Miguel Cabrera's biggest games: 5 days defined him as the Detroit Tigers' megabucks star
It was clear for the Detroit Tigers entering the 2014 season: Change was coming.
Manager Jim Leyland, a baseball lifer, had decided to try and find a life outside the game, stepping down soon after the end of the 2013 campaign. His replacement, former Tigers catcher Brad Ausmus, had never managed a game, in the majors or minors. Reigning AL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer had one foot out the door, after turning down a contract extension. Reliable right-hander Doug Fister was a Washington National, flipped for prospect Robbie Ray.
And yet, on March 28, 2014, the team ensured that at least one cornerstone of the franchise would stay in place: Miguel Cabrera was going to retire a Tiger, thanks to an eight-year, $248 million contract extension that wouldn’t even kick in until the 2016 season, when Cabrera turned 33, and would last until 2023, his age-40 season.
For Cabrera, the reward was clear, and not just about the money: "I want to finish my career as a Tiger," he said at the news conference announcing the deal. "I want to be here for many years to come. … "We have great fans in Detroit. We have a great stadium. I love to play in Detroit. I want to be part of the Detroit family for a long time."
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And he was, even as that change swept through the organization. Scherzer departed after the 2014 season. Dave Dombrowski, the exec who’d signed Cabrera out of Venezuela a decade and a half prior, departed midway through the 2015 season. Justin Verlander, who’d signed a similarly weighty contract ahead of the 2013 season, was dealt away in August 2017, in hopes of jumpstarting a rebuild.
Through it all, there was Miggy: As the franchise dropped toward its nadir — MLB’s worst record in 2017 — he made three All-Star teams, and finished in the top 11 of AL MVP voting three times, with another Silver Slugger award in 2016, the first season of that mega-deal.
And then … change came for Miggy, or at least injuries did. Cabrera’s stellar rate stats from 2014-18 — .304/.383/.505 — were belied by a mere 604 games played, over an 810-game span for the Tigers, and a steadily decreasing power output. But Cabrera still had his moments. Here, then, are five of Cabrera’s greatest games from 2014-18:
April 4, 2014: Welcome to the 2,000 Club
Tigers 10, Orioles 4: After just his third regular-season game as manager of the Tigers, Ausmus knew where the franchise’s bread was buttered, as he detailed when asked about Cabrera’s history-making afternoon at Comerica Park: “Eventually you run out of adjectives to describe how great of a hitter he is, not only in the context of today’s game, but in the context of the history of baseball.” Indeed, about the only thing that seemed able to stop the reigning MVP was, well, the rain: The Tigers and Orioles waited through a 10-minute delay to open the game, and then another 34-minute pause in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Before and after, Miggy got his hits — in the first inning, a single to left; in the fourth, another single, this time to center; and in the sixth, an improbable infield single to short for Cabrera’s first RBI of the season. That set the stage for the hit everyone was waiting for, and like a good showman, Cabrera didn’t make the crowd wait too long. On the first pitch he saw from righty Ryan Webb — an 89.6 mph sinker right down the middle — Cabrera launched a two-run home run to deep left field for his 2,000th career hit. At 30 years and 352 days, Cabrera became the seventh-youngest player (behind only Jimmie Foxx, Ducky Medwick, Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb) to reach 2,000 hits and just the sixth Venezuelan in the club. Afterward, Cabrera — like so many times before — downplayed his contribution, telling reporters: “We’ve got to count everybody here. We’re not going to win games with one guy.”
And the history? “I mean, I never expected I’m going to hit a thousand hits,” Cabrera said. “I never expect something personal.” Cabrera’s new boss, though, had the line of the day all cued up: “Miguel and I have combined for over 3,000 hits,” said Ausmus, who tapped out after 1,579 hits. “We’re a Hall of Famer combined.” Cabrera would go on to add another 196 hits to his total over the rest of 2014, but in an oddity, only 24 were home runs, while 51 were doubles. Cabrera’s 52 two-baggers led the American League, but his .313 batting average — although very Detroit-appropriate — was his lowest since 2008, his first season in the Motor City.
