Miguel Cabrera officially joined one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball Sunday night. Cabrera, 38, hit his 500th career home run against the Toronto Blue Jays, depositing a Steven Matz fastball over the centerfield wall.
Despite being the road team, the Toronto crowd offered Miggy a standing ovation as he rounded the bases and celebrated with his teammates. With his latest round tripper, Cabrera becomes only the 28th player in major league history to eclipse the 500 HR plateau. Miggy joins Albert Pujols as the only active players in the club.
Over the course of his career Cabrera is a .311 hitter, with 1498 runs scored, and 1785 RBIs. His 50HRs against Cleveland is his highest career total against any one franchise. Cabrera can also reach another significant milestone this year as he currently sits just 45 hits shy of 3,000 for his career. While not impossible, the veteran slugger would need to piece together a significant hot streak to close out the year in Detroit. The Tigers have 36 games remaining on their schedule.
If the Venezuelan born superstar is able to accumulate 3,000 hits, he would become only the 7th player in MLB history to have both 3,000 hits and 500HRs. His name would be alongside players like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Eddie Murray and Rafael Palmeiro.
While he has certainly slowed down in recent years, the future hall of famer still has some gas left in the tank batting .246 with 13HRs and 56RBIs on the year. His current contract takes him through the 2023 season when he will be 40 years old. How high he can reach on the career Runs/RBIs/HRs list remains to be seen.