Designated Disadvantage: The DH in the Hall
There has long been a stigma attached to designated hitters in the Hall of Fame. Many have argued that because the player doesn’t take part in the defensive portion of the game, he doesn’t deserve to become part of Cooperstown. Only three players (Frank Thomas, Jim Rice, and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the Hall with having played 25% or more of their games at DH. Thomas is the only true DH in the Hall, having played 1310 of his 2322 career games (56.4%) at DH. While the current standard for designated hitters, David Ortiz, likely won’t get a call to Cooperstown for other reasons, why does the stigma around the DH still exist?
GETTING DEFENSIVE ABOUT DEFENSE
When you ask someone why a DH shouldn’t be in the Hall, he/she will almost routinely point to the fact a DH only plays half of the game. While defense is definitely an important part of the game, penalizing someone for “playing only half the game” is awfully short-sighted. American League pitchers do not get the chance to hit, so does that also qualify as playing half of the game? I can’t imagine Randy Johnson or Pedro Martinez being penalized for the American League portion of their careers.
Next, just because somebody is in the field, that doesn’t mean they earned their Hall of Fame credentials while holding a glove. Many of the players in the Hall of Fame are in there strictly because of their hitting credentials, so the fact that they are in the field doesn’t hold a whole bunch of weight. Here are some examples:
- In the years Frank Thomas played first base (1990–1997), he was statistically the worst fielder in the entire MLB, with a dWAR (defensive WAR) of -12.2.
- Of the 10 worst combined dWAR totals of all time, 3 of them are Hall of Famers: Dave Winfield (3rd-worst), Thomas (4th-worst) and Willie McCovey (8th-worst). Also on that list are a few players who have Hall of Fame credentials, but won’t be making it to Cooperstown: Gary Sheffield (2nd-worst), Manny Ramirez (7th-worst), and Ortiz (10th-worst).
- Other notable Hall of Famers with less-than- stellar defensive reputations: Harmon Killebrew (-18.8 dWAR), Reggie Jackson (-17.2 dWAR), and Ted Williams (-13.3 dWAR).
The point is that the Hall of Fame voters have shown a history of voting players in strictly for their bats. When one pictures players like Eddie Murray, Willie Stargell, and Jimmie Foxx, they certainly qualify as guys who were elected for the Hall of Fame for their bat, not their glove. Having a player show a history of inadequate defense shouldn’t make him more qualified for the Hall of Fame than somebody who just simply didn’t play defense.
A CALL FROM THE HALL?
One guy that will be an interesting test case is Mariners’ legend Edgar Martinez. Martinez is gold standard for the designated hitter, as he was one of the most feared hitters in the 1990s and 2000s. Martinez tallied a career OPS+ of 147, which is the same as Jim Thome, Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, and Willie McCovey. Since 1995, his .971 OPS is the 5th-best in the MLB (min. 1000 PA), behind only Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Larry Walker, and Manny Ramirez. His .418 career OBP is higher than Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, and Mel Ott. Martinez received 43.4% of the BBWAA votes for the Hall of Fame in 2016, his highest total yet.
Slugger Jim Thome, a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, is also an interesting test case upcoming. Thome played the end of his career almost exclusively at DH, with 33.4% of his career plate appearances coming as a designated hitter. A bad back and other various injuries forced Thome into becoming a full-time designated hitter, in which he racked up 205 of his 612 career homeruns. If you eliminate Thome’s 205 homeruns, his 407 homeruns would leave him short of players like Fred McGriff, Dave Kingman, and Darrell Evans, all of which are not in the Hall of Fame. It would be short-sighted, however, to discredit Thome’s prodigious homerun numbers strictly on the fact that he didn’t play the field for 205 of his homeruns. Thome is one of only 8 MLB players to ever hit 600+ homeruns, with 4 of those other 7 already in the Hall, and the others being exiled for non-baseball reasons. To compound that, Thome was a below-average fielder, tallying only 2 seasons of positive dWAR in his 22 MLB seasons. Jim Thome should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but certainly not for his glove.
THE KEYWORD IS “HITTER”
As it is well displayed above, a large amount of players are in the Hall of Fame strictly for their offensive output. Many of these players hit certain milestone numbers and dominated pitching on their way to the hall. For someone to vote against a batter strictly because he is designated hitter, that’s almost ignoring the impact he has on the game. It’s one thing to disagree with the rule (an entire other discussion), but it’s hard to ignore a rule that’s been around since 1973. The funny part? As a baseball semi-purist, I’m against the designated hitter rule, and I think that pitchers should hit. With that being said, I won’t be the one ignoring the successes of designated hitters.
(all statistics courtesy of baseball-reference.com)
