Red Sox History: 5 former players who deserve more Hall of Fame love

5 Red Sox who deserve more Hall of Fame consideration

Few Hall of Fame cycles has been more eagerly anticipated by Red Sox fans than this one. After 13 terrific years in Boston, legendary designated hitter David Ortiz is eligible for election, and he is projected to be right at the 75% vote mark needed for election.

Yet while Ortiz will eventually get the call to the Hall, there have been many players in the franchise’s long history whose case for Cooperstown has not been given the proper due.

For this list, I looked only at players who spent a significant portion of their careers with the Red Sox. So while David Cone, Bret Saberhagen, and Jack Clark all played with the Red Sox and had terrific careers, they did not have a long enough career with the team to be considered for this list.

As with my last Hall of Fame piece, a significant portion of how I determined if a player was Hall of Fame worthy or not was by looking at JAWS. Invented by Hall of Fame guru Jay Jaffe, JAWS averages a player’s cumulative WAR and the WAR from their seven-year peak, making it easier to compare players who were great for a short period to those who compiled stats over a long career.

Red Sox CF: Dom Dimaggio

To truly understand Dom DiMaggio’s Hall of Fame case, you need to put his career into context. On the surface, his numbers certainly aren’t good enough. His 33.6 WAR would be the ninth-lowest of any Hall of Famer, and his games played (9th lowest) and hit total (19th) would also rank near the bottom.

Yet many of the factors that led to Dimaggio’s short career were out of his control. Even as the famous Joe Dimaggio’s brother, Dom had trouble garnering attention from scouts due to his lack of size (5-9, 168 LB) and his glasses, which were viewed as a significant disadvantage. Because of these perceived shortcomings, Dimaggio didn’t have his first full season until age 24.

Even with the late start, Dimaggio was a great player right out of the gate, making the All-Star team in each of his first two seasons. Then came World War II, which cost him three years of his prime.

Dimaggio returned with a vengeance in 1946, posting a career-high OPS+ of 123 and leading the Red Sox to the AL pennant. Over the first seven years after the war, Dimaggio slashed .302/.388/.413 and scored over 100 runs a season.

Dimaggio had a slightly down 1952 season, posting a career-low 102 OPS+ and 1.8 WAR. Yet nobody could have foreseen that his career would last just three more games. After a disagreement with manager Lou Boudreau, Dimaggio retired early in the 1953 season. At just 36, Dimaggio walked away from the game with plenty left in the tank.

Throughout his career, Dom was known most as one of the many contributing players who got on base in front of legend Ted Williams. Dimaggio, though, was a terrific player in his own right who was never truly appreciated.

His ten full years in the game were as good as any outfielder in his era. Over that span, he never had an average below .283 or an on-base percentage below .360. A keen base stealer in an age where nobody stole bases, Dimaggio ranked in the top ten in steals seven times.

He made seven All-Star teams and would have surely brought home some Gold Gloves had the award been invented, as his 2.98 chances per game is a record for AL outfielders.

What really hurt Dimaggio was missing his age 26-28 seasons while serving in the military. Many baseball players left baseball for the war, of course, but few missed as many prime seasons as Dimaggio.

He had 5.7 WAR in the year before the war started and 4.7 WAR in the first year upon his return. If he had averaged 5.0 WAR a season for those three missed years, his career WAR would be 48.6, ahead of Hall of Famer outfielders Ralph Kiner, Jim Rice, and Lou Brock. Is that fair? Probably not, but neither is missing three of your best seasons for something outside your control.

This isn’t to say Dimaggio is a surefire Hall of Famer. If every player were elected to the Hall of Fame based on what their career could have been, there would be nobody NOT in Cooperstown.

Yet to completely dismiss Dimaggio’s case would be to punish him for things outside of his control. Dimaggio couldn’t control being disrespected by scouts, missing three years of his prime for the war, or being forced to retire by an incompetent manager.

What Dimaggio could control was being a great player when he was on the field. And when he played, Dimaggio was one of the best outfielders of his time. As the Veteran’s Committee continues to evaluate the cases of players overlooked by the BBWAA, Dimaggio deserves to have his career reexamined.

 Red Sox RF: Reggie Smith

There is a common theme for underrated players who haven’t gotten their due by the BBWAA. These players generally had a high on-base percentage, were great defenders, or were overshadowed by high-profile players on their own team or around their league. Reggie Smith fits each of those categories.

Owner of a .366 career OBP and 25 defensive runs saved, Smith never got the same attention as other outfielders of his time. He wasn’t as great a hitter as Carl Yastrzemski, as clutch or powerful as Reggie Jackson, or as consistently brilliant as Hank Aaron. Yet Reggie Smith was a terrific player in his own right, a true five-tool talent who could do anything he wanted on a baseball field.

