57. Miguel Cabrera
Miguel Cabrera is already one of the greatest players in MLB history. Right now, the question is where he will rank when his career is over.
Cabrera’s resume, up to this point, would be the envy of a great many players, including quite a few already ranked. A four time batting champion, Cabrera has led his league in home runs, RBI and doubles twice each. He has made ten All-Star Games, been an MVP twice and has won six Silver Slugger awards. In 2012, Cabrera became the first player to win the Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski accomplished the feat in 1967.
A Hall of Fame player if he retired at this moment, Cabrera sports a .320/.398/.520 career batting line with 409 home runs and 1451 RBI. Cabrera has the highest batting average of any active player, and is second in on base percentage and slugging. In fact, Cabrera’s .520 slugging percentage is the 16th best in history, and he ranks 17th all time with a .959 OPS.
His career is also a testament to perseverance. He had been arrested for threatening his wife while drunk on October 3, 2009, needing to be bailed out of prison by GM Dave Dombrowski. That offseason, Cabrera spent 90 days in an outpatient rehabilitation program. He relapsed on his way to Spring Training in 2011, being found drinking whiskey beside his broken down car, hours after threatening the staff at a steak house, saying that he had a gun and knew who they were. This second time in a treatment program appears to have stuck, with Cabrera staying out of trouble since.
One of the greats of the game, no one knows how far Miguel Cabrera will climb the rankings if he stays healthy and productive.
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