LAKELAND, Fla. — Team Venezuela manager Omar López, also the first base coach for the Houston Astros, has a close relationship with Miguel Cabrera. They’re currently working together in the World Baseball Classic.
On Friday, López announced Cabrera as the team’s captain.
Cabrera, one of the best right-handed hitters in baseball history, has expressed interest in becoming a coach in some capacity for the Detroit Tigers when his playing career ends after the 2023 season.
“I would like to spend more time with this team that has such a bright future,” Cabrera said in April 2022, after collecting his 3,000th hit. “I know that my career is going to end at some point, but I’d like to be involved the with the team, a team that has given me a lot. I’d like to share with them if that is God’s will.”
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López, 46, played in the minor leagues for the Chicago White Sox from 1996-97 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998 before transitioning into his post-playing career. He joined the Houston Astros in 1999, working in Venezuela through 2007, as a full-time scout, hitting instructor and infield instructor.
During that time, López was one of the scouts who recommended that the Astros sign infielder Jose Altuve, who was a 16-year-old free agent at the time. He ended up signing in March 2007 for a $15,000 bonus.
Altuve, now a 12-year MLB veteran, has put together a long list of achievements: 2017 American League MVP, eight-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion. If he stays healthy, he will surpass 2,000 career hits this season.
López managed for the Astros’ affiliates in the minor leagues from 2008-19.
The Astros promoted López to their MLB coaching staff as the first base coach before the 2020 season. In August 2022, he was named the manager of the Venezuelan national team for the 2023 WBC.
“We’re looking for winning, that’s it,” said Cabrera, the only player to compete in all five editions of the WBC. “We’re trying to beat Dominican (Republic), Puerto Rico, Israel and Nicaragua in the first round. That’s our goal. Pray for me and the team.”
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In an interview with the Free Press, López talked about Cabrera’s impact in Venezuela and the World Baseball Classic, and how the future Hall of Famer can become a coach in his post-playing career.
(This Q&A has been edited slightly for length and clarity.)
Cabrera has said he doesn’t expect to play every game for Team Venezuela and doesn’t want to take away at-bats from younger players. What do you think he wants from this experience?
“He’s very humble about the situation. He just wants the country to win the whole thing because it’s his last one. I think the players know, and I think the players have another motivation besides playing for their country. They want to give this particular reward to Miggy for what he’s done in baseball representing our country at this level.”
What does his presence on the roster mean to Venezuela?
“He means a lot. He means a lot to me. When I saw Miguel Cabrera when he was 16 years old, I never thought that I would be in this position and managing Miggy for four, five, six, seven games. It means a lot because Miggy is a big icon in our country. He’s the next Hall of Famer. Not having Miguel Cabrera on the Venezuelan team would be like having nobody, even though we have Altuve and Salvador Perez. But Miggy has to show up. He will do good for us, and he’s going to prepare himself.”
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Cabrera has talked about becoming a coach when his playing career ends after this season. Do you think he can do that?
“If he wants it, he’s going to do it. He proved on the field that when he wants something, he’s going to get it and accomplish it. If he wants to be an ambassador, if he wants to be a mentor, if he wants to be a hitting guy, if he wants to be a special assistant, the only thing that he has to do is be committed, and he’s going to accomplish it.”
Did he talk to you about coaching?
“We talked a little bit. I told him exactly from my perspective what he can do, which is to be a guest coach. Be a guest coach, an ambassador, be on the field, be in those meetings with the coaches so he sees the vision and the point of view of coaching to understand how the transition is going to be. I told him, the transition at the beginning, you’re going to say, ‘No, I don’t want to do this.’ If you really want this, if you really want to help players to be successful, or help them through their careers, you have to make some adjustments, and then you’re going to make it. We’ll see.”
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What are the challenges of making that transition?
“The best way for a guy that played so long is to stay away from the decisions because you probably will make decisions as a player, or you will give your opinion as a player, not on the coaching and development side with what’s best for the organization. You have to take into consideration a lot of stuff. That’s why you stay away and listen to people you really trust. You want to learn from them how to talk, how to evaluate and how to overcome the outcomes of everything. When you learn it, you say, ‘OK, it’s a different point of view.’ There’s no doubt about it. He needs to find out and figure out if he likes it or not and see if he can enter that. But I think he will if he wants to stay on the field.”
Sounds like that’s a path he has to pick.
“If I’m Scott Harris (the Tigers’ president of baseball operations), I offer him right away. If I’m A.J. Hinch (Tigers manager), I offer him right away to stay with us in a uniform. And I would put somebody next to him to guide him and be that great ambassador for the Detroit Tigers. They need that because he’s a great competitor, he’s a winner, and the Tigers will be a winning team sooner than later. If not, another team will hire him to be that guy and help him because there are too many hours on the field, too many good moments, too many bad days that people want to learn from.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.