After 21 years in the big leagues, Miguel Cabrera is down to a month. This is it, the final stanza of a one-man symphony, our last chance to catch one of the greatest right-handed hitters ever at work. Cabrera is already established as the only player in MLB history with 500 homers, 3,000 hits and a Triple Crown to his name. But before his Hall of Fame story comes to a close, Miggy has a few more rungs to climb in baseball's record books.
Here are the legends he can catch down the stretch.
Cabrera is currently tied for 19th with Paul Waner in hits (3,152). He's two shy of George Brett and 14 shy of his buddy Adrian Beltre (who, by the way, has to be the most under-appreciated name on the all-time hits list. A first-ballot Hall of Famer known mostly for hating having his head touched). That's probably as high as Cabrera can climb; it would take a throwback month to catch Cal Ripken Jr., who's 32 hits clear of Miggy at No. 16.
In home runs, Cabrera ranks 26th with 510, having passed former teammate Gary Sheffield last week. Not bad for a player who just wanted to hit doubles. He's one shy of Mel Ott and two shy of Ernie Banks and Eddie Matthews. No matter where he finishes, Cabrera will be in fine company. Ted Williams, Willie McCovey and Frank Thomas, tied for 20th in homers with 521, are out of his reach.
Speaking of doubles, Cabrera is 14th all time with 622. With two more, he can catch Hank Aaron. David Ortiz looks safe at 12th with 632, but when you're in the same sentence as Hank Aaron, nothing more needs to be said. (All-time leader in doubles? Tris Speaker. Might win you a beer.)
With 1,871 runs batted in, Cabrera will finish where he is at No. 13. There's no shame in finishing directly behind Willie Mays. But for the record, here are the last four names in Miggy's RBI wake: Mel Ott, Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, Ken Griffey Jr. That'll do.
Finally, if you take as many swings as Cabrera has, you're bound to run into some dubious numbers. For posterity's sake, Miggy will finish sixth all time in strikeouts, between Alex Rodriguez and countryman Andres Galarraga. And he will finish second all time, to Albert Pujols, in ground-ball double plays.
Life hack: all of the top nine hitters on the double-plays list are current or future Hall of Famers.
Entering Thursday, 29 games remain in the Tigers season, 13 of them at home. With the Tigers out of playoff contention, Cabrera, who is hitting .290 over his last 50 games, should get plenty of at-bats. He might even get a game or two at first base, where he hasn't played since 2021. 21 years will come to an end Sunday, Oct. 1, against the Guardians, at Comerica Park.
How fitting: Cabrera has more hits, homers, runs batted in -- and strikeouts! -- against Cleveland than any other team.
