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Just one night after Adrian Beltre hit his 400th career home run, Miguel Cabrera matched that feat in St. Louis. The milestone is especially important for the Tigers’ superstar, since the mark pushes him past Andres Galarraga for the most ever by a player of Venezuelan descent. He’s also the 53rd player in the game’s history to reach the milestone, passing Al Kaline as well as Galarraga on the all-time leaderboard. While we know he got the 399th ball back, the status of number 400 is unclear.
It’s been a typically great season for Cabrera six weeks into 2015. Although he’s reaching a point in his career where many players start to break down, he hasn’t come close to that yet. He’s already at 10 homers on the season, tying him for sixth in baseball and making him one of just 11 players with double-digit dingers. What’s becoming increasingly clear as his career moves along is that we’re watching one of the best right-handed hitters in the history of the game. He has a career .962 OPS and 154 OPS+, and only appears to be getting better as the game shifts towards more pitcher-friendly tendencies.
Cabrera’s 400th homer came when he was 32 years, 28 days old, making him the eighth-youngest player to ever join this club. Luckily, there are many more milestones we’ll be watching from him in the years to come. His 500th homer should come in a few years, and no one would be surprised to see him hit his 600th someday. The 32-year-old is also just 769 hits away from the immortal 3,000 mark. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun watching Cabrera do his thing for the next 5-10 years.
- Over the last few years, we’ve seen a bigger divide in the baseball fan base regarding on-field celebrations. How do the players feel about the issue?
- Remember that scene in Happy Gilmore when the titular character hits a hole-in-one and decides he should do that every time? The Dodgers are doing that with four-strikeout innings.
- Many were expecting a heavy dose of regression from Dee Gordon in 2015, but he has defied long odds to become an electric player.
- Josh Harrison had a similar breakout last season, but he hasn’t been able to sustain it in 2015. What’s going on?
- The Padres added an extreme amount of pop in their outfield as part of their wild offseason, but they’re now being reminded that defense indeed matters.
- The Yankees outfield, on the contrary, features a duo that is on the verge of being an elite tandem if they’re not already there.
- It feels like we’ve been waiting 20 years for Eric Hosmer to become a star. So far this season, he’s finally living up to that hype.
- The Astros’ future continues to arrive in the majors, this time with top prospect Lance McCullers Jr. joining the rotation.
- The A’s are out here reminding everyone that baseball is super hard. How do fans deal with such a lackluster season?
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