The other day, Miguel Cabrera was sitting on the couch in A.J. Hinch's office, "just talking," said Hinch, "catching up." This is a perk of being manager of the Tigers. These are the moments Hinch will likely remember. He looked toward Cabrera and said, "Miggy, you having fun?" You can see the smile forming on Cabrera's face, the boyish joy, the grin within. Even at 39, he cannot contain it.
"Yeah, I’m having fun," Cabrera replied, and now you can see the smile start to fade. "I just want to win more."
"It always goes back to winning," said Hinch. "I do feel for him having gone through these last six, seven years here where it hasn’t been great and he’s had to change and even we’ve had to look at him differently."
Cabrera is not the Triple Crown slugger he once was. Expectations for him have changed, even those he has for himself. His body is battered from years of playing through injuries, including a torn groin in 2013 and a broken foot in 2014. His right knee is damaged beyond repair. He has not lost his power; he has sacrificed it. In doing so, he has retained his ability to hit. As Cabrera shifts his approach, we should shift the lens through which we view a 20-year-vet batting above .300. And now we can look at him the same: one of the best to ever do it.
"I’m gonna get the chance to tell people when I’m long done with this game, I got to play with Miguel Cabrera," Robbie Grossman said after Cabrera spurred the Tigers to their fourth win in a row Wednesday with three RBI. "He’s going to go down as one of the greatest players to ever play."
Riley Greene still looks at Cabrera the same. So does Spencer Torkelson. The two of them were talking about him Tuesday night when he went 3-3 against one of the game's best young right-handers in Cleveland's Cal Quantrill. First Cabrera singled on a 93 mph sinker in on the hands, then on a cutter down, then on a cutter up, lining each ball to right.
"I was talking to Tork about this. It’s like, he’s going to aim where he’s going to hit the ball -- and he’s going to hit it there," Greene said with a shake of the head. "That's ridiculous. His approach in the box is incredible, just being able to shoot fastball, curveball, changeup, whatever pitch that’s thrown at him, the other way."
They were talking about him that night in the Tigers' bullpen, too. They've been talking about him out there a lot. "Basically every day," said Michael Fulmer. "Just how he can adapt to what the game is giving him when the game is changing." On Monday, Cabrera grounded a two-RBI single up the middle. On Wednesday, he lined a two-RBI single to right. He went 6-13 with six RBI in Detroit's four-game sweep of Cleveland.
"No matter where the second baseman plays, if he’s playing more up the middle, Miggy's gonna shoot a ball to right field. If he’s playing more natural second base, he’ll shoot a ball up the middle," said Fulmer. "The talent to have that bat control and to put any pitch, whether it's inside, outside, fastball, slider, doesn’t matter, to be able to go that way and know his strengths and how to handle a bat, it’s just really something special, at age 39 especially."
It is. And we'd be foolish to let Cabrera's physical decline obscure it. We'd be missing a master at work. In a game skewing young, in a season where the league-wide average is .242, lowest since the Year of the Pitcher in 1968, Miggy is the only big-leaguer age 35 or older batting .300. In a year where he became the seventh player in MLB history with 3,000 hits and 500 homers, Cabrera can become the seventh player this century to hit .300 at the age of 39 or older.
"He’s accepted his change as a player," said Hinch, "and I think we as a fan base, as coaches, as the manager have to accept the change as a player. Now you put him in proper perspective, he’s pretty fun to watch at this age."
Kody Clemens has been talking about Cabrera with his dad. Miggy was a 20-year-old rookie when he hit a rocket off The Rocket in the 2003 World Series. Now he's teammates with Roger Clemens' 26-year-old son, who glanced in Cabrera's direction in the Tigers' clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, smiled and said, "He's a legend."
"We’ve talked about it before, it’s wild. It’s like a 40-year span. He was born in ’83, the year my dad was drafted, 20 years later he hits a homer off of him and then 20 years later, I’m on his team. It’s surreal," said Clemens. "It just puts some perspective on how good he’s been for so long."
There's one perspective out there that points to what Cabrera is not. He is not what he was. He is not suited to bat in the middle of the order. He is not dangerous enough to be a designated hitter. He is not impactful without his power. He is not even a replacement-level player. He is not worth $30 million per year.
This perspective glosses over greatness. It ironically ignores statistics. With runners in scoring position this season, Cabrera is batting .386, fourth in the majors. With runners in scoring position and two outs, he's batting .458, first in the majors. Anyone batting .385 with men on base -- fifth in the majors -- is worth a spot in the heart of the lineup.
"I love how he’s hitting with runners in scoring position, if you believe in that stuff, which I do," said Hinch. "When guys are on base and he’s conducting an at-bat, is there any doubt that he’s got a plan? I got asked (Tuesday night), ‘Do you think anyone can learn anything from him?’ and I almost laughed out loud. He’s got almost 3,100 hits, how can you not learn something from him?"
If he wanted to, Cabrera could sell out for power. He'd have more than three homers this season. He'd have a higher slugging percentage. He'd also have a lower average. He'd be of lesser value to his team. Cabrera was never a pure power hitter, anyway. Just a pure hitter, and this is pure hitting at age 39:
"He’s locked in on just staying behind that baseball and barreling it up," Craig Monroe said on the TV broadcast Tuesday night after Cabrera's first of three hits against Quantrill. "He's making a lot of hard contact and hitting over .300, which is impressive for a 39-year-old, still getting it done."
The only thing Cabrera hasn't done in Detroit is win a World Series. Nothing would make him smile wider. He's smiling all the same as he chugs toward the finish line, touting the same average he did over the first two All-Star seasons of his career: .308. These aren't the legs that buttressed Cabrera in his prime. These are his last legs, and the Big Man is standing tall.