Even in the middle of the World Series, baseball people continue to talk about embattled Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. News on Cabrera and other notes from today’s column..
- Sherman spoke with a group of baseball executives about where Cabrera will sign and the Mets and Phillies both came up regularly. The Mets could look to Cabrera as corner outfield insurance against Jason Bay and Lucas Duda if he is affordable. Such a move would make even more sense if they are unable to retain Scott Hairston.
- The majority of the execs see Cabrera winding up with a one-year deal in the $2-$5MM range to audition himself. One exec could see him getting $10-$12MM while another said he could possibly get one year at $8-10MM.
- The Mets are unlikely to obtain catcher Kelly Shoppach and they are instead eyeing free agent Miguel Olivo. When the Mets were combing the trade market for catchers this summer, the Mets had Olivo as a secondary candidate to the Rockies’ Ramon Hernandez before ultimately trading for Shoppach. The Mariners announced on Wednesday that they would not pick up Olivo’s $3MM option for 2013.
- Yankees officials never saw Cabrera as a negative influence on Robinson Cano the way that people outside of the organization did, but he doesn’t look to be a great fit regardless. The Yankees might not be able to offer the certainty of playing time that Cabrera will need to rebuild his value.
Boston needs an outfielder. One year deal with incentives for Cabrera? Even if PEDs were making him the player he turned in to, he’s worth the chance on a one year deal.
– said by every team in baseball.
Yeah, but Boston could offer more in terms of money than just about any other team. They are so far under payroll they can swallow that one year deal without any problems.
If you offer more money, then it’s no longer a one-year deal with incentives to prove himself. It’s a too-expensive deal for someone who, so far in his career, has only been good when on drugs.
So he wasnt good last yr or with the yankees?
Personally, I suspect he was using drugs during his season with Kansas City.
And no, he wasn’t particularly good with the Yankees. 269/331/385 slash line with below average defense, minimal speed (especially for a young centerfielder), and no real XBH power even. You want to start in the majors? Give me something — average, power, defense, speed. Melky had none of these things.
Before going to KC, he was a career .267 hitter whose 162-game averages included 27 doubles, 4 triples, and 10 home runs. Then suddenly, he hits .305 with 44 doubles and 18 home runs on a terrible team in Kansas City, and he supposedly just blossomed?
I wouldn’t give him more than a million with another 500k in incentives. Beyond that, I’d rather promote a AAA player.
Royals. Also, it is generally assumed that he started the PEDs at that point. No way to prove it though.
no!!! no!!! NO!!!!! I don’t want him anywhere near the Red Sox!
He probably cost himself at least 50M, you really think he’s going to come back and use PEDs again when he has a chance to make money if he can prove it was a result of PEDs?
Flip side? He wouldn’t have been worth squat more than likely without the PED’s.. He took a gamble, got busted and maybe in his own mind ok’d the situation that way.
Either way, I don’t see anything wrong with a one year deal to see where he really stands.
there’s no way to prove that melky’s success was due to PEDs or what the concrete effects of PEDs on baseball performance really are.
plenty of terrible players took PEDs and remained… terrible.
there is no reason for a team that needs a corner outfielder not to attempt to sign melky to a 1 year deal.
For every one that remained terrible, there was a Carerra, or a Brady Anderson that got tremendous improvement as well.
Yes, so there isn’t any way to establish which group Melky belongs to or that things like conditioning, statistical luck, age/statistical prime, etc. do/don’t play a role in melky (or brady anderson, etc.)’s performance.
We have no idea when Melky started using, and Melky was pretty good (not 2012 good, but starting OF caliber) in 2011 as well.
edit: guys also come out of nowhere and hit 30+ hrs who aren’t tied to PEDs (see: jose bautista and others).
Anderson got enormous overnight, he gave it away. The guy played for the WH Red Sox and was a spindly kid, who could hit a HR, but was more of a speedster and XBH ability..as in doubles guy, but all of a sudden with Baltimore, he goes from barely a dozen to 50HR and resembles Jose Canseco muscle wise.
Agreed on Cabrerra in 2011 started getting pretty good, but you look at all those earlier seasons where he just.. Well he just wasn’t very good, then all of a sudden he has 2 really good years in a row?
I am all for some team signing the guy to a 1Y deal, it can’t hurt you know, cause really doubt that PED’s gave Ramirez the numbers he put up throughout his career either.. Tho may have helped to extend those numbers.. Some team probably will go and give him a 8-10m 1Y deal, then try and work in a team option for another couple years.. In case he was for real without PED’s, tho doubt Cabrerra will have anything to do with that type of contract.
