Miguel Cabrera has finally done it.
On Saturday, the Detroit Tigers legend joined the all-exclusive 3,000-hit club with a base hit up the middle off of Colorado Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela.
There are only two active MLB players who have hit the 3,000-hit mark, those being Cabrera and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols.
Now that Miggy is on the list of MLB players with 3,000 or more career hits, it’s going to be a long while before another player reaches that mark.
The closest player to 3,000 hits now is New York Mets slugger Robinson Cano, but Cano is 39 years old and near the end of his career, so that may not ever happen.
Active career hit list:
2,630 Robinson Cano (39 yrs old)
2,116 Yadier Molina (39 yrs old)
2,035 Joey Votto (38 yrs old)
1,924 Nelson Cruz (41 yrs old)Who will be next to reach 3000? pic.twitter.com/zH2VxbWHZ7
— PointsBet Sportsbook (@PointsBetUSA) April 25, 2022
Who’s Next?
It’s going to be weird to have to wait for another player to reach 3,000 hits for that long.
The players behind Cano on that list of players closest to 3,000 are Joey Votto, Yadier Molina, and Nelson Cruz, all of which are near the end of their careers and are nowhere close to reaching 3,000.
In fact, Molina is in his final big-league season, so that won’t happen for him.
But we have seen Pujols, Cabrera, Derek Jeter, and other reach the 3,000-hit plateau over the past decade or so.
We as fans have grown accustomed to seeing this type of history made.
Now, it’s going to be a while before somebody gets there, especially with all four of the players closest to 3,000 near the tail end of their careers.
Cano could stick around for a few more years and reach 3,000, but if not, it could potentially be another generation before we see another player reach that point.
Time will tell, but we likely won’t be seeing it anytime soon.
