TAMPA — Since he arrived late in the 2022 season, Oswaldo Cabrera has consistently been the most upbeat player in the Yankees’ clubhouse.
But even he was not immune to feeling the effects of a disappointing sophomore season in 2023.
“Just working on getting my confidence back,” Cabrera said Monday after working out at the Yankees’ player development complex. “Obviously we are always making adjustments, but at the same time, the biggest thing I did [this offseason] was mentally get more strong. … The way you always see Oswaldo Cabrera playing aggressive, I feel that I lost a little bit of that game last year. So this year I’m coming with all that.”
The Yankees could surely use it, with Cabrera being the leading candidate to fill the utility role that was left open when Isiah Kiner-Falefa signed with the Blue Jays over the offseason.
But beyond his defensive versatility, Cabrera will have to rediscover his groove at the plate following a dismal 2023.
After bursting onto the scene over the final two months of the 2022 season — hitting .247 with a .740 OPS — Cabrera entered 2023 as the Yankees’ starting left fielder over Aaron Hicks.
But he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity, hitting just .211 with a .574 OPS across 115 games.
The Yankees sent him down to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on three separate occasions to try to let him work out of his offensive funk, but all three stints were short-lived because he was quickly needed back in the big leagues because of an injury elsewhere.
One time he didn’t even play a single game at Triple-A before being recalled and finished the year with just 10 games at SWB.
Cabrera admitted Monday that his optimistic nature may have slightly backfired on him last season as he was going through his struggles.
“I think that was my problem last year; I’m so optimistic, so in my mind, it’s like, ‘I’m OK, I’m OK, I’m OK,’ ” he said. “And I never got back, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ Every time in my mind I was like, ‘I got this, I got this, I got this.’ ”
Except Cabrera eventually came to realize that something needed to change.
During his third trip to Triple-A, he had conversations with hitting coach Trevor Amicone and a mental skills coach, which got him thinking about the hitter he had been in the past and how to get back to that.
That gave way to an offseason focused on regaining his confidence.
He played 25 games in his native Venezuela, where he was teammates with his brother, Leobaldo, which he said was “the most beautiful thing I ever did in my career.” He also worked with new hitting coach James Rowson on getting into his hitting position earlier than he had been so he could get off better swings.
“It’s just conversations with people that saw me playing back in the day, in minors and everything. It’s grabbing something from different people,” Cabrera said. “My brother tells me something and I’d say, ‘Yeah, I forget that.’ [Catcher Carlos] Narvaez told me something, I was like, ‘Right, I’ve been doing that in my mind.’ A couple things I feel I didn’t last year. So for that reason this year, I’m so excited.”
The switch-hitting Cabrera also used the Venezuelan winter ball experience to take all of his at-bats while hitting left-handed, even against lefty pitchers.
Late last season he took one at-bat lefty on lefty because he had been feeling better about himself from the left-handed side, though he said Monday he wasn’t going to completely eliminate his right-handed at-bats.
“I think I have the ability to hit righty,” said Cabrera, who has been hitting from both sides of the plate during batting practice the last two days. “I just wanted to get more at-bats lefty-lefty to get more ready at the moment I need to be lefty-lefty.”