Cabrera deserved a longer look. That is not the same as proving the Yankees wrong.

The Yankees gave Oswaldo Cabrera nine at-bats this season. He did not get a hit. Now he belongs to Cincinnati, and New York is left with a question it did little to answer in those three games: could he have helped? Looking at the offense the Yankees accepted from several alternatives, he deserved a longer trial.

Cabrera was designated for assignment September 16 as Clarke Schmidt returned. The Reds claimed him two days later. Fans who liked him have every right to be disappointed. Affection, though, will not tell us whether keeping him would have made the Yankees better. The comparison has to do that work.

All the Yankees batting figures below stop at September 15, before the decision. Cabrera had 11 plate appearances, including his nine official at-bats. That is a very small audition to set beside the opportunities other hitters received.

What the alternatives actually hit

Ryan McMahon had 340 plate appearances and hit .214, with a .280 on-base percentage and .353 slugging percentage: a .633 OPS. Anthony Volpe had 214 plate appearances and a .249/.332/.344 line, with a .676 OPS. Volpe’s advantage in reaching base gets lost if the argument starts and ends with batting average.

George Lombard Jr. had 128 plate appearances and hit .228/.291/.351, a .642 OPS. José Caballero had 434 at .234/.291/.374, a .665 OPS. Amed Rosario had 231 at .234/.277/.411, a .688 OPS. The Yankees got a much longer look at each of them. The size of those samples belongs in the argument alongside the results.

Among the depth options, Jasson Domínguez had 222 plate appearances and hit .225/.267/.368. Max Schuemann had 87 at .194/.333/.361. Schuemann’s .194 looks bleak until you notice how often he reached base. These are hitters with different strengths and different jobs; Cabrera’s ability to cover those jobs cannot be assumed.

There was enough uncertainty in that offense to justify trying another bat. Giving Cabrera more work would not have guaranteed improvement. It would have given New York a better basis for deciding whether to keep looking elsewhere.

The case against our argument

Cabrera’s own history is the best argument against that position. His career major-league line on MiLB’s player record is .232, with a .292 on-base percentage and .635 OPS across 867 at-bats. Nine at-bats tell us little. Those 867 tell us considerably more, and they do not describe an established offensive answer.

He did hit .288 with 19 home runs and a .789 OPS in 466 minor-league at-bats this year. That gives the case for another look some substance. It is not a license to subtract McMahon’s MLB OPS from Cabrera’s minor-league OPS and declare an upgrade. The pitchers get a vote in that comparison, too.

And somebody still has to play defense. Shortstop, third base and the outfield make different demands. This comparison does not include a matching defensive-value ranking or complete player projections; it is not a total-value leaderboard. Cutting the weakest hitter on paper can leave a team weaker somewhere else.

Playing time and roster space are different decisions

An optioned player remains on the 40-man roster. So ‘send somebody down’ does not solve the roster-space question. To argue that Cabrera was the wrong player to remove, we need a better candidate and a fair account of what New York would lose by choosing him.

Nor were all these choices available every day. McMahon returned from the injured list September 1. Volpe was recalled September 10; Domínguez was optioned September 11. A season’s totals cannot tell us which healthy players were ready to fill a particular opening on a particular morning.

The Yankees could have tested Cabrera more thoroughly earlier. We think they should have. The evidence here does not establish a better September 16 roster cut once Schmidt needed a place. Those decisions happened at different times and deserve separate judgments.

What would change the verdict?

A meaningful defensive disadvantage or a role Cabrera could not handle would weaken the case for playing him. Repeated openings he could reasonably have filled would strengthen it. His first good game in Cincinnati will not settle either question, however satisfying the highlight might be for his supporters.

Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler can be successes without making every Yankees personnel decision a good one. Cabrera can deserve a better chance without becoming a star. New York had a season to learn more about him at this level. It used nine at-bats. That is the choice worth questioning.