Atlanta Braves’ Cameron Maybin and his long-awaited breakout
For being a 28-year-old baseball player, Cameron Maybin is a well traveled man. The Atlanta Braves‘ outfielder was originally drafted 10th overall almost exactly one decade ago. After a rather arduous start to his career, he appears to finally be settling in and finding a comfort zone with his game.
Born and raised in Asheville, NC, Maybin rose through the farm system of the Detroit Tigers after they drafted him. Stops in Lakeland, FL (High-A) and Eerie, PA (Double-A) in 2007 culminated in a premature call-up by the Tigers. He hit only .143 in 24 games and before long was sent to the Florida Marlins in a high profile trade.
After being named the Marlins’ starting center fielder on Opening Day, a lengthy stint in 2009 with the New Orleans Zephyrs allowed Maybin to showcase some promise in Triple-A. He hit .319/.399/.463 and by 2010 again broke camp on the Marlins’ 25-man roster. He was still only 23 then, but struggled after hitting .225 in his first 51 games. Maybin again found himself logging at-bats in Triple-A by early June of 2010.
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Traded once more, Maybin found himself on the opposite end of the country now, starting his 2011 season with the San Diego Padres. He showed progress that year with his new club and had his finest full season to date as a professional. It was by no means an All-Star worthy, breakout campaign. But for a young man so well traveled and a long way from home, hitting .264/.323/.393 across 137 big league contests as a 24-year-old, it was a step in the right direction. Maybin added nine home runs, 40 RBI and 40 stolen bases to his totals that year.
It was enough for Padres management to invest in his future. Days before his 25th birthday, Maybin signed a five-year, $25 million deal to potentially remain a Padre through the 2016 season with an team option for 2017. Registering only seven fewer at-bats in 2012 than he had in 2011, Maybin’s batting average dropped a full 21 points and he recorded less total doubles, triples and home runs than a year previous. He also only stole 26 bases that season.
2013 was a write-off due mostly to injuries and 2014 followed with Maybin being suspended 25 games after testing positive for amphetamines. He did relatively little with his 251 at-bats in 2014, triggering management to make drastic changes to the outfield. The acquisition Justin Upton, Matt Kemp and Wil Myers spelled relegation for Maybin to a reserve role in 2015. Then, hours before Opening Day, a stroke of good luck saw Maybin traded to the Atlanta Braves.
It was luck for a few reasons. For starters, Maybin would get another opportunity to start. But also, Atlanta is only a short three hour drive from where he grew up and attended high school in Asheville. Familiar surroundings appear to be making a world of difference for Maybin now.
Since Maybin made his debut eight years ago as a 20-year-old, it feels like he has been around and under-performing for a while now. Bit it’s easy to forget that mis-managing a player in the minors can lead to dire results once he finally reaches MLB. Maybin is great example of this. Only 28 now, he still has a lot of baseball ahead of him. Josh Donaldson was only a year younger than Maybin when he broke out in his age 27 season, except he had only taken 32 big league at-bats before his 26th birthday. Buy the time Maybin turned 26, he had 1571 career at-bats. Not everyone can be a Mike Trout or Bryce Harper.
Through 48 games this year, Maybin is off to a great start. Slashing an impressive .299/.371/.427, he is on pace to set new personal bests in home runs and RBI for a season. He has recorded a multi-hit game in every appearance so far this month, batting .542 in June. There’s evidence Maybin’s hot start will extend well into the second half and possibly stick around for the remainder of his career, too.
One thing Maybin failed at doing a great job with at the dish was hitting the ball to the opposite field. In his 2007 debut with the Tigers, he recorded a 28.6 percent batted ball rate to right field. That was a small sample size though. Leading up to this season, his career batted ball rate to right field was only 21.3 percent. In 2015, Maybin has leveled his swing out much more and improved his directional hitting to where holes in the defense are. His opposite field batted ball rate is all the way up to 33.9 percent, only marginally lower than his more natural pull rate of 36.3 percent to left field as a right-handed hitter.
The Atlanta Braves are laughing right now with Maybin as their starting center fielder instead of Melvin Upton, the player who was shipped in the exchange to the Padres. Even with Wil Myers having missed the last four-plus weeks due to injury in San Diego’s, the Padres have used Upton only once in a game, in a pinch runner capacity. His combined .198 batting average over the last two seasons probably has something to do with that.
While many of the players drafted around Cameron Maybin 10 years ago have long since lived up to their potentials, it appears that Maybin just needed to get lost for a little while before an opportunity presented itself to return home and find his game. The baseball season is often said to be a marathon and not a sprint. Maybin did not start quickly out of the blocks, but the Atlanta Braves have to be pleased with where he and his swing are right now.