The Padres Rule 5 Success
Nobody expected Everth Cabrera to go from A-ball to the majors and have a lick of success, but after 255 plate appearances in the majors, Cabrera has done nothing but impress. When the Padres took the Rockies farmhand third in the Rule 5 draft, they stated their intent to keep him on the roster – a necessity if the Pads hoped to steal a potentially useful part from their division rivals.
The 5’9” shortstop has shown the ability to swipe bags (18/20 on the year), walk (10.9%), and play a decent major league shortstop while posting an above average wOBA. The little guy is hitting nearly 60% grounders and has parlayed his speed into 13 infield hits and a modest success rate (4/13, ~31%) on bunting for a hit. Those type of hits are fueling his .335 BABIP
The sample size is far too small to make any type of definitive statements on Cabrera’s defense, but for someone making such a leap in levels, it’s pretty impressive that Cabrera is capable of putting up a slightly below average season. Worth noting is that Baseball America labeled him as a fine defender in their Rule 5 wrap.
Obviously we have little data available for Cabrera at comparable levels, which makes projecting him moving forward a bit more difficult, but ZiPS has his wOBA at .287 moving forward and .338 on the season. Even if Cabrera does struggle down the stretch he’s a 22-year-old without much experience in Double or Triple-A, and he still might post a two-win season. Oh, and he was acquired for the price of a roster slot.
The Padres have to be thrilled with the results thus far.
Came into the season with 4 games above low A and does this… only a few rehabs starts besides the Majors. awesome pickup by the Pads.
King of dumpster diving strikes again.
Okay acquiring a 22 year old SS in a Rule 5 draft isn’t exactly getting a 3.00 ERA season or something from a guy w/ arm injury troubles, but it’s still a pretty damn good purge.
Finally someones noticing how good Cabrera has been this year. He’s going to be an important part of the Padres future. Teams need to take risks like starting an inexperienced player which Padres haven’t done. I wish the padres would spend more money.
Everyone at Purple Row mourns the loss of Cabrera and wonders exactly what the Rockies were thinking in not protecting him.
Good luck to you, Cabrera.
I know what the Rockies were thinking, but they were certainly wrong. I’m upset we lost him, and Rox Girl warned us he could impress, but the thinking was he was way too far away to protect when we had EY2, Gomez and Wimberly in the system. And Mike McCoy.
I have an rough idea of what they were thinking, and it starts with T and ends in ulowitzki.
@ Scott
Cabrera is a 2B playing short for the Pads. Or at least that is where Colorado was playing him near exclusively since he was signed. Tulowitski was not in his way in the Rockies system.
They’ll need three or four more like this to make up for all the failed first round draft picks over the years.
I have to say, this guy is thrilling! I picked him up on my fantasy team a while go as I needed the SB. I had planned to only use him on the road, where his numbers where so much stronger. It looked for a little while like the league might be figuring him out, yet here he is still hustling his way around the bases once again. Now, it seems like he is going to be a long-term fixture for my club (full, salary-based, keeper-league). He seems to be on base at least twice a game; singles a plenty, legging out a double or triple every now again or even taking a walk at a nearly one a game rate the last couple weeks! And once he gets on base its best to watch third, he’ll almost certainly be there in no time.
Its just too bad the Padres don’t have anyone who can bring him home a bit more frequently.
I bought into the hype a few days ago in picking him up on a Scoresheet team. The old scouting reports on his defense, combined with the fact that he’s played part of this season on a healed break in a hand bone “excused” (to me) any stats that suggested his defense wasn’t up to snuff. And besides, as noted, it takes a lot more than the current sample size to even think about drawing conclusions.
Having traded Theriot from the abandoned team I inherited, I think I probably have a comparably skilled offensive player who has the bonus of being a switch-hitter, and might get good ratings defensively. 🙂 Not to mention the years I gained.
Thanks for showing this guy some love, it’s certainly much deserved.
As a guy who gets to watch him nearly everyday I think the UZR rate is right on, but his upside is much higher. The guy can make some amazing plays at short due to good range and a great arm. It’s the routine one’s that give him trouble, much like Rafael Furcal (these two compare to each other so perfectly).
To me, it’s one of the most impressive Rule V successes because of the type of jump he has made as a hitter.
I got to see Cabrera a little but while covering Portland earlier this year and — anecdotallly, at least — was impressed by both his range (esp to his left) and arm strength. Given the quality of the latter tool, I was surprised to see that he’d played most of last season’s games at 2B, giving way to Helder Velazquez at SS at low Class A Asheville. Don’t know much about Velazquez (who hasn’t played this year at all), but can’t believe he’s more impressive than Cabrera.
Crap. Meant “to his right” in re range. But let’s just say he’s good to his left, as well.
im proud to have a fellow nicaraguan contribute to a team thats in the gutter. shows a big smile on pads fans. us rival giants hate to have a speedster like that on base! hopefully we can see him go against the new blue PADILLA.. nice match up. GO GIANTS!
I think technically he was acquired for the roster slot + $50k.
Aah, the perfect Sabermetric player. High walks, decent pop, great steal% and he has a lot of positional and defensive value to boot.
What goes around comes around. Lest we forget it was the Padres who left Joakim Soria unprotected in a Rule V.
Yep – they lost Soria while keeping guys like Tim Stauffer and Kevin Cameron. It’s a bad tradeoff, agreed, but at leat San Diego seems to be getting something out of their rule 5 pick – unlike most of those picks. I think Cabrera could be part of the solution at short for the next half-decade. That’s pretty darn good for free talent.