The Giants avoided arbitration with outfielder Melky Cabrera, tweets ESPN's Enrique Rojas, signing him for $6MM. Cabrera, who is represented by ACES, received a healthy $4.75MM raise over last year's free agent base salary. The Giants acquired Cabrera on November 7th from the Royals for another arbitration eligible player, Jonathan Sanchez.
As our arbitration tracker shows, the Giants' remaining arbitration eligible players are Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo, Pablo Sandoval, and Nate Schierholtz.
Only the Giants would give 6 million to a fourth outfielder.
With Pagan and Cabrera, I hope the Giants front office knows something that the fans don’t because it looks like they’re again handing more and more cash over to utter mediocrity. Its going to be a shame to have a roster full of Pagan/Cabrera level talent and no Lincecum or Cain down the line.
Cabrera is not a fourth outfielder. I don’t know where the haters came up with that. He’d be a starter on almost every major league team. You don’t get 200+ hits as a fourth outfielder…
Career High .332 BABIP last year. While posting a career low walk rate and career high Strikeout rate. The Royals only gave him 700 PA because he was their best option.
thank you, at least you watch some games haha, not like others!
I think RBIs point was that the Giants are taking a pretty sizable leap of faith that Cabrera maintains something in the vicinity of his “career
year” production from 2011 and doesn’t return to his career averages.
2011: .305/.339/.470 w/ 18HR, 87 RBI, 20 SB, 121 OPS+
Average:.275/.331/.398 w/8 HR, 51 RBI, 10 SB, 93 OPS+
Agreed, his 2011 stats make him a starter on nearly any club in baseball but
his career averages are nothing to get excited about. Sadly, depending on what Belt bring to the table offensively, Cabrera is possibly the #1 outfielder on the Giants roster.
Thanks, yeah that’s what I was trying to get at.
I’m wondering how an arbitration case like Cabrera’s would’ve been handled. He got $3.1MM from Atlanta in his second time through arbitration, then non-tendered and signed by the Royals as a free agent for $1.25MM. I always thought the arbitration starting point was last year’s salary. Am I wrong? How is this situation usually approached?
Not sure, but I heard that he was due a projected salary of 4.4 million if he went to arbitration.
I think that amount was a safe assumption if you are using last year’s salary as a starting point. However, the $6MM figure looks like the 2010 salary was used, perhaps because it was the last time he went through arbitration. Do free agent salaries not count in the arb process?
Yankees Avoid Melky Cabrera
You know what they say… “Buy High, Sell Low.”
I think RBIs point was that the Giants are taking a pretty sizable leap of faith that Cabrera maintains something in the vicinity of his “career year” production from 2011 and doesn’t return to his career averages.
2011: .305/.339/.470 w/ 18HR, 87 RBI, 20 SB, 121 OPS+
Average:.275/.331/.398 w/8 HR, 51 RBI, 10 SB, 93 OPS+
Agreed, his 2011 stats make him a starter on nearly any club in baseball but his career averages are nothing to get excited about. Sadly, depending on what Belt bring to the table offensively, Cabrera is possible the #1 outfielder on the Giants roster.