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April 12, 2015: The ultimate free pass
Tigers 8, Cleveland 5: The only thing hotter than the Tigers, coming off four straight AL Central titles, was Cabrera, who posted a .520/.586/.840 slash line over the Tigers’ six straight wins to open the 2015 season. That included an 11-for-14 series in Cleveland, capped by Cabrera’s 4-for-4 performance that featured two home runs and fell only a triple short of the cycle — and featured the ultimate sign of respect from Cleveland manager Terry Francona.
Miggy started mashing early, sending the third pitch he saw — an 80.6 mph changeup — into the left-center stands, 432 feet away, for a 3-0 lead in the first inning. In the second inning, Cabrera pulled a fourth-pitch slider into left field for a ground-ball single. He continued the assault on left field with a 409-foot homer in the fourth inning, but gave left fielder Jerry Sands a break in the sixth — Cabrera belted a cutter from his knees 372 feet to center for a double. That was all Francona needed to see; in the eighth, with Cabrera needing a triple for the cycle and with Ian Kinsler already on first, the Cleveland skipper gave Cabrera a free pass to stop the pain — the only time in his career Cabrera was intentionally walked to create an at-bat with a runner in scoring position. (It worked, too, as Victor Martinez grounded out to second to end the inning.)
Cabrera hardly seemed surprised at his big weekend, telling reporters, "I mean, I feel good. I feel I see the ball very good. Try to hit my pitches. I have to put a good swing on the ball." Kinsler, in his second year as a teammate of Cabrera’s, still had some awe left, saying, "He's special, man. He's fun to watch. The game should be sold out just because of him. People should just want to come watch him hit." For his part, Francona sounded sorry he hadn’t walked Cabrera more, telling reporters, “When you look back, there were just no situations to do that. He’s that good a hitter and when he feels that good at the plate, that’s a bad feeling.”
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May 14, 2015: Climbing to 400 homers
Tigers 13, Twins 1: The red-hot bats of April had given way to a May malaise (with just 3.1 runs a game), and no Tiger was feeling it as much as Cabrera, who posted a .189/.362/.270 slash line in the first 11 games of the month, slowing his climb to 400 career homers to a virtual crawl — one homer, on May 3, to leave him at 396 for his career. But a getaway-day game at Comerica Park seemed to cure all woes, as Miggy went 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs.
Cabrera opened the Tigers’ scoring with a single, turning on an inside sinker from future teammate Mike Pelfrey for a liner into center to score Anthony Gose from second. After a lineout and a groundout against Pelfrey, Cabrera dug into the creamy middle of the Twins’ bullpen. First up, a crushed down-and-in slider that departed with a 108.8 mph exit velocity and landed 425 feet away in the left-center seats for two more RBIs. Two innings later, Cabrera went the other way on a fastball down the middle, sending it 355 feet to the right-field seats for RBI Nos. 4-5.
Suddenly, a new light was on the horizon for Cabrera: One more home run, and Miggy would tie countryman Andrés Galarraga for the most homers by a Venzuelan. Two more homers, and, well, Cabrera had that goal in mind: "Four hundred, bro," he told reports. "What you think?" And, indeed, Cabrera needed just two more games for No. 400, picking it up on a Saturday afternoon in St. Louis.
Still, dire days were yet to come, as a calf strain in early July sent Cabrera to the injured list for the first time in his career, cost him six weeks of games and sapped his power upon his return. Despite winning his fourth batting crown (at .338, tops in both leagues), he hit just three homers over his final 42 games to finish with just 18 — his fewest since his rookie season (12).
