The Braves avoided arbitration with outfielder Melky Cabrera by signing him to a $3.1MM deal for 2010, reports ESPN's Enrique Rojas. Cabrera earned $1.4MM in '09, his first arbitration year. He proceeded to hit .274/.336/.416 for the Yankees and was traded to the Braves this winter in the Javier Vazquez deal. Cot's Baseball Contracts notes that the Yankees paid $500K toward Cabrera's 2010 salary.
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damn…$3.1 million?
The White Sox paying $3.5MM for Juan Pierre in 2010 looks a lot better now.
melky has more upside than Juan Pierre at this stage of their careers
Yea, but the Braves are only paying $2.6 million out of their own pockets.
Wow, good for Melky!
really 2.6 million from the braves perspective.
Melky is doing alright for himself. Awful with the bat and just so/so with the glove (according to UZR/150). $3.1m seems like a lot of scratch.
Yeah he was awful with the bat. Lots of walk-off hit in the past few years and base runners thrown out at 2B with his arm. With a some more plate discipline he could hit probably 280 and have a higher OBS.
What?In 2009 …Bases loaded – 2 outs – 583 OPS.Runners on any base – 725 OPS.RISP – 792 OPS.2 Outs when he bats – 622 OPS.Late & Close or Tie Game or in a game that is within 4 runs – his highest OPS is 754 OPS.Games where the score is greater than 4 runs difference – 860 OPS.High leverage (according to baseball reference) – 750 OPS.Medium leverage – 621 OPS.Low leverage – 839 OPS.If you look at “clutch” stats Cabrera performs as well OR WORSE than what you would expect. He excels when the game is beyond reach (+4/-4 runs for either team). Throwing runners out is not indicative of how good a fielder is. Some of the very best outfield arms rack up few assists because teams don’t want to run on the arm. My comment was directed from the standpoint of UZR. UZR clearly rates Melky as just average defensively.
This is why using your subjective eyes and memory is so dangerous. You tend to remember the high points and disregard the failures.
How is it anymore dangerous than picking and choosing certain stats to judge a player by? Metrics are great, but UZR is not the be all end all for fielders and OPS is hardly a balanced statistic, especially when referring to “clutch” stats. Exactly how useful will a high OBP come in handy when facing an elite reliever with great command?
I’m pretty sure that Melky lead the Yankees in walk-off hits last year, which has nothing to do with OPS and is consistent with what the poster you replied to said.
Melky Milks Braves, read allaboutit!
cute
When is .270 awful? If that is awful then there are alot of awful hitters in the bigs!!!
The guy can play all 3 OF positions and is a switch hitter and the Yanks are paying 500,00.
He also could now be traded, if they offer arbitration and he accepts then they can’t trade him until June unless he gives permission. (ala Soriano)
Cheez13 – couple of comments.1. A 270 BA by itself isn’t terrible. Unfortunately, batting average is one of the worst measurements to evaluate a hitter by. By most accepted standards (wOBA, RC, OPS, OPS+) Cabrera is average to below average.2. This is especially true considering that he plays (at times) a corner outfield position. The offensive expectations are much higher in LF than they are at C. In LF Melky is significantly below average offensively. At CF he has a chance to be league average.3. He can be traded at any time. They do not need to wait until June. He is still under team control as a ML player with less than 6 years of service time. The rule that you are alluding to refers to players who are outside the 6 year service window. They really should use a different term to describe the arbitration process for players with more than 6 years of service time (like Soriano).
$3.1 million for a platoon/4th outfielder? I would like to see him get traded and then Frank Wren sign Damon. If not Damon, then maybe Melky and a few prospects to the Twins for Michael Cuddyer.
trade diaz sign damon and keep melky for a fourth outfielder
3.1 is not a bad price for Melky
All these letters UZR, OPS, ABC, is crazy, This guy does the little things in games to win ballgames. Against the Sox he got hit by pitch stole second, scored on single. As a Sox fan glad he is gone. As a baseball fan I like the kid.
Joe Morgan, is that you?
Haha.
Haha.
That was the winning run, that is all that counts, letters that spell, WIN
It’s stunning that Melky’s making this much money. If I were Atlanta, I would trade him right away.
The Yankees did the right thing getting out from under him before he started making this much coin.
That kind of money can sap Melky’s desire.
The minute he thought he had CF wrapped up for the Yankees, he started to coast and regress and ended up back in AAA. That’s why the Yankees gave Gardner the job out of spring training last year. They both had good springs last year, but the Yankees had a bitter taste in their mouths from Melky’s previous season.
Melky needs a carrot dangled in front of him otherwise he’ll get fat and coast his way through the season.
That’s a lot of money in today’s game for a complimentary player.
2nd Tier Player – not worth the money. Trade him the first chance you get.
The guy made 1.4 last year and hit .274 with 13 homers, how much of a raise would he have gotten through arbritration? Did they really save any money at 3.1?
Rumors have said that he would ave gotten anywhere from 2.8 – 3.6 (double salary at very least) so we did save some. And they don’t have to go through the annoyance of an abirtration hearing.
bjsguess –
I didn’t know that about the arb- thx
I do know that BA is actually one of the worst stats to prove a hitters worth but it was the only one that I knew off the top of my head. The point was, he is not an awful hitter. People tend to ‘stretch’ the truth just a bit. I agree, he is an average hitter…below average at the corners….but a long way from awful. His defense may be average in CF but I we had a bigger sample of him playing corner OF, he would be a better than average defensive corner OFer.
Considering the Braves had Garrett Anderson fumbling around LF last year and barely had a .300 OBP. Cabrera is like freakin’ Ichiro compared to GA.
Also, I know teams like to avoid arb because you basically have to say why the player doesn’t deserve the money. So, you point out all their flaws and weaknesses and some players get their feelings hurt even if they win the arb case. Alot of GM’s like to avoid it if they can, they describe it as ‘uncomfortable’ and saving 300,00 dollars is not that big of a deal if the player feels underappreciated or disrespected.
Guaranteed money is better than possible money. That works for both sides, Melky and the Braves. Would have liked for him to get 2.5, but that is less than double for someone who performed… well.