Milwaukee Brewers: 3 Free Agent Targets at First Base

Asdrubal Cabrera

Asdrubal Cabrera perfectly fits the mold for a short contract guy that can come in and give the Milwaukee Brewers a year of solid production. Two traits he possesses that Smoak did not in this role are consistency and contact hitting.

Both of these things stem from the type of hitters that these two guys are. Smoak has so much inconsistency because he swings for the fences nearly every swing, while Cabrera is trying to put the ball in play.

Cabrera has been extremely consistent over his career and has never had a truly bad season. His OPS+ has always hovered around the league average of 100, and his lowest was 89 in 2010. In every one of his other 13 seasons, he’s been above or around that 100 mark, giving his team a solid bat in the lineup.

Cabrera has done this because of his ability to put the bat on the ball and a good eye, which nets him a good amount of walks every year. In every one of the past five seasons, Cabrera has had an above-average strikeout rate and an above-average whiff rate in the past four.

If you’re looking for lightning in a bottle and a huge bat at first base, then Cabrera isn’t the guy for the job, but remember that those guys can end in disaster as we saw in 2019. As a former middle infielder, Cabrera isn’t the guy that’s going to hit tons of bombs, but you know almost exactly what you’ll get with him, a guy who will get on base, hit a few home runs, and bring lots of experience.