under Amaro and he provided the players Charlie Manuel wanted. It amazes me that Charlie Manuel gets a free pass for his public demanding the trade for Hunter Pence and refusing to player younger players at all. Remember he quit Cleveland when they started the rebuild after Manny Ramirez left..
Klentak can win the fan base over easily – do what Amaro did before he gave out contracts to aging players – trade for a Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee impact pitcher – that’d be someone like James Paxton. Go after Mike Trout. Sign Harper. Sign Machado.