Génesis Cabrera

Génesis Cabrera

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.

• Debut May 29, 2019

• Born October 10, 1996 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional D.R.

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Biographical Information

Génesis Cabrera, who made his debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019, is the first major leaguer with the name "Génesis". He is the seventeenth with the last name "Cabrera", however. Part of the Cards haul for Tommy Pham from the Tampa Bay Rays at the 2018 deadline, he made 13 appearances (2 starts) as a rookie, with two scoreless appearances as part of the team's run to the 2019 NLCS. He followed that with a solid season in 2020, when he went 4-1, 2.42 in 19 games and struck out 32 batters in 22 1/3 innings. He also walked 16, with 4 hit batsmen and 2 wild pitches, as control of his explosive fastball was sometimes an issue. He had control problems in the postseason, as in two appearances in the Wild Card Series, totaling one inning, he walked three batters and hit another one while allowing two runs to the San Diego Padres.

On April 28, 2021, facing the Philadelphia Phillies, he hit Bryce Harper, with a 97 mph fastball to the face (Harper had to leave the game), then proceeded to plunk the next batter, Didi Gregorius, as well. These were his first two pitches of the inning. An understandably upset Joe Girardi came out to argue that Génesis should be ejected, but he was the one who got the thumb for pressing his point too much. Retribution did come from Andrew McCutchen, who singled in the go-ahead run, and Cabrera was charged with the loss without having retired a single batter. He went 4-5, 3.73 in 71 games that year, striking out 77 batters in 70 innings. His ERA moved up in 2022, to 4.63 in 39 games. In 2023, the ERA continued to climb, to 5.06 in 32 outings. On July 21st, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in return for minor leaguer Sammy Hernandez, and pitched much better after that, going 1-0, 2.66 in 19 games. He also pitched once in the Wild Card Series against the Minnesota Twins, striking out the two batters he faced.

In 2024, he returned to the Jays and in his first outing of the season, on March 30th, he got into a heated exchange with Tampa Bay Rays player Jose Caballero after Caballero had been tagged out at third. He ended up shoving his opponent, which led to his being ejected from the game and served with a three-game suspension, which was reduced to two games after an appeal.

Related Sites

• Génesis Cabrera on mlb.com