TORONTO — Standing at his locker in the visitors’ clubhouse at Rogers Centre Monday afternoon before his first game against his former team, Chicago White Sox outfielder Melky Cabrera didn’t offer inquiring minds much in the way of insight into his time manning left field in Toronto.
“It feels good to be back. I’ve got good friends in the Toronto front office and former teammates,” Cabrera said. “I play for the Sox now.”
Well, sure. What did you learn while you were here?
“I learned a lot, especially from the Dominican guys,” Cabrera said. “(Jose) Bautista, (Jose) Reyes. They’re good friends. We keep in touch.”
That’s cool, if unspecific. But hey, what was your favourite moment for the Blue Jays?
“When I got the walk-off here in Toronto,” Cabrera said, referring to a game last June against the New York Yankees when his ninth-inning sacrifice bunt was thrown into right field, allowing Jose Reyes to score from second base.
So, did you at least like hitting here?
“Yeah,” Cabrera shrugged. “I feel good wherever I play.”
And that was it. Terse, yet unsurprising. Cabrera has never had a particularly friendly relationship with the media. He was 15 minutes late for a scheduled 3:45 pm scrum with Toronto reporters, his first since leaving the Blue Jays, and when he did conduct it with the assistance of an interpreter, he did little to hide his disinterest, staring at a clubhouse wall in the distance and snickering to himself about the line of questioning.
He kept his answers brief and mundane, which is fine. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. But there was an obvious air of flippancy between Cabrera and the huddled press.
To be fair, it’s been a complicated relationship throughout his decade-long major league career. Cabrera doesn’t speak much English and although he’s had an undeniably productive run in the majors, it’s hard to review his career without mentioning his reported implication in baseball’s Biogenesis scandal.
Cabrera was suspended for 50 games in 2012 as a member of the San Francisco Giants, after he tested positive for high levels of testosterone. Shortly after his suspension, the New York Daily News uncovered a failed scheme — reportedly orchestrated by Cabrera’s “associates” and involving a fake website and fictional supplements — to exonerate the outfielder. MLB caught wind of the alleged ruse, and Cabrera eventually admitted to using a banned substance before serving his suspension. When he became eligible for reinstatement during San Francisco’s 2012 World Series run, the Giants opted not to bring Cabrera back, telling him to stay home for the postseason.
That’s when he came to Toronto. Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos capitalized on Cabrera’s bottomed out value and inked him to a two-year, $16 million deal, providing Cabrera with the opportunity to re-establish himself as a clean player.
But his first season in Toronto quickly became an $8-million write-off. He played most of his 88 games with a benign tumour—fastened to the first vertebrae on the lowest section of his spinal cord, which limited his movement to near absurd levels. Watching Cabrera run on the Rogers Centre turf was a painful experience, and by the second day of August his season was shut down entirely. He still posted passable numbers, with a .279/.322/.360 slash line despite playing the game every day with an ailment that would’ve left most of us bedridden. Alas, much like the Blue Jays as a whole, Cabrera never delivered on his promise that season.
His 2014 was much, much better. He played as if he’d had a weight lifted off his back, which is literally what happened when he had the walnut-sized tumour removed during the 2013 offseason. He batted .301/.351/.458 and accumulated 3.6 wins above replacement, which made him well worth not just the $8 million he was being paid in 2014, but the $16 million he was paid over the length of his deal.
And his season could have been much better had it not been cut short in early September when he fractured a finger diving back to third base. At the time, he was second in the majors with 171 hits and third in the American League with 51 multi-hit games. If there’s one thing about Cabrera, it’s that he rarely slows down.
“He’s steady,” says Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “There’s not the highs and lows with the guy. He approaches it the same way every day.”
Going into the offseason, many in the Blue Jays fan base lobbied for Anthopoulos to re-sign Cabrera. The Blue Jays GM said repeatedly that the team wanted its left fielder back and Anthopoulos negotiated with Cabrera’s representatives both during the season and shortly after the World Series. But the two sides couldn’t agree on the 30-year-old’s value. So, Cabrera tested the market. And he liked what he found.
“We talked in the winter, but we never reached an agreement,” Cabrera says of his negotiations with the Blue Jays. “The White Sox gave me the best offer.”
That offer was a three-year pact worth $42 million. By the time Cabrera signed it, Anthopoulos had already acquired Michael Saunders, an outfielder who battled injuries in 2014 but had shown the potential to replace some, if not all, of Cabrera’s production. Saunders also came cheaper, a factor that made it much easier to commit big money to free agent catcher Russell Martin. Barring a drastic reduction in his asking price, Cabrera was likely never coming back to Toronto.
“I had good relationships with my teammates and the fans in Toronto,” Cabrera says. “But I got the best thing for me and my family. I’m happy to be here now.”
That said, it hasn’t been a great start. Cabrera is batting .239/.287/.270 over his first 41 games with the White Sox and came into Monday night’s game riding a 2-for-24 slump. While he had four homers for the Blue Jays by April 8 last season, he didn’t hit his first for the White Sox until May 6. It remains the only home run he’s hit this season.
Maybe he’s just been unlucky. Cabrera’s struck out only two times over his 24 at-bat slump and his batting average on balls in play for the season sits at .252, well below his career average of .308. His manager certainly thinks there’s an element of luck involved.
“He’s hit the ball hard. Our last series he lined out quite a bit. It was on the barrel and it was hard,” says White Sox bench boss Robin Ventura. “It’s a good sign to see that. But you’re not guaranteed anything just because you hit it hard.”
You’re not guaranteed much in this game. Managers aren’t guaranteed production; players aren’t guaranteed a fair opportunity; journalists aren’t guaranteed honest insight. More often than not, you simply take what you can get.
Cabrera got a hit in three trips against a supremely locked-in Drew Hutchison Monday night. Reporters got a bit of meat to chew on. For Cabrera, and everyone else, life goes on.
