Bobby Abreu for the Hall?

By Mike Whiteman January 12, 2025 I've said many times before that I can't get enough of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I greatly enjoy visiting the actual Hall in Cooperstown. I follow the annual BBWAA voting religiously at the Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker website. I get giddy about the Eras committees. I consume vast portions of analysis and discussion of the voting. It gets me through the cold winter months.

There are plenty of debates and discussions about Hall of Fame voting, and due to some recent inductees with more humble careers many reasonably think that the "bar is lowered" for induction. I'm a "big Hall" guy, and my experience is personally not diminished with the additions of low WAR guys like Harold Baines, Dave Parker, etc. to the Plaque Gallery. Heck, I'm even OK with George Kelly and his 25 WAR (731st all-time) gracing the Gallery. Each player's story - some are more significant than others - adds to the history of the great game, and makes the Hall a special place to visit. .

Taking a look at this year's voting, it's clear that Ichiro Suzuki will be elected in his first year of eligibility, perhaps unanimously (which is a thing now - reminder that Mickey Mantle was elected with 88.2% of the vote and most fans think he's OK). CC Sabathia's early voting (about 32% ballots have been revealed) looks very impressive - 91.3% - which is a bit surprising to me for a pitcher with a career ERA of 3.74. Billy Wagner was five votes shy of selection last year, and the early results seem to indicate that he will pick up those votes and more and be inducted this summer. Carlos Beltran is currently tracking at 77%, but will it hold? Other players look to be moving up and positioning themselves for later enshrinement. Andruw Jones likely will come up short again in his eighth year but looks like he will have a slight increase over his 2024 total of 61.6%. I wouldn't be surprised if he reached the 75% threshold in his last two years on the ballot. Chase Utley has had the most dramatic increase, going from 28.8% in his first year of eligibility to tracking over 50% thus far. Those who get over 50% of the voting rarely miss entrance to Hall at some point, and those who do come up shy usually have baggage of PED association and character. There's one player who will likely get lost in the lower tier of the voting, and I think deserves better: Bobby Abreu.

Yankee fans may remember the outfielder with a sweet lefthanded swing, who had two and a half solid seasons in the Bronx from 2006-2008. He was an excellent offensive player; one who hit for average and power, walked frequently, and stole plenty of bases. At that point of his career, he struggled with his defense, and the metrics didn't look good at all. Prior to joining the Yankees, Abreu had a very good run with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he averaged five-plus WAR over eight seasons as their primary number three hitter in the batting order. He also played three years with the Los Angeles Angels after leaving the Yanks. Look at these career numbers, courtesy of his baseball-reference page: Hits: 2470 (107th all-time) Extra base hits: 921 (61st) Runs scored: 1453 (82nd) Runs batted in: 1363 (89th) On base percentage: .395 (83rd) OPS: .870 (123rd) OPS+: 128 (218th) Stolen bases: 400 (74th) Power/Speed number: 334.88 (14th) WAR: 60.2 (191st) Offensive WAR: 61.6 (92nd) JAWS: 22nd among right fielders That's an impressive body of work. Abreu didn't just hang around accumulating stats - this was accomplished mostly in sixteen full seasons. Now, there's something when taking a quick look at Abreu's page that stands out, or maybe doesn't stand out. There's very little bold print that indicates leading the league in any categories. There's also not a lot of "blue print" to the right side of the stats that would indicate All-Star selections (only two) and award voting (his best was 12th in 2009 MVP voting with the Angels). Interestingly, he did have one Gold Glove, in 2005. In five years of voting, he's peaked thus far at 15.4% in 2023. This seems low to me for his impressive career. If I had a ballot, I'd vote for him. Am I right? Am I wrong?