Everth Cabrera Did This to Himself

The San Diego Padres have had several famous shortstops in their history, from Ozzie Smith to Garry Templeton to Khalil Greene and Matt Bush. At one point in 2013, it looked like Everth Cabrera might add his name to that list. He made the All-Star team, stole a base like Dave Roberts in Game 4 of the ’04 ALCS, and was even hitting and playing great defense to go with it. Then, without ever actually failing a drug test – he was implicated in the BioGenesis scandal and it all came crashing down. He admitted to it and was suspended. He tearfully apologized for his actions and vowed for a renewed commitment to baseball. Except it didn’t stop there. Not nearly at all.

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Then he was pulled over this September while already out to due to a pulled hamstring. Not to mention the 2014 season, trying to prove that his good 2013 wasn’t just due to those PEDs he was caught with was not going well. Only 18 SB, 8 CS, and only hitting .232. Then he didn’t show up to court and was charged with resisting arrrest too. So…it wasn’t a huge surprise when the Padres non-tendered his contract Monday and his days as a Padre appear to be over.

A.J. Preller all but confirmed that as well, and it appears now that Alexi Amarista is first in line to be the Padres shortstop. The Padres also signed veteran infielder Clint Barmes, made famous when he broke his collarbone falling down stairs after unauthorized deer hunting with Todd Helton.

Once again, though we are still lacking an actual offense-oriented signing or trade, I like what I see from Preller so far. Bold decisions like even GOING AFTER Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas are something previous regimes have not even touched. Letting Everth Cabrera go is another move that previous GMs’ would’ve not done just because “he might come back strong.” How else do you explain Will Venable still being on this team? How did Brian Giles linger so long, even after domestic abuse charges were levied against him.

Not huge on the hiring of Mark Kotsay as the hitting coach, but I’ve also got to feel that Kotsay was just hanging out all day around Petco and Preller would rather have him in the clubhouse than the front office.

Back to Cabrera, I do hope that he can make some life changes and get back to being a productive major league player, but I’m glad the Padres don’t have to be his babysitter anymore. Hopefully sooner than later, 2014 first round pick Trea Turner makes it up here, and hopefully some other minor league player steps up in the meantime. Maybe Preller has another trade in his mind we just don’t know about yet too. We’ll just have to wait and see.

#InPrellerWeTrust