Through his age 33 seasons, Smith looked to be on a fast track to Cooperstown. By that time, he had accumulated 55.6 WAR, more than Hall of Famers outfielders Tony Gwynn, Billy Williams, and Larry Walker had at the same point of his career.

He had hit more than 20 home runs eight times, batted over .300 six times, and had a remarkable 138 OPS+. Smith needed only a couple more good seasons to be a shoo-in for Cooperstown.

Smith, however, would never again put together a complete season. Over the last four years, he averaged just 77 games a season and accumulated just 2.9 WAR after the age of 35. All the injuries ultimately took their toll, and Smith was out of baseball at age 37.

Injuries, unfortunately, are a huge part of Smith’s story. Over the final 11 seasons of his career, Smith played more than 140 games only twice. Because of his relatively short career, his counting stats (2020 hits, 314 home runs) are below Hall of Fame standards.

On a rate basis, though, Smith was a phenomenal player. His WAR/162 is higher than many Hall of Famers, including Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., and Mike Piazza. His 137 OPS+ meanwhile, a combination of his elite batting eye and consistent power, is greater than Griffey, George Brett, and Orlando Cepeda.

Even with a career plagued with injuries, Smith’s cumulative value is comparable to Hall of Fame outfielders. His 38.6 peak WAR and 51.6 JAWS are both within five of the HOF standards for right fielders and greater than contemporaries Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Dave Winfield. And while his aforementioned hits and home runs totals are indeed low, they are still higher than 54 and 126 Hall of Famers, respectively.

How many Hall of Fame-level seasons does one need to be a Hall of Famer? I’ve always believed that if the minimum number of years to be eligible for election is ten, then a player should have at least ten seasons at least at an All-Star level. Smith, who had 13 seasons with a WAR above 2.5, meets that criteria. In the end, Smith should be judged more for what he did do than punished for what he didn’t do.

Red Sox SP: Luis Tiant

There were very few players in Red Sox history as beloved as Luis Tiant. From his one-in-a-million delivery to his eccentric personality to his reputation as one of the best big-game pitchers in baseball, Tiant etched his name in Boston baseball lore in his seven-year stint with the team. Yet Tiant was more than just an entertainer: He was also one of the best pitchers of his time.

In an era of great pitching, Tiant still managed to stand out. This was never truer than his 1968 campaign with the Indians when his incredible performance still managed to turn heads even in the most pitching-dominant year of the live-ball era.

Tiant went 21-9 with an AL-leading 1.60 ERA and nine shutouts. He also would have taken home the AL Cy Young award if not for a late-season injury that allowed 31-game winner Denny Mclain to slip by him in the Cy Young race, an award that could have made a massive difference to his Hall of Fame candidacy.

Tiant’s time with the Indians quickly went downhill from there. He lost 20 games in 1969 before starting just 27 games between the Twins and the Red Sox over the next two years. His career was on life support, but it was in that 1972 season that Tiant learned to reinvent as a finesse pitcher after injuries had sapped the life out of his fastball.

Relying more on his seemingly endless array of breaking balls and disrupting hitters with his 180-degree delivery, Tiant dominated in his time with the Red Sox. He averaged 17 wins a season, posted a 121 ERA+, and accumulated over 5.0 WAR a season.

Even with his excellence in the regular season, Tiant is revered most for his efforts in the 1975 postseason. First, he helped propel the Red Sox to an opening-round sweep against the three-time defending champ Oakland Athletics with a nine-inning, one-run masterpiece in Game 1. He was even better in the World Series opener against the Reds, allowing just five hits en route to a complete-game shutout.

It was Game 4 of that series, however, that may have been Tiant’s finest hour. Tiant was not nearly as sharp as his previous two outings, allowing thirteen baserunners and four runs, but he gutted through 155 pitches to preserve a 5-4 Red Sox win that evened the series.

Even though Tiant struggled the next time out (seven innings, six earned runs) and the Red Sox would go on to lose the series, Tiant’s performance in those playoffs made him an instant Boston legend.

Tiant retired after the 1982 season with a resume that appeared fit for Cooperstown. His 66.1 career WAR would be higher than 40 Hall of Fame pitchers, including first-ballot inductees Bob Feller, Roy Halladay, and Juan Marichal.

His 229 wins are higher than recent Hall of Fame inductees Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, while his 3.30 ERA is better than fellow 70’s stars Fergie Jenkins, Bert Blyleven, and Phil Niekro.

As expected, Tiant debuted with a solid 30.9% in 1988, appearing well on the road for election. His percentage, after all, was higher than eventual inductees Ron Santo and Minnie Minoso. Yet Tiant never reached that total again.

