Is There Coco In The Yanks Melk?
Melky Cabrera’s OPS+ on this season, to date, is 78. Seeing this, I wondered how many other 23-year old switch-hitting outfielders have posted a season with at least 300 PA where they had an OPS+ of 80 or less. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Batting Season Finder, here’s the answer:
Cnt OPS+ PA Year Age +----+-----------------+---+----+---+----+---+ 1 Jerry White 76 309 1976 23 2 Joe Lovitto 70 313 1974 23 3 Paul Householder 64 455 1982 23 4 Milt Cuyler 65 313 1992 23 5 Coco Crisp 76 447 2003 23 6 John Cangelosi 76 525 1986 23 7 Melky Cabrera 78 328 2008 23 8 Carlos Beltran 69 413 2000 23 Seasons/Careers found: 8.
Obviously, Carlos Beltran went on to bigger and better seasons. But, on the whole, this is not a very impressive group of offensive players. Seeing Coco Crisp there is interesting - as I thought, seven months ago, that he and Melky were close…in terms of their career offensive achievements.
Seeing the way that Coco Crisp went on to hit, from ages 24 to 28, maybe it’s time for the Yankees to reconsider the somewhat long-term value of playing Melky Cabrera everyday?