Venezuelan slugger Miguel 'Miggy' Cabrera ended his 21-year career and is now a hot prospect to join the Baseball Hall of Fame after a mandatory five-year waiting period.
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Cabrera played his last game on Oct. 1, 2023, ending a career of many successes playing there for 16 seasons plus the five he played in Florida with the Marlins. Throughout his career as a pro, that he began in 2003, Cabrera racked up many accolades, including a Triple Crown in 2013, seven Silver Slugger awards, two MVP awards, and two Hank Aaron awards for the best offensive player of the league.
José Miguel Torres Cabrera was born on April 18, 1983, in Maracay, Venezuela. Britannica said he was one of the most sought-after baseball players in his teenage years, and he ultimately started his professional baseball career with the then Florida Marlins, being signed for $1.6 million at 16-years-old. He wouldn't hit the field until June 2003, but off the bat, he was a key player for the Marlins.
Early in his career, Cabrera led the Marlins with 33 home runs in 2004 and held a batting average of .323 in 2005, the third-best average that year. Today that would put him in sixth place after Texas Rangers' Corey Seager, who currently has a batting average of .327. Miggy's early success got him a spot to play at the All-Star game. He got an All-star spot the following two seasons as well.
From there, Cabrera was signed by the Detroit Tigers in December 2007, where he would spend the rest of his career. Shortly before the 2008 season, Cabrera signed a $152.3 million 8-year contract. That year, Cabrera hit 37 home runs, but the Detroit Tigers finished last in their league. The Tigers did much better in the 2009 season, finishing second in their league, but it was that year that Cabrera would face trouble in his personal life. He arrived at his Detroit home at 5 a.m. and was arrested after a fight with his wife. Cabrera ultimately wasn't charged with any crime, but he did enter outpatient treatment for alcoholism shortly after this incident.
Despite personal issues early in his career at 26-years-old, Cabrera continued to do well in the MLB and, in 2013, he hit the Triple Crown, leading the league in batting, home runs and runs batted in, the first to achieve this after Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and so far he's the last playyer to achieve this feat. It was in 2013 that Cabrera had his career-high batting average of .344, which was quite high compared to the top batter in 2023 with an average of .354 and second place at .337. In 2013, he had 44 home runs.
Cabrera would continue to do well until 2017, when he had his lowest batting average at .249. As a whole, the Detroit Tigers started to backslide. Cabrera's numbers would continue to hover a bit above his worst year of 2017 in the following seasons, with a .282 batting average in 2019, and then his 2020 season would get cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he hit his 500th home run, and in November 202, he announced that the 2023 season would be his last.
At 40-years-old Cabrera would play his last game of the season with a win against the Cleveland Guardians. Although Cabrera won't be playing on-field anymore, on Sept. 29, 2023, the Detroit Tigers announced Cabrera would be the special assistant to the president of baseball operations for the Detroit Tigers. According to an article from ESPN, Cabrera said he couldn't focus during his last game and was just glad he had an opportunity to say goodbye.
"I'm going to miss everything," Cabrera said in the ESPN article. "But I'm glad I played 21 years in the big leagues, and I'm glad I got a chance to say goodbye."
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