Melky Cabrera

About Melky Cabrera

Melky Astacio Cabrera (born August 11, 1984 in Santo Domingo Oeste, Dominican Republic) is a baseball outfielder in the New York Yankees organization, currently playing for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

On November 13, 2001, at age 17, Melky was signed by the New York Yankees. In 2002, at age 18, he made his pro debut with the Yankees Rookie League affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. In 2003, he made his first minor league appearance with the high Rookie team in the NY-Penn League with the Staten Island Yankees, batting .283 with 31 RBI in 67 games. In 2004, he moved up to A ball with the Battle Creek Yankees, hitting .333 with 16 RBI in 42 games before being promoted to the high class A Tampa Yankees, where he hit .288 with 51 RBI in 85 games to finish the season. In 2005, Cabrera started off with the Class AA Trenton Thunder, hitting .275 with 60 RBI in 106 games. At the end of June, he was called up to the AAA Columbus Clippers. On July 7, 2005, he made his major league debut. However, he only played six games before he was moved back down to Columbus. In 2006, he started the season in Columbus, but due to injuries to Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield, he became the everyday left fielder for the Yankees.

On July 7, Melky made his major league debut in center field at Yankee Stadium against the Cleveland Indians. His first at bat against Kevin Millwood resulted in a strike-out; however, he was not discouraged after having an emotional pre-game conversation with his Dominican high school coach, Marshall Lindner. However, he collected his first major league hit, a single to left field, in his third at bat to a standing ovation. The next day, he went 2 for 3 against Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee, scoring his first major league run. Melky would go 0 for his next 13 and make a costly miscue in center on July 15 against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, misplaying a Trot Nixon fly ball that resulted in an inside-the-park homer during a 17-1 defeat. Melky was sent down to AAA Columbus the next day for 17 games, and then demoted back to AA Trenton Thunder to finish out the season.