The Many Seasons Of Melky Cabrera

What to make of Melky Cabrera’s season? He’s been up and he’s been down, he’s been good and he’s been bad. But, in the end, I’m not sure he’s an everyday player.  Playing centerfield every day in Brett Gardner’s absence, Melky has struggled again. Let’s look at how his season has gone:

-April 9^th – May 5^th : 24 games (13-11 team record), 15 starts, 71 PA, .344/.408/.563, 13 runs, 22 hits, 2 2B, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 7 BB, 10 K

-May 6^th – June 18^th: 36 games (21-15 team record), 34 starts, 135 PA, .256/.303/.364, 13 runs, 31 hits, 7 2B, 2 HR, 17 RBI, 9 BB, 18 K

-June 19^th – Aug 2^nd: 39 games (26-13 team record), 31 starts, 129 PA, .301/.380/.513, 18 runs, 34 hits, 10 2B, 4 HR, 13 RBI, 15 BB, 11 K

-Aug 4^th – Present: 19 games (15-4 team record), 19 starts, 83 PA, .169/.217/.234, 9 runs, 13 hits, 2 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 4 BB, 9 K

I put the team record there to show that he hasn’t hurt the Yankees by playing poorly. But when he’s played every day, he struggles. When he’s not starting every day, he’s been great. That suggests to me that Melky may not be an everyday player.

Since he hit a huge home run to help beat Boston for the first time this season, he has no home runs and only two extra base hits in 16 games. In those 70 plate appearances, he’s batting .172/.229/.203. And those numbers are actually skewed up by a 4-6 game he had against the Red Sox when the Yankees scored 20 as a team.

Melky still brings the Yankees some speed in centerfield and OK defense (he’s their only serviceable outfielder, though Nick Swisher has been more solid lately). He’s also topping mostly all of his offensive career highs (except for BA and OBP). And he brings an energy to the team as well at times. But the man looks gassed out there playing every day, and he’s killing them with the bat. When he gets a base hit, he celebrates every time. That’s not a good sign. It seems like a long time since he was hitting walkoff after walkoff for the Yankees.

Here are Melky’s splits for the season now: .267/.328/.416

Including 2009 here are Melky’s career splits: .268/.329/.383

I think this is one of those cases where we know what we’re getting at this point, even if he is only 24. My thought all along was that the Yankees should try Austin Jackson every day in CF. With the lead the Yankees have, they can afford a few rookie mistakes.

Or maybe we should just start praying for Brett Gardner to recover a little quicker.