Former Detroit Tigers Star on Top Players of 21st Century List

The Detroit Tigers said goodbye to legend after the 2023 season. Star slugger Miguel Cabrera announced his retirement from the MLB after the season after 21 seasons.

Throughout his career, Cabrera was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. He started his career early at 20 with the Florida Marlins before being traded to the Tigers.

After five seasons with the Marlins, Cabrera was traded to Detroit in an offseason blockbuster. Along with Dontrelle Willis, Cabrera headed to the Motor City in exchange for Dallas Trahern, Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller and Mike Rabelo.

For the next 16 seasons, Cabrera continued stockpiling statistics to form what will assuredly be a career enshrined with a plaque at Cooperstown. It should come as no surprise then that the Tigers star has landed on an illustrious list.

Recently, ESPN put together a series of articles highlighting the top 100 athletes of the 21st century. Cabrera came in at No. 33 on that list including Olympians and champions across every sport. In the MLB specific one, Cabrera came in at No. 4.

“Cabrera arrived in the major leagues at 20, found himself batting cleanup in the World Series, whacked an opposite-field home run off Roger Clemens and charted a course that would end two decades later with 3,174 hits. Cabrera’s spray chart was a thing of beauty, with dots connoting his hits in all corners of the stadium — and 511 over the fence. He managed to hit for power without sacrificing his innate bat-to-ball skill, and he peaked in 2012, when he became the first hitter in 45 years to win batting, home run and RBI titles in the same season,” wrote ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The only players to rank above Cabrera on the MLB list were Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout and his former teammate and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, Albert Pujols.

Cabrera’s career is littered with incredible achievements. He was an All-Star 12 times, winning seven Silver Slugger awards and four batting titles.

The MVP award was won in two consecutive seasons, in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, Cabrera recorded the Triple Crown, leading the American League in batting average (.330), home runs (44) and RBI (139).

As a rookie, he helped Florida win the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees in six games. It was a storybook start for what ended up being an illustrious career for the decorated Venezuelan slugger.