Miguel Cabrera Plans to Retire After the 2023 MLB Season
Future MLB Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera has announced that the 2023 MLB season will be his last. The 2023 season will be his 21st season of professional baseball. In the past few years, Cabrera has chased historical milestones and was able to reach many of those crucial numerical totals. Most important were the pristine 3,000 hits and 600 homerun tallies.
Cabrera will finish his legendary career with the Detroit Tigers, the club where he played 15 of his 20 MLB seasons. In that time, Cabrera won consecutive MVP awards in 2012 and 2013. In 2012 he won the award after becoming the first player to win the hitting triple crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Cabrera also spent the first five years of his career with the Miami Marlins where he won a World Series in 2003. In total, Cabrera has been named an All-Star 12 times.
“I think it’s going to be my last year. It feels a little weird to say that,” the Tigers great told MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola on Monday ahead of this week’s charity gala in Miami to raise money for his foundation. “I thought, I’m not going to say ‘never’, but I think it’s time to say goodbye to baseball.”
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Cabrera has struggled mightily with injuries throughout the latter portion of his career. In 2022 he had a productive start to the season, but his production dropped as he faced injuries later in the year. In his final season, he looks to overcome that issue and remain healthy for the entire season.
“One of my goals is to play a full season with no injuries, try to help the Tigers to win more games,” he said. “Because I feel if we can stay healthy, we can improve more in the field. If you don’t stay healthy, there’s no chance we can win. We had a lot of injuries this year and it hurt us a lot. We’ll see if we can stay healthy all year.”
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There is no guarantee that Cabrera will have a starting role with the Tigers in 2023. The club fired Al Avila and replaced him with Scott Harris. It would not be surprising if Harris wanted to turn the page and start fresh in Detroit. Regardless, Cabrera is open to changes for his farewell tour.
“It depends how I’m feeling,” he said. “We’re always open to talk and see. I always do whatever they want, whatever the manager wants me to do. I don’t worry about if I’m going to play every day or not. So if they give me a chance, I’ll play. If not, I’m going to support the team. Gotta be a good teammate.”
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Even though his playing days are running short, Cabrera is not ready to be done with baseball.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with my family,” he said. “I don’t know, we’ll see if I can stay in the Tigers’ organization, help young guys. I have time to decide, but my goal is to stay in baseball, try to help, because I love baseball. Why would I go away?”
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If Cabrera wants to stay involved in baseball by becoming a coach or assistant, he should not have trouble finding a job. As one of the greatest hitters of all time and one of the most likable players in the sport, every team could use someone like Cabrera in their clubhouse.
