Cabrera had been dealing with various leg injuries for four months of the season, but it wasn’t until early September the reason for injures was identified. A MRI was performed and it “revealed a tumor that was located in the spinal cord of his L1, which is the first vertebrae of the lowest section of the spine.” As of now he appears to be healthy and is expected to make a full recovery before the start of spring training. Based on the linked article I’m willing to overlook last year’s stats because his numbers were uncharacteristically low. For example, he had a 3.3 percent HR/FB rate despite playing in a more hitter friendly ballpark. Other than the home runs his stats looked relatively the same. The contact rate, walk rate and strikeout rate all looked similar, which implies if the home run power was at his normal levels he would have had 9-10 home runs last year. I’m not worried about the decreased stolen base totals because the leg injuries heavily contributed to that. Obviously his 2012 season will likely be his best season ever, but if he’s healthy he can be a .290-plus hitter with 15/15 results with a ceiling for 20/20. Seriously, he could be a 20/20 player. He was two home runs shy of 20/20 in 2011 with the Royals and he was on pace for an 18/18 season in 2012 before being suspended for PEDs. Speaking of the suspension I don’t care about his previous drug because I haven’t found any concrete evidence they dramatically improve performance. When I compare my projections to trusted sources (Baseball HQ, Rotowire and Rotoworld) I’m going to own him in every league, which is fine with me. Cabrera doesn’t profile as an elite performer, but he provides a little bit of everything with a very good batting potential and he’s only 29 years old.

If you are looking for his statistical projections please go here and download my latest projections.