Levine: Melky Cabrera Hitting Woes A Mystery

By Bruce Levine--

(CBS) -- I was sitting at home in January on another brutally cold Chicago Saturday evening when an agent friend gave me the scoop on the Melky Cabrera signing by the Chicago White Sox.

The agent was told by a client of his who was hanging out with Cabrera in the Dominican Republic.

The news was surprising on more than just one level. Chicago gave Cabrera a three-year, $42 million contract. The shocking part of the transaction was that the White Sox front office got permission from owner Jerry Reinsdorf to spend more money after they appeared tapped out due to an offseason spending spree on free agents and the acquisition Jeff Samardzija in a six-player swap with Oakland.

Cabrera seemed like the perfect fit for the White Sox, who needed an on-base percentage guy who could take a pitch and hit from both sides of the plate. His role would be to set up the run producers in the middle of the order. The.284 lifetime hitter also had a .336 on-base percentage and .745 OPS to bring to the party.

The White Sox brass did their homework on Cabrera's makeup in a professional way. Despite getting an 80-game suspension for PED use in 2012, Cabrera checked out as a great teammate and a crossover player.

All systems were a go when he got to spring training. The 30-year-old left fielder quickly became a comic relief foil for the popular Jose Abreu, once throwing a hat in his face while Abreu was doing a serious TV interview.

What has transpired since the beginning of the season has been hard to believe. As a right-handed hitter, Cabrera is 4-of-51 this season. Of greater concern is a .540 OPS and a total of five extra-base hits in 216 at-bats.

"You would expect it to be better than it is," manager Robin Ventura said of Cabrera's struggles. "For now, we just drop him down until he figures it out. Certainly against lefties it makes sense. You wouldn't expect a guy with a track record like that to go through a funk like that. Something is in there that just isn't clicking right now. It eventually will."

"Eventually" needs to happen soon.

Ventura had never dropped Cabrera below fourth in the batting before Friday night. He batted sixth against Detroit.

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.