To be honest, there’s probably not going to be a ton to say about Oswaldo Cabrera’s 2025 season with the Yankees. While he did appear in over 30 games, not a ton notable happened to him, until something
very unfortunately notable happened. It’s always been very easy to root for Oswaldo with his affable demeanor, and the fan base will surely be pulling for him a even more given what he now has to come back from.
Grade: Incomplete
2025 Statistics: 34 games, 122 plate appearances, .243/.322/.308, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 83 wRC+, -1 OAA, 0.1 fWAR
2026 Contract Status: First year arbitration eligible (MLBTR projected salary: $1.2M)
For the second time in three seasons, Cabrera ended up as a “Yeah, I guess” Opening Day starter for the Yankees. With the departure of Gleyber Torres in free agency, the Yankees moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. back to his more natural second base spot, leaving third open. Having not really done anything externally to fill that spot, it was Cabrera’s role to kick off the season. At that time, the Yankees also had Pablo Reyes around, and he would mostly get the starts at the hot corner when it wasn’t Cabrera.
After a bit of a slow start, Cabrera had a three-hit, four-RBI game against the Pirates on April 4th. While he wasn’t exactly earth-shaking, he was respectable over the next couple weeks and had an OPS over .700 to end April.
While he has never really been a slugger, one thing that definitely wasn’t around for Caberera in 2025 was power. Of his 26 hits on the season, only five went for extra bases, and only one was a home run. That eventually led to the hits drying up in general, and was he hitting just .107/.212/.179 over the first two weeks of May.
Mid-May is also where Cabrera’s 2025 season ends. On May 12th, the Yankees were in Seattle. In the top of the ninth, Cabrera was on third, having singled in a game that the Yankees were winning comfortably. Aaron Judge hit a fly ball to right field, upon which Cabrera went and tagged up. Seattle right fielder Leody Taveras’ throw was on line, leading to Cabrera making a move to try and evade the tag at home from catcher Cal Raleigh. While Cabrera did successfully and scored, his side step caused him to make an awkward move, causing him to go down in immediate and obvious pain. From the reaction of those on the field, it was immediately clear that the injury was bad, and it was eventually revealed that Cabrera had suffered a fractured left ankle. While this video doesn’t linger too much on the gruesome details of the injury, still watch only at your own risk.
In a testament to Cabrera as a guy and a teammate, Judge revealed that as Cabrera was down being attended to by the doctors, he asked the Yankee captain if he had scored on the play.
Obviously an injury of that magnitude knocked him out of the rest of the season. While he didn’t play again in 2025, he was still a presence at some games and events at Yankee Stadium throughout the season. As he always is, he seemed his normal affable self when he was around.
In the aftermath of it, Cabrera himself wasn’t 100% ready to close the book on his 2025, but obviously he never made it back to play a game at any level. It’s expected that he’ll be back next season, but a fractured ankle can’t be easy to come back from, so we’ll have to wait and see what, if any, role he has for the Yankees. No matter what happens through, you can imagine that Oswaldo will be doing it with a smile.
