*Photo from The Athletic*
The end of another long baseball career is now official. Outfielder Melky Cabrera will be retiring from baseball after 15 seasons in the major leagues, according to an announcement made by Cabrera on his Instagram page on Friday.
His career began when he was signed by the New York Yankees out of the Dominican Republic in 2001 as an international free agent. Cabrera played the first 5 seasons of his major league career with the Yankees, including a .391 batting average in the 2009 ALCS as he helped the Yankees reach and eventually win the 2009 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Cabrera last suited up for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2019 season, when he finished the year with a .280 batting average and .713 OPS, slugging .399 and hitting 7 home runs to go along with 47 RBI's, playing in 133 games for the Pirates that season.
After winning the world series in 2009, Cabrera was traded to the Atlanta Braves, where he had a .671 OPS and just 4 home runs in 147 games, which led to his release the following offseason. After signing with the Kansas City Royals, he had his breakout season in 2011, mashing 18 home runs to go with a .809 OPS in 155 games.
He was then traded to the San Francisco Giants, where he won the all star game MVP award that season, hitting 11 home runs in 113 games, before he was hit with a 50 game suspension for violating MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. In the span of 536 games from 2013 to 2016, Cabrera remained a productive hitter, hitting 45 home runs between the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox.
After the 2016 season, Cabrera spent time with the White Sox, the Royals again, the Cleveland Indians, and the Pirates most recently. Cabrera finishes his MLB career with a .285 batting average and .751 OPS, hitting 144 home runs to go along with 854 RBI's, playing 1,887 games with 8 different teams.
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