Nothing to Justify: Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown season

When the phrase “Triple Crown” was heard on television at my house earlier this week, my two older sons were excited to watch the horse race this weekend. On Saturday, a horse named Justify will race at the Belmont Stakes with a chance to become the second Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in four years.

I explained to the boys that baseball also has a Triple Crown – in hitting and pitching. For batters, the feat has been more rarely accomplished than by the horses over the past 50 years.

Miguel Cabrera affirmed that he was the last true Triple Crown winner in baseball, becoming the first native of Latin America to win the hitting Triple Crown.

It has happened once in their – and my 38-year-old – lifetime.

It was 2012, a year when the American League was lit from start to finish.

A 21-year-old outfielder burst onto the scene in Anaheim that year. Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout, in his first full season in the majors, led the American League with 129 runs scored. He finished second in batting average (.326) while leading the AL with 49 stolen bases. A sign of things to come, Trout received every first place vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. He also finished as the runner-up in the BBWAA MVP voting.

There were other strong seasons in 2012.

Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton finished second in two of the three Triple Crown categories, hitting 43 home runs and driving in 128 runs while slashing .285/.354/.577. Adrián Beltré finished with 194 hits, 36 of which left the yard. Robinson Canó, still in New York, had 196 hits, scored 105 times and hit 33 home runs. Both Dominican infielders finished in the Top 5 in MVP voting.

In most seasons over the last 40 years, any of these four would have run away with the MVP award.

But 2012 belonged to Cabrera.

Between baseball’s Triple Crowns there was a 45-year break. Boston’s Hall of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrzemski led the American League with 44 home runs, 121 RBI and a .326 batting average in 1967. Another player didn’t lead the league in those three categories again until 2012, when Detroit’s Venezuelan third baseman added his name to the historic list.
Cabrera’s 2012 campaign was stunning. He played third base almost the entire season. He appeared in 161 games and only 30 of his 622 at-bats came while playing a position other than third (two as a first baseman, 28 as a designated hitter). He matched Yaz’s 44 home runs from 1967, hit .330 and drove in 139 runs.

Holding off Trout and Hamilton wasn’t easy. Like the Triple Crown-winning horses, Cabrera had to finish strong. He hit his league-leading 44th home run and went 4-for-5 on Oct. 1 and picked up two more hits Oct. 2 – game number 161 – to clinch the batting title.

Even while playing in the field on a daily basis, Cabrera’s numbers got better after the All-Star Break. He slashed .324/.382/.557 in the first half and improved each to .337/.407/.667 after the break. Cabrera had an OPS over 1.000 in each of the season’s final four months (including October) and his slugging percentage was over .600 in each month after May.

Cabrera, Beltré and Albert Pujols have been, arguably, the best right-handed batters of their generation. But only one batter in all of baseball has put together a complete Triple Crown season since Yaz.

American Pharoah, trained by the same man (Bob Baffert) as Justify, won the Triple Crown in 2015. There was a 37-year gap between American Pharoah and the previous Triple Crown winner, Affirmed (1978). Maybe we’ll see another horse win the Triple Crown this weekend.

Who knows when we’ll see another Triple Crown from a batter in baseball?

Featured Image: Rob Tringali / SportsChrome

Inset Image: Brad Mangin / Major League Baseball