The following year was one of the strongest ballots of all time, as Johnny Bench, Carl Yastrzemski, Gaylord Perry, and Fergie Jenkins all became eligible. Tiant slipped all the way to 10.5% and fell further to 9.5% in 1990 when Joe Morgan and Jim Palmer joined the ballot. The ballot would eventually open up, but by then, Tiant had lost all momentum and never reached 30% again.

Tiant’s name has appeared on veteran committees since falling off the ballot in 2002, but he has never come close to the election. He’ll get another chance in 2024 when his name appears again on the Modern Baseball Ballot.

Over the last few years, Veteran Committees have corrected numerous BBWAA missteps such as Alan Trammell, Ted Simmons, and Jack Morris. Tiant was every bit as good as those players and stacked up with nearly every Hall of Fame starting pitcher from his era.

If not for the misfortune of being on two of the most stacked ballots of all time, he would already be in the Hall of Fame. Tiant is obviously Cooperstown-worthy; it’s only a matter of time before the Veterans Committee realizes it too.

Red Sox RF: Dwight Evans

Dwight Evans spent his entire career being overlooked. For the first half of his career, he shared the outfield with future Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice and former MVP Fred Lynn. He made just three AL all-stars teams in his career, as the likes of Rickey Henderson, Rice, and Reggie Jackson constantly made the team over him.

Even in his best season, the strike-shortened 1981 campaign in which he led the league with 22 home runs and 6.7 WAR, he lost out on the MVP to Brewers closer Rollie Fingers, who produced over four less WAR.

The trend only continued after his career ended. He lasted just three years on the Hall of Fame ballot, getting pushed off when legends Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan, and George Brett all debuted in 1999 and forced Evans under the 5%. Evans was underappreciated in his time, but now, with the help of analytics, we can see what a truly great player he was.

The problem with Evan’s career is that his offensive peak and his defensive peak occurred in two entirely different periods of his career. From 1972 to 1980, when Evans produced 104 defensive runs, he hit a measly .262/.366/.489 while averaging just 16 home runs and 55 RBIs.

A stance adjustment in 1981 helped him unlock his hitting potential, and over the next seven years, his slash line improved to .281/.388/.498, and he averaged 26 home runs and 93 RBIs a season. His growth as a hitter, however, coincided with a steep drop-off in his defense. From 1981 on, he cost the Red Sox 109.8 runs in the field.

Because of his inability to pair his offensive breakout with his defensive prime, Evans never put together a Hall-of-Fame level season. He was always a solid player, compiling over 3.0 WAR in 13 different seasons, but he had just two seasons with over 5.5 WAR and none with over 7.0.

If his defensive peak had occurred during his best offensive seasons, he likely would have been a perennial All-Star and had a stronger Hall of Fame case.

Even so, Evans remains a strong candidate for Cooperstown. Though Gold Gloves in the ’80s were more of a crapshoot than they are today, Evans won eight of them, more than any AL outfielder besides Al Kaline, Ichiro, and Ken Griffey Jr.

His arm was one of the finest in baseball, as he finished in the top five in right field assists eight times and double plays seven times. The advanced metrics back him as well: Evans finished in the top five in total zone runs five times and range factors seven times. No matter how you look at it, Evans was one of the best defensive outfielders of his time.

Though he got off to a slow start at the plate, Evans’ offensive resume is Hall of Fame worthy as well. His counting stats (2446 hits, 385 home runs, 1470 RBI) are up to snuff, and while his .272 average is low, he makes up for it with 1391 walks, the 29th highest total of all time.

This results in a terrific .370 OBP, better than 75 Hall of Famers, including Griffey, George Brett, and Paul Molitor. Evans’ 127 OPS+, meanwhile, is better than 77 Hall of Famers. Overall, Evans’s offensive numbers are well up to Hall of Fame standards, especially for a great defensive player.

The total package of Evan’s skills put him right at the standard of a Hall of Famer at his position. His career WAR, seven-year peak, and JAWS are all within five of the average HOF right fielder. Of the 14 right fielders with more JAWS, thirteen are in the Hall of Fame, while the fourteenth (Shoeless Joe Jackson) would be if he were eligible.

On the flip side, Evans’ JAWS is higher than fourteen Hall of Famers, including Vladamir Guerrero and Dave Winfield, who both got in without much resistance.

It’s easy to see why Evans was overlooked in his playing days. His average was low, he had few eyepopping statistical seasons, and he played on the same team and the same league as legends who were superior to him. But 30 years after his retirement, we can see now how valuable a player he was. It’s time for him to get a plaque in Cooperstown.