LAKELAND, Fla. -- You don't forget the first time you meet Miguel Cabrera.

Ask any one of his Detroit Tigers teammates -- especially the younger ones -- and you can tell that the novelty of playing with one of the game's greatest players has yet to wear off.

Nick Castellanos posed for a picture with him when he was just 11 years old -- he still has it, somewhere -- and then encountered him again seven years later when he got summoned for a big-league spring training game. This was the same player he watched win a World Series with his hometown team, the Florida Marlins in 2003, and now he was hitting after Cabrera in the Tigers lineup. He called the experience "surreal."

James McCann was just a rookie catcher, sitting at the end of the Tigers bench during a game in Cleveland in September of 2014, when Cabrera approached him and asked," You wanna hit?"

McCann didn't quite understand where Cabrera was going with the question, but he told him yes.

Cabrera marched over to manager Brad Ausmus and told him McCann was going to bat in his place.

"I don't know how many people get to say that, in their first at-bat they got to pinch-hit for a Triple Crown hitter," McCann joked.

Even Tigers prospect JaCoby Jones couldn't suppress a smile when recalling his first interaction with the 32-year-old slugger this spring and he didn't even have a formal introduction.

Cabrera asked him 'How old are you?' then slapped him on the ass and went on his way.

The two-time AL MVP, 10-time All-Star and four-time AL batting champion is a star not just because of his gaudy numbers and prolific production, but also because of his sheer magnetism. His personality is infectious, his childlike enthusiasm for the game unrivaled, and it's what makes him impossible not to watch, even for the guys who are around him every single day.

"He's like a 10-year-old in an [adult's] body," said pitcher Jordan Zimmermann.

Reliever Blaine Hardy admits that during a game he has a tough time paying attention to anyone other than Cabrera once the 2012 Triple Crown winner gets on base. He's earned a reputation for his playful interaction with opponents, often engaging in lively banter with a first baseman, or occasionally untucking an infielder's jersey in jest. It's not only a sign of how much genuine fun he has playing the game, it's also an indication of how widely respected and well-liked he is throughout the league.

"Not every player could get away with that. It's definitely a stature thing. For as much as he's played and all the success he's had, players are almost honored when he messes with them," Hardy explains. "All you can do is go home, call your wife and say, 'Miggy messed with my jersey today. That's the coolest thing I've ever seen.'"

Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler points to Miguel Cabrera's baseball instinct as an underrated part of the 10-time All-Star's game, saying that the two can often communicate on the diamond without even needing to say a word. AP Photo/Duane Burleson

Cabrera can afford to joke around -- and get away with it -- not only because of the sort of respect he commands throughout the league but, practically, because his baseball instincts are so razor-sharp. For as affable and silly as he can be, he can toggle between jest and a searing intensity in less time than it takes most people to blink. He is acutely aware of everything around him at all times.

"That's the key. He understands the flow of the game exceptionally well," second baseman Ian Kinsler said. "He understands where the ball is gonna be, where his teammates are gonna be, where he needs to be, and he works ahead of that. He knows when he has time to screw around."

Conversely, he knows when he needs to focus, and Kinsler may understand that better than anyone. After playing the infield with Cabrera for two full seasons, Kinsler says the pair can now communicate almost solely by way of head nods and loaded glances alone.

It is, by far, a much less flashier facet of his game and for that reason it is often overlooked, but Cabrera's defensive abilities are stellar as well. He is a great athlete with soft hands and superb baseball smarts. Like many other players with superlative offensive numbers, his defensive acumen often gets overlooked.

"I think baseball players in general don't get enough credit for baseball instincts because statistics is what drives this game and people lose touch of instincts," Kinsler said. "But Miggy's are tremendous."

The offensive prowess is what everyone else can easily recognize, but it's the more subtle nuances to Cabrera's game, and his person, that makes him really special to those who know him best.

Miguel Cabrera's Career Category Career stats Rank* BA .321 1st OPS .961 2nd HR 408 5th RBI 1,445 5th WAR 64.7 5th Offensive WAR 72.1 2nd *Among qualified active players From ESPN Stats & Information

"He's a guy that cares to be great, not good," said 26-year-old Jose Iglesias, who looks to Cabrera as a mentor. "When you're at that level and you prepare to be better, that's something you appreciate. Even at the level he is, he still wants to improve."

Another thing people might not appreciate?

How much he plays through. And there is a good reason people might not fully grasp the number of games he plays each year -- especially the past two seasons -- at less than 100 percent.

"The thing about getting credit playing hurt is that people have to know you're hurt," Kinsler said.

Cabrera will never be a player to let on what is hampering him on a daily basis. Managers have to basically force him to take a game or two off. And certainly his production is not going to tip people off, either.

Despite playing much of last season hobbled by a number of ailments -- he went on the disabled list with a calf strain for the first time in his career in July, but was also dealing with ankle issues and back pain -- he still managed to win a batting title.

If he can physically put on a uniform, he will play. That does not get lost on his teammates, ever.

"Very few people do that," said veteran Victor Martinez. "People that want to win."

And then of course, there is the most obvious component to Cabrera's ongoing legacy: what he is capable of doing at the plate.

"There's not a pitch you can throw him that he can't do damage with," Zimmermann said. "In my eyes, he's the best hitter in the game."

His offensive abilities are so otherworldly, and have been for so long and with such consistency, that they often get taken for granted. Players expect him to produce. Performances that might be astounding for any other player seem, for him, rather pedestrian.

"It's funny. In spring training, Ian Kinsler is having a great spring, and it sticks out or you can say that Bryan Holaday had a phenomenal spring and you're like, 'How is Miggy's spring?' and you're like, 'Well, I guess he's doing alright,' but then you look at his numbers and he's hitting .400. It's just amazing how you become so used to Miggy having ridiculous success all the time that it almost goes unnoticed," said Castellanos.

Miguel Cabrera has put up MVP-caliber numbers so consistently throughout his career that feats like winning his fourth batting title during the 2015 season just seem routine to his teammates. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

It wasn't even until September of last season that the Tigers realized that Cabrera was on his way to his fourth batting title. Anyone else and it would've been the talk of the season.

"It becomes so, I don't know, routine that people just miss it," Castellanos said.

So, how exactly does he do it?

Cabrera is not obsessive about watching video, but he still seems to almost know every pitch that is coming before it ever even leaves a pitcher's hand. He makes a difficult discipline look basic, easy. Castellanos asked him for hitting advice once and this is what Cabrera had to offer:

"Just see the baseball and hit the baseball."

As if it were that simple.

"There's not a pitch you can throw him that he can't do damage with. In my eyes, he's the best hitter in the game."

But Cabrera makes it look that way, and teammates don't have any rational hypothesis for this; nothing that can be explained by either science or statistics.

"He has a gift," centerfielder Anthony Gose said.

Some people are lucky enough to receive this divine blessing and Cabrera is one of them. It's not like he was touched by God, Gose explains, it's like he was grabbed by him. Forcefully.

"I will have kids one day and even they will never see someone who can do what he can do with a baseball," Gose said. "It's once in a lifetime."

Even the most casual of fans can appreciate the legends in each respective sport: Michael Jordan in basketball, Tiger Woods in golf. But how many people can actually say they witness true greatness every single day?

That is what makes Cabrera so captivating, not just to fans, but to his teammates, too. Them, more than anyone, realize how iconic he is, and how lucky they are to have a front-row seat to the spectacle.

Said Castellanos:

"You kind of see what you want to strive to be, you know?