Then & Now: Cabrera and Tatis

When he arrived in the big leagues at just 20 years old, Miguel Cabrera could already hit. Where he would play was always a question, given that he was a pretty poor defender everywhere they tried him, but his bat was going to play pretty much anywhere. In half a season he drove in 62 runs, belted 12 homers, and had an OPS+ of 106, then hit 4 more homers in the postseason to help the Marlins win the World Series. A star was born.

At the time, what constituted a good hitter was different than it is now. Cabrera arrived in the big leagues when the National League’s collective batting average was .262 and the whole league had an OPS of .749, and for the first several years of his career those marks were pretty typical. A good hitter batted .300 or better, with extra-base power that didn’t always have to be home runs. He was expected to strike out less, and maybe run a bit more.

Fast forward to last season, when the National League batted just .247 as a whole, with a .719 OPS. Everyone scored a bit less, and had lower batting averages and walk rates, but homered a bit more and struck out A LOT more. They also didn’t run quite as much, but were much more successful when they did.

Or take the 2019 season, which happened to be the first season Fernando Tatis, Jr. played in the big leagues. Like Cabrera, he was a big (6’3”), 20-year old, right-handed hitter who played on the left side of the infield but was moved around. And, like Cabrera, he could immediately hit. Tatis hit .317 as a rookie in a year when the National League collectively batted just .251. Already the league cared less about striking out, so Tatis’ rate of nearly 30% wasn’t terribly unusual. His career rate of 24.5% - a mark Cabrera never reached in even one season - isn’t much higher than the league-wide rate of about 23% during his career.