Alexander Alberto Cabrera (born December 24, 1971) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n former

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dext ...

batter who played in 2000 for the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) and for 12 seasons in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB). He also played several seasons in the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

and the

Venezuelan Professional Baseball League The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (, or LVBP) is the top-level professional baseball league in Venezuela. The league's champion takes part in the Caribbean Series each year. History Background and predecessors Baseball had been play ...

(LVBP). He is the

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisi ...

for the Marineros de Carabobo of the Venezuelan Major League.

Career

Cabrera signed with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

as an amateur

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

in 1991 and played in their minor league system through 1996. He moved to the

, playing for Potros de Minatitlán and Tigres Capitalinos in 1997 and returning to the Tigres in 1998. He attended spring training with the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based i ...

before the 1998 season. He played for the Koos Group Whales in the

CPBL The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

in 1999, then signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000. After nine seasons in the minors, Cabrera finally reached the majors with the Diamondbacks. A muscular slugger, Cabrera hit a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

in his first

at-bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, b ...

. He ended the 2000 MLB season with a .262

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

, five home runs, 14 RBI, 10 runs, and a .500

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

in 31

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

. After the 2000 season, the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, ...

of the Japan Pacific League purchased his contract from Arizona. In 2001, Cabrera batted .282, with 49 home runs and 124 RBI. He was even better in 2002, with a .336 batting average, 55 home runs, and 115 RBI, winning the Pacific League's MVP award. His 55 home runs tied Japan's single-season record, equaling the mark set by

Sadaharu Oh Sadaharu Oh ( Japanese: , ''Ō Sadaharu''; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (), is a Japanese-born Chinese former professional baseball player and manager who is currently the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of N ...

in 1964 and matched by former MLB player Tuffy Rhodes in 2001. Cabrera stated that he was unable to break the record because pitchers threw him very few strikes after hitting his 55th home run.

Wladimir Balentien Wladimir Ramon "Coco" Balentien (; born July 2, 1984) is a Curaçaoan- Dutch former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB ...

later broke the home run record, hitting 60 home runs in 2013. In 2003, Cabrera hit an impressive 50 home runs with 112 RBIs, while batting .324 for Seibu. Injuries limited him to 64 games in 2004, with 25 home runs and 62 RBIs. On October 26, 2004, Cabrera hit a two-run towering homer as the Seibu Lions defeated the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

7–2 in Game 7 of the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...

to win their first championship since 1992. The ball bounced off the glass-enclosed private boxes above the left field seats at the

Nagoya Dome The Nagoya Dome (ナゴヤドーム), known as Vantelin Dome Nagoya (バンテリンドームナゴヤ) for sponsorship reasons, is a domed baseball stadium, constructed in 1997, located in the city of Nagoya, Japan. The dome has the capacity of ...

. It was Cabrera's third home run of the series. He also hit a grand slam and a two-run homer in Game 3. In six seasons with the Lions, Cabrera was a .308 hitter with 246 home runs and 605 RBI in 708 games. In January 2008, Cabrera signed a one-year contract with the

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...

. The contract reportedly required that Cabrera pass a drug test when he reported to the team in February. He obtained free agency rights following the 2009 season after playing 8 years in Japan, thereby removing the designation as a "foreign player," becoming the fourth non-Japanese player to obtain such classification in NPB. In three seasons with Orix from 2008 through 2010, Cabrera slugged 73 home runs with 225 RBIs. Cabrera's career in NPB ended with 97 games over two seasons for the

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. Founded on February 22, 1938, as the Nankai Club, being the first Kansai t ...

in 2011 and 2012. After leaving Japan, Cabrera continued to play professional winter league baseball for

Tiburones de La Guaira The Tiburones de La Guaira () are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP). Though they nominally represent La Guaira (playing at the Estadio Jorge Luis García Carneiro), they also play home games at the Estadio Un ...

in his native Venezuela. In 59 games during the 2013–14 season, Cabrera batted .391, with a record-setting 21 home runs (currently shared with Renato Núñez, who tied the record in 2024). He broke the league single season home run record set by Bo Díaz, who hit 20 home runs in 1979–80. Cabrera played 14 games for Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz in the

in April 2014 at the age of 42, batting .404 and hitting 4 home runs. He continued to play in the Venezuelan winter league until 2016–2017, playing 4 games in his final season with Tigres de Aragua. In May 2025, Cabrera joined Clemente Álvarez's coaching staff as the hitting coach for the Marineros de Carabobo of the Venezuelan Major League.

Steroid and performance-enhancing drug allegations

On December 13, 2007, Cabrera was linked to steroid use in the

Mitchell Report The ''Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball'', informally known as the Mitchell Report, is the res ...

, one of many MLB players so identified. The report detailed an incident in September 2000 when Cabrera on the Arizona Diamondbacks. Team officials found a package that contained a vial of what they suspected to be anabolic steroids and several hundred pills. Clubhouse attendants claimed the package was intended for Cabrera. The contents of the package were tested, and it was determined that the vial contained the anabolic steroid Winstrol, but the pills were legal, over-the-counter diet pills. Before the tests came back, however, Cabrera's contract had been sold to the Seibu Lions, so he was never tested for steroid use. Cabrera denied knowing why the package had been addressed to him. After the report came out, Cabrera denied ever using steroids.

''"I couldn't have used the substances that are identified. I never had possession of the alleged box that supposedly contained the pharmaceutical drugs."''

During his career in Japan, Cabrera never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. In 2013, he stated that he never injected himself with or smoked drugs. In 2014, Cabrera tested positive for

stanozolol Stanozolol (Abbreviation, abbrev. Stz), sold under many brand names, is a synthetic androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) medication derived from dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It is used to treat hereditary angioedema. It was developed by American ph ...

, which ended his career in the Mexican League. A Mexican sports court later suspended his permanent ban from the league. In 2016, Cabrera tested positive for

adderall Adderall and Mydayis are trade names for a combination drug containing four salts of amphetamine. The mixture is composed of equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio between dextroamphetamine and l ...

while playing in the LVBP. His suspension was overturned by a Venezuelan court later in 2016. He tested positive for stanozolol in December 2016, receiving a 50-game suspension from the LVBP.

Personal life

Cabrera's son Ramón is also a professional baseball player. The younger Cabrera, a switch-hitting

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

, signed with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

organization in 2008, at the age of 18. Ramón made his major league debut with the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

on September 5, 2015.Badler, Ben
International Signing Roundup: NL Central
, Baseball America, published October 13, 2008. Cabrera played against his son in some winter league games.

References

External links

*
The Baseball Guru Japanese Baseball Data Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabrera, Alex 1971 births Living people Arizona Diamondbacks players Arizona League Diamondbacks players Bakersfield Blaze players Daytona Cubs players El Paso Diablos players Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players Geneva Cubs players Koos Group Whales players Leones del Caracas players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball players from Venezuela 20th-century Venezuelan sportsmen Mexican League baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball designated hitters Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners Orix Buffaloes players Pastora de los Llanos players Pastora de Occidente players Sportspeople from Monagas Peoria Chiefs players Rojos del Águila de Veracruz players Seibu Lions players Tiburones de La Guaira players Tucson Sidewinders players Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Japan Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Mexico Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Taiwan Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States Venezuelan people of Japanese descent

Career

Steroid and performance-enhancing drug allegations

Personal life

See also

References

External links