April 25, 2016: An assist from Ausmus’ bat
Tigers 7, Athletics 3: Cabrera returned healthy in 2016, though you might not have known it from his first 17 games, in which he hit .206 with one homer over 63 at-bats. In just four at-bats against the A’s, however, Cabrera turned it all around, posting a 4-for-4 night — the 40th of his career and 29th as a Tiger — with two home runs and four RBIs. And it all started with a borrowed bat from manager Brad Ausmus: "I can't remember if he said he was hitting like me or he needed one of my bats," Ausmus told reporters after the game, "and I said, 'Hey, I've got one.' (Clubhouse manager) Jim Schmakel had some of my old bats, so I grabbed one for him. He just used it for a round of BP."
Reunited with his own bat, Cabrera snapped an 0-for-13 stretch with an opposite-field homer, launching a 3-1 down-the-middle sinker 354 feet to the tunnel just to the left of the right-field foul pole. In the third, Cabrera pulled a sinker in on his knees down the left-field line for a double. Slump over, right? "I was talking to him when I got on first base, asked him how he felt," Oakland outfielder Josh Reddick told reporters afterward. "He said he felt like (garbage) up to tonight. I told him he's Miguel Cabrera and he'll be just fine."
And so he was: Cabrera went back to right field in the fifth inning, sending another sinker to almost the same spot as his first-inning blast. The three-run shot gave the Tigers a 5-0 lead and gave Reddick the cold comfort that he was right, as he noted after singling in the sixth and reuniting with Cabrera on first: "I said, 'I told you you'd be all right,'" Reddick said.
Cabrera finished his night with a sharp single back to left on, what else, another sinker inside. The four-hit night raised his batting average 48 points, to .254. But Cabrera wasn’t done there; the 33-year-old hit .324 with 35 homers, 27 doubles and 98 RBIs the rest of the way to finish with a .316/.393/.563 slash line in his final season playing more than 140 games.
April 28, 2018: Retro style in Charm City
Tigers 9, Orioles 5: After suffering through an injury-plagued 2017 — Cabrera played in 130 games, but injured his back in the World Baseball Classic before the season and hit a shocking .249 with only 18 homers — Cabrera appeared to have started his 16th season as a different kind of hitter; over his first 23 games, he hit .313 with a .402 OBP, but mustered just two home runs. At the O’s retro-styled Camden Yards home, however, he turned in a retro-styled Miggy performance, going 3-for-5 with a double, a homer and five RBIs — his first five-RBI game since September 2016.
Cabrera didn’t take long to lock in, sending the third pitch he saw in the first inning on a line to right for a single. He came up again in the second with two on and two out and sent the second pitch of the at-bat lofting to right field, where it cleared the out-of-town scoreboard for a 5-0 Tigers lead. His third at-bat, however, was a true throwback with runners on first and second in the fourth inning, as Cabrera fought off a sinker inside and sent a line drive to left-center, and the ball snuck past the diving O’s fielder. Could Cabrera steal a triple, his first on the road since August 2008? Not this time, as the veteran pulled up at second, content with adding two RBIs to his total. "I don't have the speed to do that," Cabrera told reporters later. "I didn't do that when I was younger. Now I'm 35."
Cabrera had one more chance at his first six-RBI game since 2013 when he came to the plate in the eighth with a runner on second. But Baltimore manager Buck Showalter had a throwback move of his own: An intentional walk. It would be one of the last times Cabrera reached base in 2018. The next day, Cabrera suffered a biceps injury. Four days after that, a hamstring strain sent him to the IL. A return in June lasted 12 games before he was done for the season with a ruptured left biceps tendon. The hopes of Cabrera rediscovering his All-Star form were as faint as they’d ever been, with five seasons left on his contract.
SATURDAY’S PART 4: Chasing history …
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.
PART 1: 5 days that defined Miggy as a Marlin
PART 2: 5 days defined him in first 6 seasons as a Detroit Tiger
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Miguel Cabrera's biggest games: 5 days defined time as megabucks star
