On Monday, Detroit Tigers veteran Miguel Cabrera hit home run number 475 of his career, placing him 31st all-time. This got us wondering if Miggy is Hall of Fame worthy.
I know, I know. It’s too soon to start thinking about whether Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera is Hall of Fame (HOF) worthy or not. He is only 36-years-old — just weeks younger than Justin Verlander who just tossed his third career no-hitter — and under contract potentially through 2025.
However, given his latest major accomplishment, hitting his 475th career home run which places him 31st all-time, I thought it would be interesting to rank Miggy among baseball’s greats. To start, I collected all of Cabrera’s major stats and compared it to HOF players with at least 2000 games played.
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- Miguel Cabrera (2383 games played)
- Batting Average: 0.315
- On-Base Percentage: 0.392
- Slugging Percentage: 0.544
- Career Home Runs: 475
- Career Hits: 2799
- Average Hall of Famer (min. 2000 games played)
- Batting Average: 0.290
- On-Base Percentage: 0.368
- Slugging Percentage: 0.473
- Career Home Runs: 354
- Career Hits: 2666
As you can see, when looking at the bigger picture Miggy outperforms the average HOF hitter with a minimum 2000 games played. Surprisingly, when you zoom in closer and look at individual stats, you’ll find that he also ranks near the top of the list in each category as well.
For example, when sorting the HOF hitters by batting average, Miggy places eight on the list and is in front of the likes of Edgar Martinez, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and other all-time greats in the game.
Do the same for slugging percentage and you’ll find that Cabrera ranks ninth on the list, in front of Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, and more.
Also, considering that Cabrera could potentially play for another six seasons, you’d have to imagine that he’d add to his home run total. Where he now has 475 homers, which places him in the top 20 among HOF hitters, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he approaches 600.
All of this to say that if Detroit Tigers great Miguel Cabrera decided to hang it all up today, he’d most definitely have his HOF jacket in five years. Chances are that’s not going to happen, so we all might as well sit back and remember that we’re fortunate to be witnessing one of baseball’s greatest of all time.