Jeff Kent will be on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2014. At first thought, many did not think that Jeff Kent was a Hall of Fame caliber player. How does the former MVP and 5 time All Star stack up against other Hall of Fame second basemen. Lets take a look at his qualifications.
These numbers seem outstanding for a second basemen, a position typically filled with more light hitting players. He owns the most home runs for a second basemen in baseball history with 351. It’s a significant number above Ryne Sandberg, who’s in second place with 277.
How does Jeff Kent compare to other Hall of Famers? The following are the numbers for modern era second basemen in the Hall of Fame. I’ve also included the near lock future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio.
When you compare Jeff Kent’s accomplishments to these players, he compares very favorably to them. He has more career home runs and RBI than any player on this list and they are by wide margins. Craig Biggio is the closest with 291 home runs (86 behind) and Bobby Doerr is closet in RBI with 1247 (271 behind). His career OPS puts him second best only behind Jackie Robinson and his OPS+ is third best, only behind Robinson and Joe Morgan. That’s pretty select company.
However, Kent has a higher WAR than only four other players on this list. It appears this is due to his relative lack of speed (only 94 career SBs) and relatively mediocre defense. His career defensive WAR was actually negative (-0.7). The only other player with a negative defensive WAR on this list is Craig Biggio (-3.8). In contrast 9 of the other second basemen listed above had a career defensive WAR above 10.0, and 4 had a career defensive WAR above 20.0.
In the above list I asterisk a number of players. All the asterisked players (Doerr, Fox, Gordon, Herman, Mazeroski, Schoendienst) were inducted into the Hall of Fame via the veterans committee, not the baseball writers. There appears to be an interesting divide when you look at the players this way. Jackie Robinson’s 58.7 career WAR is the lowest WAR of any second basemen selected by the baseball writers. Any player with a WAR below this was selected by the veterans committee. Jeff Kent would have the lowest WAR of any player voted by the baseball writers.
Even with the latter facts, it does appear that Jeff Kent has more than enough to warrant Hall of Fame enshrinement. Some borderline candidates, like Alan Trammell or Fred McGriff, lack that special something to really get them attention for the Hall of Fame. They lack an MVP award, inclusion in some special club (e.g. 3000 hit club, 500 home run club), hold a record for a position, or have a famous playoff performance. Jeff Kent does not appear to have that problem. With all the records he holds for second basemen and his MVP performance in 2000, he has more than enough to warrant induction into the Hall of Fame.
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