Miguel Cabrera Needs His Own Thread

Miggy's newest milestone: pic.twitter.com/114OKiUnFQ

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 13, 2022

There's a chance Cabrera is playing his final season.

He is undecided about his status for 2023.

"I got to talk to my agent, I got to talk to the GM (general manager Al Avila), I got to talk to everybody to see what's going to be the plan for next year," Cabrera said. "Right now, we're focused on today. We're going to go day-by-day and see what happens. I don't think about next year right now. I think about trying to finish heathy (sic) this year, and we'll see."

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2022/08/04/detroit-tigers-miguel-cabrera-not-guaranteeing-playing-2023/10240941002/

Miguel Cabrera's 3097th career hit is an infield single. https://t.co/Sywd5NQ8As

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) April 26, 2023

Assume he'll get the full Pujols/Ortiz/Rivera send-off from all cities.

pic.twitter.com/4nGPlI9NZo

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) April 26, 2023

(He got a cowboy hat in Houston.)

I see he played his 2000th game with the Tigers the other day, eighth Tiger to do so. But god, what a miserable way to go out, even as measured against his last few seasons: .182/.241/.221. In 77 AB, he's had three doubles and zero home runs.

@beckjason
Miguel Cabrera's 3142nd career hit is an 8th-inning liner to CF off Josh Winder. That not only pushes him past 8-time batting champ Tony Gwynn and into top 20, it ties him with Hall of Famer Robin Yount for 19th on MLB all-time list according to @EliasSports

Little moment between Sale and Miggy in their last game facing each other:

In his return from a two-month stint on the injured list Friday, Sale faced Cabrera — who is retiring at the end of the season — twice. After getting the slugger to ground out to shortstop in the fifth inning, Sale took a moment to catch Cabrera’ attention and tell him something as he jogged to the dugout. For Sale, who has faced Cabrera 70 times since breaking into the big leagues with the White Sox in 2010, it was important to pay his respects.

“It wasn’t fun learning how to pitch in the big leagues as a starter during his Triple Crown and MVP years, I can tell you that,” Sale said after throwing 4 ⅔ impressive innings in a 5-2 Red Sox win. “I knew this was going to be the last time I faced him and I wanted him to know I had a lot of respect for him. I obviously appreciated the competition throughout the years. We obviously had some pretty good battles. He’s welcome. You’re welcome, Miggy. I helped you get to the Hall of Fame.”

Though Sale won both battles Friday, the 40-year-old Cabrera got the best of Sale for most of his career. For his career, Cabrera is 17-for-59 (.288) with four homers, two doubles, 11 walks and a .925 OPS against Sale, who he saw frequently during their time playing against each other in the American League Central when Sale was with the White Sox. Sale has struck Cabrera out 19 times, good for the second most by any pitcher ever (Lance Lynn, 22).

…

“He does things the right way, too,” Sale said. “You look at his career and what he’s done. I just wanted to say a little something to him, give him a head nod and let him know, ‘I appreciate what we’ve been through over the last few years.’ Kind of a tip of the cap on the way out. He has earned it.”

Sale added, "I presented him with my prized autographed portrait of Drake LaRoche."

The other day:

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fmedia%2Fmotion%2F2023%2F0820%2Fdm_230820_MLB_One%2DPlay_Miggy_Jose_Ramirez_moment%2Fdm_230820_MLB_One%2DPlay_Miggy_Jose_Ramirez_moment.jpg

16 Beltre
17 Cabrera
18 Brett

<3

Some good clips of his last game here: https://www.mlb.com/news/miguel-cabrera-walks-plays-first-base-in-final-mlb-game

Cabrera ends his career with a .306 average, 3,174 hits (16th-most in Major League history), 511 home runs (tied for 25th), 627 doubles (13th), 1,881 RBIs (12th), 1,258 walks, 103 sacrifice flies (tied for 25th) and a .900 OPS.

Some abysmal stretches but his last month (.324/.365/.441) wasn't a bad way to go out. He seemed to enjoy himself all season.

16th in hits is no joke

I'll always be a fan for giving me the chance to experience something I'd been waiting years for, a Triple Crown. I did not, as a result, fully engage with the rookie out in California, but that's okay.

"How about that? They put the guy out there for a curtain call and the first ball is hit right [to him],” said Guardians manager Terry Francona. “Sometimes, maybe things work out for a reason."

https://www.mlb.com/news/miguel-cabrera-walks-plays-first-base-in-final-mlb-game

'how often do you see it? guy makes a great play in the field and it turns out he's leading off the next inning!'

will also miss tito. glad neither of them got thrown out of the game

It was lovely seeing the gifts he got at various stadiums on the way. Except for the A’s giving him a bottle of wine…wtf was that

I watched the highlights of his final game and was struck by how lucky we are to have these nice final moments of HOF-worthy players. I think this is something new -- what happened in Reggie Jackson's final game? Rod Carew's final game? Great players retire now and their final moments in MLB become news, with a touching send-off that people can remember forever. Jeter and Petitte made the pitching change to remove Mo Rivera from his final game, Joe Mauer came in to catch one last time ... this stuff is priceless.

I def remember that broken bat rocking chair Mariano got. Thought it was insanely cool.

These are pretty cool too

The Tigers gave Miggy Jordan cleats made out of baseballs from milestone moments throughout his career 🤯 pic.twitter.com/jcKl2o80D2

— MLB Life (@MLBLife) September 30, 2023