Abreu one of six Phillies on 2020 HOF ballot
Todd Zolecki
@ToddZoleckiPHILADELPHIA -- Is Bobby Abreu a Hall of Famer?
It is a question that will be asked, answered and debated over the next couple of months. On Monday, Abreu appeared on the 2020 Hall of Fame ballot for the first time following an 18-year career, including nine dominant seasons with the Phillies from 1998-2006.
Abreu is one of six players on the ballot with Phillies connections. The others are Raul Ibanez, Cliff Lee, Scott Rolen, Curt Schilling and Billy Wagner. Schilling is entering his eighth out of 10 years of eligibility, and his name appeared on 60.9 percent of ballots cast last year. Rolen (entering his third, 17.2 percent last year) and Wagner (entering his fifth, 16.7 percent) also return to the ballot.
Players need to appear on 75 percent of ballots for enshrinement.
“I really do think about it,” Abreu said this summer when he was inducted onto the Phillies’ Wall of Fame. “There’s some numbers there. Right now, people have more time to see what I did in baseball. I know I don’t have 500 homers, but I did a lot of things in the game that right now people are starting to see what’s going on.”
It will be interesting to see how Abreu fares, but his numbers do stack up. He slashed .291/.395/.475 in his career. Abreu had 2,470 hits and stole 400 bases. He played in more than 150 games in 13 consecutive seasons (1998-2010), while his 1,990 games in right field rank 11th on the all-time list.
Abreu posted a 60.0 career WAR, according to Baseball Reference, and the site’s Hall of Fame Monitor gives him a score of 94, where a score of 100 indicates a likely Hall of Famer. Its Hall of Fame Standards gives Abreu a score of 54, where the average Hall of Famer has a score of 50. The JAWS system ranks Abreu as the 20th-best right fielder in baseball history with a 60.0 career WAR and a 41.6 WAR over a seven-year peak. The average right fielder has a 71.5 career WAR and a 42.1 WAR over a seven-year peak.
Thirteen of the 19 right fielders ranked ahead of Abreu are in the Hall of Fame. Larry Walker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, Ichiro Suzuki and Sammy Sosa are not. But there are numerous right fielders ranked below Abreu who are in the Hall of Fame: Vladimir Guerrero, Elmer Flick, Enos Slaughter, Willie Keeler, Sam Rice, Harry Hooper, Kiki Cuyler, Chuck Klein, King Kelly and Sam Thompson.
In other words, Abreu is not a shoo-in, but he deserves serious consideration.
Lee (43.5 WAR) and Ibañez (20.4 WAR) are on the ballot for the first time as well, though they are both long shots. They must appear on five percent of the ballots to remain on the ballot. Schilling’s percentage has been up and down over the years, but it has crept toward enshrinement the past two years, with 60.9 percent in 2019 versus 51.2 percent in '18.