The old adage that the ball will always find you when playing a new position came into play immediately Friday night for Yankees rookie Oswaldo Cabrera.
Making his first career start in right field, Cabrera robbed Lourdes Gurriel Jr. of a home run with a leaping grab at the wall on the first pitch of the game at the Stadium. The play elicited an instant standing ovation from the sellout crowd, making it one of the few cheer-worthy moments in the careening Yankees’ 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays, their 14th defeat in 18 games.
“To see him move out there [in the outfield], for not having many professional games at all under his belt, we talked about him working out there, but man, he looked really natural, didn’t he?” manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “He made that play with ease.”
Cabrera, who was called up Wednesday from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, made a couple of other nice defensive plays on the night after appearing in only four games in the outfield this season in the minors.
The Venezuelan rookie had started the previous two games at third base and shortstop, respectively, impressing Boone already with his defensive versatility. The 23-year-old Cabrera also went 1-for-3 at the plate, recording a fifth-inning single after collecting his first two big league hits in a 9-2 loss Thursday.
“That’s who he’s been. Obviously he hasn’t played a ton of outfield games, just a handful of games down there in the minor leagues. But he’s done a lot of work out there,” Boone said. “I think one of his strengths as a player is just his maturity and his clock and his way about him. That’s always been one of his calling cards.”
Before the Bleacher Creatures even had a chance to start their first-inning roll call tradition Friday night, Cabrera already had the fans on their feet for bringing back Gurriel’s deep fly to right. Cabrera pumped both arms and let out a scream after making the highlight-reel catch, before also making a running grab in the right-field corner in the second inning.
“He’s turning himself into a really good player and I think he’s going to be a good player in this league for a long time. But the intangible things are really special with him,” Boone said. “It’s been good to see him come up here and handle himself really well.”