By Tyler Kepner
New York Times
Manager John Gibbons sat in the Toronto Blue Jays’ dugout at Fenway Park recently and motioned toward the Green Monster, where the American League East standings are updated daily.
“You look at that board there, and you see us in the middle,” Gibbons said. “In the past, you might have only seen that in the first week of the season. Usually, that’s the way it’s been for the last few years. But I think the division’s up for grabs.”
By the end of that three-game series, the Blue Jays were on top, having used their bruising offense to sweep the Red Sox. Melky Cabrera homered twice in the series and had six hits. Batting after Jose Reyes in the order, Cabrera has sparked a lineup that easily leads the AL in extra-base hits.
“He’s been tremendous at the top,” said Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays’ star right fielder. “Even when Reyes was out for a little bit, he was that rock up there at the top of the lineup, just getting on base constantly. That’s not easy to do when you’re not somebody that takes a lot of walks to begin with. He constantly puts the ball in play, hits the ball hard and gets base hits.”
This is how Cabrera looked for the San Francisco Giants in 2012, when he was the most valuable player of the All-Star Game while engaging in one of the most egregious cons in recent memory. Cabrera was found to have tested positive for elevated testosterone that August and served a 50-game suspension, though not before an associate created a fake website in a clumsy attempt to challenge the test.
This is old news, and all parties swiftly moved on: The Giants won the World Series without Cabrera; Major League Baseball, at Cabrera’s request, removed him from consideration for a batting title he otherwise would have won; and the Blue Jays signed him to a two-year, $16 million contract - theoretically more than he would have made without cheating, but less than he would have made had he not been caught.
Now Cabrera is playing for a contract again, and playing very well, after a 2013 ruined by injuries. What does it all mean?
“As his teammate,” starter R.A. Dickey said, “I feel like I have to take it at face value, and face value is that he’s been tested many times. I’ve even seen him tested a lot this year, and it hasn’t come back for anything. So I’d have to say that he served his penalty and he owned up to it - gave back his batting title, all that stuff, and he’s trying to do it the right way now.
“He wasn’t healthy last year. The hope is that what we’re seeing now is authentically who he is. I’m certainly going to believe the best about him.”
Cabrera, a Dominican native, has always been quiet and somewhat shy in public, and his interpreter was not available in Boston to conduct an interview. But Cabrera’s back says a lot about his journey. A tattoo with the MLB logo, applied when he was still in the minors, adorns his shoulder blade. A scar on his lower back, along his spine, reveals the trauma of 2013.
Cabrera, 29, struggled all season with leg injuries that defied explanation. Tests routinely came back negative.
“They couldn’t find anything,” Gibbons said, “just normal wear and tear, so nobody knew what it was. Of course, all you’d hear is, ‘Well, the year before, he was on steroids, so maybe this is the aftereffect of that.’ But it shouldn’t affect you that much.”
Gibbons added: “He couldn’t run, man. Balls were dropping in. We talk about how much our pitching struggled last year, but, shoot, if there was a ball airborne out there, we weren’t getting it. And it finally got to the point we had to shut him down. So he’s rehabbing down in Florida, his back started hurting him and he went and got an MRI - walnut-size tumor, right on his spine.”
Cabrera told reporters this spring that he initially feared for his life. But the tumor was found to be benign, and now that he moves better, he hits better, too. Cabrera earned a degree of skepticism by the choices that led to his suspension, but Bautista said Cabrera deserved credit, not suspicion, for the way he was playing.
“The only thing that he’s proving is that he’s healthy,” Bautista said. “I think he could have put up these types of numbers last year if he would have been healthy. It’s not something that surprises me.
“I have known how good a player he was, and has been, since he was in the minor leagues, and I played against him when he was with the Yankees and I was with the Pirates. I know his work ethic. He busted his butt this offseason; I was there working out with him. I knew that going into this season and spring training, he was certainly prepared. That, coupled with being healthy and being a guy with a lot of ability, is a recipe for success.”
The Blue Jays, who have not finished higher than fourth in the AL East since 2007, had the lowest starters’ earned run average in the division.
But the offense, boosted by a better Cabrera, is their biggest strength.
“It’s a good lineup,” Gibbons said. “We feel it’s as good as any in baseball, offensively. So we’ll see where that takes us.”