“but you look at all those earlier seasons where he just.. Well he just wasn’t very good” I think people forget melky isnt even in his prime yet. His power went down this year so it be the first time someone linked steriods to BABIP,,,
You mentioned terrible players that took PED’s and remained terrible. Was trying to think back on other players that grew huge overnight back in the early days, other than Brady Anderson and recalled a Tigers OF by the name of Nelson Simmons. While of course they didn’t exactly check for things like that in the mid 80’s, Simmons also is a guy who just got HUGE over the course of 1 winter.
I remember Sparky Anderson even complaining about how he had gotten so huge.. As in muscular huge.. That he couldn’t run, or move around any longer and it sort of ruined his status as a propsect. Looked up his BR page and it shows him as only 185lb, but at the end he was well north of 200lb and it was muscle. Hard to put on that much mass over 1 winter.
If I were making predictions on who ends up where…
Mets – Melky Cabrera
(He’s a switch hitter which the lineup needs who will come cheap and he has enough pop to hit anywhere in the order. He would be their best defensive outfielder and he could come at a huge bargain because of his past. They need to take this gamble.)
Yankees – Ichiro Suzuki and Torii Hunter
( Cashman has said he doesn’t care about age, he cares about production. We’ve seen Ichiro get rejuvenated in NY and he wants to return via reports. Having Ichiro back would mean an all left handed outfield. Torri Hunter a great defender, powerful righty bat (5.5 WAR) and someone who has expressed interest in NY in the past would be the perfect compliment to Granderson, Gardner, and Ichiro against tough LHP.)
Boston – Shane Victorino
(There are many rumors that Boston will be looking to trade Jacoby Ellsbury making. Victorino a perfect fit in Boston. He has that grinding it out mentality which Boston loves. He’s scrappy and a good bat in the number 2 hole as he can switch hit and this extends Bostoms lineup. Even if Boston hangs onto Ellsbuy, Victorino is an ideal fit along with Cody Ross for the way Boston likes to manufacture runs.)
Phillies – Nick Swisher
Swisher like Melky and Victorino are switch hitters and Swisher during his time with the Yankees has shown he is a spark plug to any team with the energy he brings day in and day out. He can fill in for Ryan Howard at First Base when needed and can be an improvement over Nate Schierholtz in Right. By bringing in Swisher, Ruben Amaro will make a big splash and get back the production lost by trading Hunter Pence out of necessity this deadline.
And continue getting older and older. Philly needs younger people on the roster, not 30+ YO veterans signed to above market deals.
Seeing you mention Melky being the best defensive outfielder on any team just makes me cringe. Bay is defensively better I would say, but hopefully he will not play. I think he is such a toss up with production. Had he not been suspected of PED use while in KC I would be a little more sold on his production. I guess the real upside is that you won’t have to pay him too much whether he produces or stinks it up…
I want nothing to do with Swisher in Philly. Didn’t we learn enough
from the Rowand???? He was also a “sparkplug” but pretty much sucked.
Look at his production in SF afterward. Ugh I hope the Phils stay
far away from him.
I still think Hunter ends up in Philly and is asked to play CF.
I agree completely
I wouldn’t mind the Mets signing Melky to a relatively cheap deal as long as they have a short leash on him. If he performs like he did from 2007-10 they would cut bait on him and not have to deal with the ensuing circus, which a mediocre 4th OF wouldn’t deserve.
The Giants put Cabrera on their 40 man roster, instead of releasing him. The media reported that the Giants have a change of heart on him. The Giants may try to resign him during the exclusive signing period.
If they release him, they get nothing. If they negotiate with him, they probably get series A draft pick compensation. That was a bit of a no-brainer.
Yanks should sign him for 1/5-7 to replace Swisher, who they definitely should let walk.
Saltalamacchia could become available. He would be a good fit for the Mets. There have been rumors of Ike Davis being traded, Salty could be a piece of that potential trade. Not sure why Ike Davis is even rumored to be available though, he is cheap power.
in a perfect world (i.e.definitely not Major League Baseball) Melky would have to pay to play
please mets make an offer for Melky…anything is better than watching Bay out there and duda hasnt proved himself to be consistent enough… and he can be a decent hitter in an anemic offense plus an above average defender in the outfield…hopefully he’ll come cheap hopefully a one year deal worth about 6-8 million. Maybe if he proves himself the mets could flip him to a contender for some prospects at the deadline…if/when the mets are out of it…this makes sense to me especially if hairston is seeking to much money they could get a quicker better fielder with some upside if he can be close to what he was last year…this would be in a perfect world of course. take the risk!
Yes, Mets PLEASE sign Miguel Olivo so the Mariners aren’t tempted to try and bring him back on a cheaper deal. He’s a perfect fit for you because you aren’t the Mariners.
We need Ichiro, not Melky!
I disagree. The Mets are not interesting in signing Melky Cabrera. They will sign Michael Bourn.