The 2023 campaign is the final season guaranteed for the ten-year extension Miguel Cabrera I signed with the Tigers during spring training 2014. It also looked increasingly as if it would be the last year of Cabrera’s illustrious career.
talk with Christina Di Nicola from MLB.comThe 12-time All-Star has indicated that he is leaning toward retirement at the end of next year. “I think it will be last yearCabrera said. “It feels a little weird to say that. … I think it’s time to say goodbye to baseball. “
Cabrera walked away from the firm retirement announcement Albert Pujols And the Molina runs last year, but it is the second year in a row that he has proposed that his contract coincide with the end of his career. Last August, Cabrera ESPN said He was likely to walk away after the 2023 campaign. He noted at the time that he had passed 20 years of MLB service time by the end of the 2023 season, and suggested that this achievement—along with continued pain in his right knee—would likely lead him to retire at that point. . He will take home $32 million in salary next year and raise $8 million for a 2024 vesting option at the end of the season, leaving the Tigers still on the hook for $40 million.
Cabrera, a two-time Player of the Year winner, turns 40 in April. He will be playing his 16th season in Detroit and told Di Nicola that he hopes to continue working with the organization with youth players after the end of his playing career. For the 2023 campaign, he has indicated that his primary personal goal is to stay healthy. He missed two weeks late last season with a biceps strain but appeared in 112 games and scored 433 starts.
Cabrera is coming off the worst year of his career, having hit .254/.305/.317 appearances with just five home runs. He hasn’t recorded any time on defense, and that kind of production from a particular hitter is definitely not ideal. How many at bats Cabrera’s Tigers could handle if he continued to struggle aggressively is a question for baseball operations chief Scott Harris and captain AJ Hinch, but the four-time batting champion indicated he was on board with whatever decision Hinch made on that one. consideration.
Hinch suggested late in the season that he expected Cabrera to be on the roster in 2023 (link via Chris McCowski from the Detroit News). He was an average or below average hitter for four straight years, but there is no doubt about his legacy in Tigers history. Cabrera has earned seven Detroit Top Ten finishes, including five straight years of consecutive top five placements from 2009-13. Despite his recent struggles, he has a .306/.383/.517 streak since landing with the Tigers during the 2007-08 season.
Even with a potential lower workload next season, the Venezuelan native will get a chance to continue climbing the all-time leaderboards. He ranks 25th with 3,088 hits, and he’s sure to pass Ichiro (3089), Dave Winfield (3110) and Alex Rodriguez (3115) If he is in good health. Matching 101 Songs this year will catapult him into the past Tony GwenAnd the Robin YountAnd the Paul WanerAnd the George BrettAnd the Adrian Beltré And the Cal Ripken Jr In the sixteenth place. Cabrera ranks 27th with 507 career home runs, and even a part-time job can surpass him Gary Sheffield (509), Mail Out (511), Eddie Mathews And the Ernie Banks (512 per piece) to 23.
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