Bobby Abreu might be the most overlooked player from the 1990s and 2000s. He’s one of eight players I selected on the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot.
Abreu earned just two All-Star Game selections during his 18-year major league career despite recording an OPS over .900 six different seasons.
He didn’t receive a single NL MVP vote or make the NL All-Star team in 2000 when he batted .316 with a .416 on-base percentage,.554 slugging percentage,.970 with 25 homers, 42 doubles, 10 triples, 103 runs, 79 RBIs and 28 stolen bases in 154 games.
He was not an All-Star again in 2001 when he played in all 162 games and batted .289 with a .393 on-base percentage, .543 slugging percentage, .936 OPS, 31 home runs, 48 doubles, four triples, 118 runs, 110 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. He finished 16th in the MVP voting that year.
Apparently 15 players in the National League had better years than he did in 2001.
He continues to be overlooked to this day. This marks his sixth year on the ballot. Abreu — who posted a career .395 on-base percentage, .870 OPS and 400 steals — received just 14.8% of the vote last year, down from 15.4% the previous year.
Fangraphs’ David Laurila compared Abreu and Ichiro Suzuki’s careers back in 2022 — and wrote, “Unless you place an especially-high value on hit totals and batting averages, Abreu clearly has a career-wise statistical edge on the undoubtedly Hall-of-Fame-worthy Ichiro.”
Ichiro, a first-timer on the ballot this year, likely will receive 100% of the vote.
Abreu actually had 346 more extra-base hits than Ichiro. He had 921 extra-base hits in 2,425 games and Ichiro had 575 extra-base hits in 2,653 games.
Abreu’s career OBP was 40 points higher than Ichiro’s. His slugging percentage was 73 points higher and OPS was 113 points higher.
Author Jim Passon tweeted in 2022 a list of players with as many walks and extra-base hits (1,476 walks and 921 extra-base hits) as Abreu. The list includes only 13 players, including 11 Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Carl Yastrzemski, Mike Schmidt, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome and Chipper Jones. The two non-Hall of Famers? Pete Rose and Barry Bonds.
Abreu won one Gold Glove compared to Ichiro’s 10 but still was a fine outfielder and he had almost an identical career bWAR (60.2) as Ichiro (60.0) did.
My seven other selections:
Ichiro: Ichiro should be checked off on 100% of the ballots. He had just incredible speed (509 steals) and bat-to-ball skills. He had a chance to beat out any grondball he hit in the infield, making him one of the most exciting players of his generation.
He collected 3,089 hits and finished with a .311 batting average. He also won 10 Gold Gloves with a cannon arm.
Billy Wagner: The southpaw finished his career with a WHIP under 1.00 (0.99). His career 2.31 ERA (lowest of a lefty in the live ball area) and .187 batting average against in 903 innings also are Hall of Fame stats.
He finished with a better ERA and WHIP as well as more strikeouts per nine innings (11.9) than Hall of Fame closers Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith and Rollie Fingers.
CC Sabathia: The lefty’s 3.74 ERA would have the highest ERA of any lefty starter (3.74) in Cooperstown, as colleague Sean McAdam noted.
But Sabathia had a dominant peak, including winning the 2007 AL Cy Young award and being selected to six All-Star Games from 2003-12. He also recorded 3,093 strikeouts, which is 18th all-time. Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling are the only two retired pitchers with 3,000 or more strikeouts not in the Hall of Fame.
Andruw Jones: It’s incredible this is Jones’ eighth year on the ballot and he still was at just 61.6% last year.
Jones won 10 Gold Gloves in center fielder, tying him with Ken Griffey Jr. for second most Gold Gloves all-time at the position behind only Willie Mays (12).
The five-time All-Star has a career .823 OPS. He’s 48th all-time in homers (434) and finished with 383 doubles, 36 triples, 1,289 RBIs, 1,204 runs and 152 steals.
Carlos Beltran: He’s is 25th all-time in extra base hits with 1,078. He’s just behind Hall of Famers Eddie Murray (1,099), Dave Winfield (1,093) and Jim Thome (1,089). He’s tied with Cal Ripken Jr. and ahead of Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson (1,075), Mel Ott (1,071), Chipper Jones (1,055), Andre Dawson (1,039), Frank Thomas (1,028), Mike Schmidt (1,015), Craig Biggio (1,014), Rogers Hornsby (1,011) and Ernie Banks (1,009) among many others.
He’s 29th all-time in doubles (565) and 47th in home runs (435).
He was a nine-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glover and two time Silver Slugger. He finished with 312 stolen bases, a .837 OPS and 2,725 hits, 62nd all-time.
He record a 70.1 WAR, which is in the same ballpark as Hall of Famers Jim Thome (73.1), Larry Walker (72.7), Alan Trammell (70.6), Barry Larkin (70.5), Ron Santo (70.5), Scott Rolen (70.1), Tim Raines (69.4), Tony Gwynn (69.2), Eddie Murray (68.6), Ryne Sandberg (67.9), Roberto Alomar (67), Craig Biggio (65.4) and Andre Dawson (64.8).
Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez: They are two of the greatest right-handed hitters of all-time. They also both failed PED tests after testing rules were put into effect. But there might be players already in the Hall of Fame who just didn’t get caught (including after testing began). I’m not going to play Hall police officer and try to guess who and who didn’t use (and who and who didn’t after testing). They are on the ballot, making them eligible. And they would have received 100% of the vote their first years on the ballot had they never been caught.
Why no Dustin Pedroia?
Pedroia’s career was cut short due to major knee issues after Manny Machado’s takeout slide in 2017. He ended up undergoing a partial knee replacement and will eventually need a full knee replacement.
He put together Hall of Fame seasons (2008, ‘11) and some very, very good seasons (2009, ’12, ‘13, ’16).
Ultimately, he didn’t play long enough to accumulate Hall of Fame statistics. He ended up with 1,805 hits. Some modern-day players right in front of him on the all-time hit list are Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal, Benito Santiago, Nolan Arenado, Edwin Encarnación, Jack Clark, Hanley Ramirez and Chuck Knoblauch.
He finished with 549 extra-base hits. Jayson Werth, Justin Turner, Ben Zobrist, Xander Bogaerts, Nick Swisher, Marcell Ozuna, Juan Uribe and Carl Crawford are all ahead of him on the all-time extra-base hits list.
- BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.
