ANAHEIM – Could Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera finally be turning into the dominant arm the baseball world envisioned years ago when he was a highly regarded prospect?
Cabrera struck out a season-high 10 batters across 5 2/3 innings in Sunday afternoon’s 3-0 victory over the Angels at Angel Stadium. Cabrera’s first win of 2025 also secured Miami’s first road series victory of the season.
In four starts this month, Cabrera has a 2.53 ERA (20 1/3 innings, six earned runs) with 23 strikeouts and five walks. More importantly, the Marlins have won three consecutive games started by Cabrera.
“I think I'm getting closer to being what I want to be: Edward Cabrera,” Cabrera said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr.
The 27-year-old Cabrera, who was unscored upon for the first time since Sept. 8, 2024, orchestrated his fourth career double-digit strikeout performance. Six of them came on his curveball. His 11 whiffs on the pitch were the most by a Marlin since the late José Fernández (Aug. 24, 2016).
Everything was working for Cabrera, who yielded three hits and allowed just one baserunner to reach scoring position against a hot Angels lineup through the first five innings.
“The majority of it was Cabrera,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “I mean, he was really good today. He was able to spot his fastball, and he had a good breaking ball. It was quick, and it was hard to really recognize it, and he got us to swing at it out of the strike zone. So we didn't muster up anything today.”
Stuff has never been an issue for Cabrera; rather his command – but things seem to be clicking. He credited his aggressiveness in the zone for his strikeouts and effectiveness. Cabrera was 16-for-21 (76.2%) on first-pitch strikes – his best total since Sept. 25, 2024 (18-for-22).
Only three of the 21 batters Cabrera faced saw a three-ball count, and two came in the sixth. Of all 150 pitchers with at least five starts this year, Cabrera entered Sunday the 10th worst in terms of percentage of plate appearances to go to three-ball counts.
“It's actually really good to see a pitcher just locked in that way,” catcher Agustín Ramírez said via Dorante. “And like I said, something that I liked a lot was the fact that he never checked me off during the game.”
After two quick outs in the sixth, however, Cabrera issued consecutive walks – his first free passes of the outing – to snap a three-start stretch of only one batter per outing.
Manager Clayton McCullough pulled Cabrera at 87 pitches (57 strikes). Righty Anthony Bender struck out Taylor Ward, who entered with an extra-base hit in 10 straight games, to strand the pair of runners. Bender pitched the seventh before righties Calvin Faucher and Ronny Henriquez retired the final six batters in order. Henriquez collected his first career save with a perfect ninth.
“I don't know if he ran out of gas,” McCullough said of Cabrera. “He'd been cruising, and he was throwing very well. The good thing about today – even some of the walks, I thought the last pitch to [Luis] Rengifo was really the only one that was actually kind of a misfire. A lot of them, he was around the plate with his mix and his misses. And he got us deep into a point in the game where felt like he had done a terrific job.”
If Cabrera keeps this up, things should get interesting when right-hander Eury Pérez is ready to return from Tommy John surgery in a couple of weeks. Miami’s active roster features a rotation of Cabrera, ace Sandy Alcantara, veteran Cal Quantrill, right-hander Max Meyer and left-hander Ryan Weathers.
Meyer returned to form last time out, Quantrill has been solid all month and Weathers has looked sharp in his first two starts back from the IL. Alcantara is still trying to find his way. Add this version of Cabrera every time out.
“I think you get to a point in your career where he knows how talented he is, and you just kind of get to the point where it's time to kind of hit another gear,” McCullough said. “We all felt like maybe the only thing holding Cabbie back from being the version that we've seen recently is just the consistent strike-throwing.”
How can Cabrera remain consistent, something that has proven elusive so far in his career?
“As you know, this is a sport that has a lot to do with mental game reps, of course, so I have to stay strong mentally,” said Cabrera, who credited talks with his 2-year-old son Edward Jr. “That's a thing that I have to do consistently. Keep doing what I'm doing, stay strong and things will keep doing well.”