I unfairly imagine Astrubal Cabrera as a turkey sandwich. I want an italian sub, or maybe something with a spicy sauce and a more interesting meat, but I know the best thing for me is a turkey sandwich, way less sodium. Cabrera wasn’t a sexy signing. Without Cespedes, the Cabrera signing feels underwhelming but signing Cespedes takes the pressure off of needing a huge bat from shortstop, so here we are Cabrera. He has less power than Flores, hits for way more consistency, it just more consistent in general and a better defender. He is what we need at short: someone dependable and consistent.
Here’s what the different projection sources feel that Cabrera can do:
| Player: | Asdrubal Cabrera | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projection Source: | AB | R | HR | RBI | SB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| MLB.com | 500 | 60 | 15 | 62 | 7 | 0.256 | 0.314 | 0.422 | 0.736 |
| Steamer | 451 | 48 | 13 | 53 | 6 | 0.242 | 0.304 | 0.392 | 0.696 |
| ESPN | 516 | 64 | 14 | 61 | 8 | 0.254 | 0.312 | 0.417 | 0.728 |
| ZiPS | 567 | 71 | 15 | 65 | 7 | 0.261 | 0.297 | 0.369 | 0.666 |
| PECOTA (BP) | 530 | 65 | 15 | 55 | 7 | 0.244 | 0.305 | 0.401 | 0.706 |
| Sporting News | 505 | 57 | 14 | 63 | 6 | 0.246 | 0.312 | 0.4 | 0.712 |
| Baseball America | 553 | 71 | 15 | 64 | 8 | 0.251 | 0.309 | 0.405 | 0.714 |
| Rotowire | 538 | 69 | 14 | 60 | 7 | 0.245 | 0.301 | 0.394 | 0.695 |
| MLB Yearbook | 474 | 57 | 11 | 55 | 7 | 0.253 | 0.31 | 0.399 | 0.709 |
| AVERAGE: | 514.8888889 | 62.44444444 | 14 | 59.77777778 | 7 | 0.250222222 | 0.307111111 | 0.399888889 | 0.706888889 |
None of this is really surprising, and with the exception of a few outlets above, most projection sources feel Cabera is going to perform about the same with a bit of pop, real average, average and an average OBP.
I am a bit surprised at Steamer and MLB Yearbook in terms of at bats. Out of everyone who can play short, I feel Cabrera will be the closest to the AB’s of a fulltime player. With Wright playing about 130 games, Flores will get 30 games in there, which will decrease the amount of games where Wright and Flores plays on the left side than Wright and Cabrera.
Notes:
Both ZiPS and PECOTA (BP) do not provide AB’s, so those are PA’s instead.
MLB.com and Steamer data can be found here.
ZiPS data can be found here.
ESPN data can be found here.
Baseball America data is from the 2016 Preview Fantasy Guide
Sporting News data is from the 2016 publication of Sporting News Fantasy Baseball
Rotowire data is from the Fantasy Baseball Guide 2016 published by Rotowire
MLB Yearbook data is from the 2016 Major League Baseball Yearbook
PECOTA (BP) data is from the Baseball Prospectus 2016 Annual
