Fantasy Profile: Melky Cabrera, OF, Chicago White Sox

Welcome back to the 2015 Last Word on Fantasy Baseball Guide.  Over the next several months we will be releasing player profiles, projections, position rankings, and a number of other articles that will help you dominate your fantasy league this season.  Whether you play rotisserie or head-to-head; whether you have a standard draft, a snake or an auction league, and whether it’s keeper league or a one-year deal; we have all the fantasy information you need.

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Fantasy Profile: Melky Cabrera, OF, Chicago White Sox

LWOS Ranking 38, Captains’ Value: $9.43

Melky Cabrera is a hard player to get a read on. At this point in his career, I’d like to say that you know what you’re going to get from him, but with all of the ups and downs he’s been through, I can’t really say that with any kind of certainty. He was a decent player with the Yankees for about 3-4 years. Then, he had a terrible year with the Braves in 2010. He salvaged his career in 2011 with the Royals, signed with the Giants in 2012, and was on his way to an MVP-caliber season with the Giants before being busted for PEDs. He signed with the Blue Jays before 2013 and went on to have an absolutely dismal season marred by injury and a tumor in his back. In 2014, still with the Blue Jays, he once again revived his career and turned it into a 3-year, $42 million contract with the Chicago White Sox.

What does all of this mean? I have no idea. He’s been a decent player in all but two seasons of a career that dates back to 2005, but there are so many questions. When did he start using PEDs? Can we just throw out his two awful seasons of 2010 and 2013? He did have a tumor in 2013, after all.

I don’t have the answer to any of these questions, but I do know that Cabrera has always had great strikeout and walk rates, a AVG (outside of ’10 and ’13), a good OBP (again, except ’10 and ’13), some decent power (again, you know), and he even contributes in the SB department. He’ll be hitting in the #2 spot in what is suddenly a pretty good White Sox lineup. He’ll be behind the strong OBP of Adam Eaton and in front of sluggers Jose Abreu, Adam LaRoche, and breakout candidate Avisail Garcia. That sounds like good protection to me, if you put any stock in that sort of thing.

Cabrera won’t wow you, but he’ll probably produce enough numbers to be a 3^rd or 4^th outfielder in almost all fantasy formats. Think something around .290 with 15 HR, 5-6 SB, and 80 R in that lineup. At age 30, I’m not going to call him a “sleeper”, but people definitely seem to be sleeping on Cabrera.

Main Photo

photo credit: Melky Cabrera via photopin (license)