Joe Cronin
Year Inducted: 1956
Joe Cronin was coming off consecutive All-Star appearances when he joined the Red Sox in 1935. He finished the final 11 seasons of his career in Boston, earning four more All-Star nods along the way.
The shortstop hit .300/.394/.484 during his tenure in Boston and was a .301 hitter for his career.
He wasn’t much of a home run hitter, topping out at 24 as a single-season high and finishing his career with 170. That doesn’t mean Cronin didn’t have pop in his bat though. He led the league with 18 triples in 1932 and twice led in doubles, including once with the Red Sox when he hit a career-high 51 doubles in 1938.
Cronin produced a .403 wOBA during his time with the Red Sox, which ranks seventh in franchise history among players with 300+ games played with the club.
FanGraphs has Cronin listed only 21st among Red Sox position players with 30.1 fWAR, although that’s because he spent only half his career here. He racked up 66.6 fWAR in his career.
Cronin served as a player-manager, a role he held in his last two seasons with the Washington Senators and retained when he came to Boston. He played in only three games during his final season as a player in 1945 but remained the Red Sox manager until 1947 when he was promoted to General Manager, a position he filled until 1959.
The Red Sox went 1071-916 in the 13 seasons that Cronin served as the manager and they won one AL pennant.