Excellent career and 500 HRs are not enough: Legend would be out of the Hall of Fame

By Jesus Perez Vichot (Chuchi)

Gary Sheffield began his MLB adventure in 1988 with the Brewers. I remember he didn’t play much his first two seasons and when he did it was at shortstop. Then in 1990 the Milwaukee guys gave him the opportunity to play more than 100 games for the first time in his career as a third baseman.

But his breakout season came in 1992 playing for the San Diego Padres. He hit 33 home runs, drove in 100 runs, and led the National League in batting average (.330) and total bases (323). From that season Sheffield was one of the most feared sluggers in baseball.

His constantly swinging bat style was his trademark; he had a violent swing that struck fear into opposing pitchers for more than two decades (22 seasons). “Every time I got in the batter’s box, I wanted to destroy whoever was on the mound,” Sheffield said in the Players Tribune in 2016. “In my mind, that guy was trying to take my food off the table and I would bite them if it meant I was upset.”

The nine-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger played furiously, which often led to some bruised ribs and egos. He played for eight different teams (Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets).

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He retired in 2011 and was one of the most consistent right-handed hitters in the league, with a career slash line of .292/.393/.514. He finished in the Majors with 509 home runs; at that time he was ranked 25th on the all-time list. His 1,676 RBIs ranked 26th and his .907 OPS ranked 58th.

Perhaps the first impression we get when we see the great swing from Sheffield is that of a tactless batsman, with many strikeouts received, but nothing of that. He was a very tight hitter who received 1,475 walks and struck out 1,171 times, which says a lot about his discipline at the plate.

Sheffield never struck out more than 83 times in a season. In addition, he received more walks than strikeouts in 16 of his 22 seasons. When he was 23, he won the NL batting title in 1992 and nearly won the Triple Crown, being named Major League Player of the Year. And while he never won an MVP award, he finished in the top three three times. In 1997 he won the World Series ring with the Marlins.

A curious fact about Sheffield is that throughout his career he wore five different numbers on his uniform (1, 3, 5, 10 and 11), showing that when you are a great hitter and there is talent, the number you wear is reflected does not prevent the good result.

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The case against Sheffield’s career is partially tainted because he was named in the Mitchell Report and “unknowingly” took PEDs before the 2002 season. Sheffield, who trained with Barry Bonds, said Bonds urged him to take the “cream,” which turned out to be a designer steroid developed by BALCO.

Sheffield he claims he took the cream to help him heal after knee surgery and was unaware it contained a steroid. Whether or not voters believe his side of the story, it is still detrimental to his case.

Also, while he ranks among the elite when it comes to traditional stats, he lags behind in advanced metrics. His career WAR is 60.5. He is tied for 181st all-time and trailing players who are not yet immortal such as Graig Nettles (67.9), Willie Randolph (65.9) and Andruew Jones (62.7).

The fact that Sheffield hasn’t played for the same team for over six years could be used against them. Rickey Henderson, who played for nine teams, is the only offensive player at Cooperstown to play for eight or more teams.

Early voting revealed by Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame vote tracker puts Sheffield at 46.2% (as of January 17), giving it an improvement over the previous year. The upward trend should continue next year when Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa drop off the ballot.

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So far Sheffield hasn’t even been close to the 75% needed to get into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, let’s see: 2015: 11.7%, 2016: 11.6%, 2017: 13.3%, 2018: 11 .1%, 2019: 13.6%, 2020: 30.5% and 2021: 40.6% (for the time being).

Sheffield has two years left on the ballot, and it would be hard not to include one of baseball’s fiercest hitters in the Hall. But from what has been seen so far, I highly doubt that voters will change their minds in a year or two. The safest thing is that you will have to wait for the Veterans Committee, which is already becoming the “justice” of these scenarios.