Phillies getting nothing from Asdrubal Cabrera since trade

Asdrubal Cabrera was supposed to finally give the Phillies some production from the shortstop position, but that hasn’t happened.

A month ago, the Phillies were in desperate need of shortstop help. J.P. Crawford had done little at the plate when healthy, and Scott Kingery wasn’t any better. The position was a void of offensive production without making up for it on defense.

The team traded pitching prospect Franklyn Kilome to the Mets for Asdrubal Cabrera, a 32-year-old who hadn’t played shortstop in over a year due to his defensive deficiency there. Gabe Kapler has decided to use him there anyway, hoping his offensive production would outweigh his defensive performance.

There was every reason to believe in Cabrera’s bat when he was traded. In 98 games with the Mets, he had a .277/.329/.488 line with 18 home runs, 58 runs batted in, and a 113 OPS+. He was worth 2.4 offensive wins above replacement, outweighing his -0.9 defensive wins above replacement.

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Since being traded, Cabrera has done little to contribute to the team. In 23 games, he has a .198/.242/.337 line with 20 strikeouts and just four walks in 91 plate appearances. His 54 wRC+ as a Phillie is somehow even worse than Kingery’s of 59. Only Odubel Herrera has a worse wRC+ (52) since Cabrera joined the team.

As expected, Cabrera’s defense has been sub-par. Of his 19 starts so far as a Phillie, 16 have come at shortstop. While Cabrera hasn’t made any errors, he already has -4 defensive runs saved, including -3 in 133.2 innings at shortstop. Meanwhile, Kingery has -4 defensive runs saved as a shortstop this season over 698.2 innings. Cabrera has -0.2 defensive wins above replacement as a Phillie.

Overall, Cabrera has been worth -0.8 wins above replacement as a Phillie. His -0.4 oWAR in his time here is the same as Kingery’s in almost 100 more games. He was brought in to help this team win games, but so far has hurt the team more than he has helped.

At this point, there really isn’t a replacement for Cabrera. He has enough of a track record to think that he can turn things around, but there isn’t much time left to do it.