Detroit Tigers: 5 more Miguel Cabrera milestones

Detroit Tigers fans, and the baseball world at large, are still aglow after Miguel Cabrera hit his historic 500th home run last Sunday in Toronto.

For national writers it was a chance to offer retrospectives, or peer into the future and project the next members of the 500 Club. For Detroit Tigers fans? It was a little bittersweet.

They spent the previous week packing Comerica Park and breathlessly hanging on every Miguel Cabrera swing, only for the moment to happen 230 miles (390 kilometers) away. But, at least it was a big hit in what turned out to be another series win for a team that has been surprisingly solid for the last four months.

And one of the most pleasant surprises in this run of quality baseball has been Miguel Cabrera himself. Before the season we wrote about the Tigers facing the prospect of cutting Miguel Cabrera one day, and that possibility looked more like an inevitability after he hit just .183 with five extra-base hits through May.

But, since June 1st Miguel Cabrera has been a perfectly cromulent big-league hitter, batting .283/.339/.442 in a span of 62 games. That’s definitely not prime Miggy, but it has been good enough for a 112 wRC+ and a positive WAR. You can win games with a player like that. In fact, his batting line is practically identical to Akil Baddoo’s (.284/.335/.443) in the same span.

There’s no guarantee Miguel Cabrera continues to perform at this level, but thankfully this doesn’t look like a Chris Davis situation. Cabrera is still under contract for two more seasons, but now it seems likely he’ll find a way to stay useful until the deal is finished.

And if that’s the case, he’s going to set a few more milestones along the way. We’ll be honest, none of them are quite as cool as hitting 500 homers, but they’ll still be fun to track. Let’s start with the big, obvious one:

Miguel Cabrera Milestone: 3000 Hits

This one is no surprise. The Detroit Tigers put up two trackers, after all, and Cabrera is inching closer to 3,000 hits each day. The Tigers have 36 games remaining, and Cabrera needs 45 more hits. If he played every game left on the schedule he would have to bat .313 down the stretch to reach 3,000. It’s more likely he’ll play about 30 games to end the season, which would mean he has to hit .375 over a 30-game span to reach the magic number.

Miguel Cabrera actually has 51 different 30-game spans in his Detroit Tigers career where he has batted .375 or better. Unfortunately, the last such stretch came in 2016. If we assume Cabrera continues to hit about .280 over his final 30 games, he’ll finish the season roughly 10-15 hits shy of 3,000. So Tigers fans will just have to wait until next April to see Miguel Cabrera become the 33rd member of the 3,000-hit club.

But then it’s a question of just how high up the list he can climb. He’s on pace for about 120 hits this year, and while it’s nice to think he can duplicate this performance for two more seasons, it’s probably safer to assume his effectiveness and playing time will continue to wane. But even if he produces at 80% of this level next year, and 60% of this level in 2023, he’ll rack up another 170 hits. That would get him into the top-20 all time, passing greats like Tony Gwynn, Robin Yount, and possibly George Brett. Not too shabby.

Miguel Cabrera Milestone: Most Home Runs for the Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers have a pretty lengthy history when it comes to productive hitters. Some fella named Ty Cobb managed 3,900 hits for Detroit, and all 3,007 of Al Kaline’s knocks came for the Tigers. Charlier Gehringer, Harry Heilmann, Sam Crawford, Lou Whitaker, and Alan Trammell all recorded at least 2,365 hits with the Detroit Tigers. Miguel Cabrera currently stands at 2,113 while wearing the Old English D, so he’s probably not going to catch any of them. But power production is a different story.

Just ten players have hit 200 home runs in a Detroit Tigers uniform, and only four have topped 300. Miguel Cabrera currently stands third on this list with 362 bombs for the Tigers. Norm Cash is next with 373, and the great Al Kaline is first at 399. At his current pace, Cabrera should finish the 2021 season with 17 home runs for the year, and 366 as a Tiger. He could pass Cash by next June, but hitting 37 more home runs to tie Kaline will be a real challenge. It’s not out of the question, though, and if Cabrera does manage to catch Kaline, he will then be in the top-20 all time, one spot ahead of Mickey Mantle.

Miguel Cabrera Milestone: 600 Doubles

Doubles get no respect. They are the middle child of baseball events. We get it, they aren’t as cool as home runs, or as exciting as triples. But, despite being clearly better than plain old singles, no one seems to care about doubles. Most baseball fans can name the magic number for hits in a season, or a career. Same goes for home runs. But can you name the single-season leader in doubles? How about the career leader? And what’s the magic number for doubles in a season?

We rest our case.

If you’re curious, the all-time leader in doubles is Tris Speaker, with 792. Pete Rose, Stan Musial, and Ty Cobb are the only other players to top 700 for their career. And the single-season leader is Earl Webb, who was 33 and had played fewer than 300 career games when he randomly hit 67 doubles for the 1931 Boston Red Sox. He’d hit just 33 more doubles in his career.

Only six players have ever topped 60 doubles in a season, and two of them are Detroit Tigers. Hank Greenberg hit 63 in 1934, and two years later Charlie Gehringer hit 60. Nick Castellanos has the 10th highest single-season total ever, with 58 in 2019. Detroit Tigers fans should claim ownership of doubles like they do with coney dogs and Vernors, but alas.

So no one particularly cares about Miguel Cabrera sitting at 591 career doubles right now, which ranks 20th all time. With nine more two-baggers he can be just the 18th player in MLB history to hit the 600 mark. At that point he’ll be just the 5th player with 500 career home runs and 600 career doubles, joining Henry Aaron, Barry Bonds, David Ortiz, and Albert Pujols. Miggy will probably hit 2-3 more doubles this season, and hit the 600 mark roughly around the time he nets his 3,000th hit. He’ll then join Aaron and Pujols as the only batters ever with 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, and 500 home runs. That’s an awful lot of bases.

Speaking of which…

Miguel Cabrera Milestone: 1150 Extra-Base Hits

Miguel Cabrera is not what you would call a speed demon. Among the 28 members of the 500 Home Run Club, Cabrera’s 17 career triples are more than just Albert Pujols (16),  Frank Thomas (12), and Mark McGwire (6). He hasn’t hit a triple since 2016, and it seems unlikely he’ll hit another three-bagger in his career.

But, as previously discussed, Miguel Cabrera is pretty darn good at hitting home runs and doubles. Right now he has 1,108 career extra-base hits, which is good for 21st all-time. He needs nine more — certainly possible this year — to tie Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams for 19th. And from there it’s just a steady climb through iconic hitters. We realize 1,150 isn’t exactly a round number, but 42 more extra-base hits in his career seems doable, and at that point he will have passed Ty Cobb for 15th all-time.

Speaking of Cobb, with 23 more extra-base hits Miguel Cabrera will join Cobb, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, and Harry Heilmann as the only players with 800 career extra-base hits in a Tigers uniform.