Leading up to the Baseball Hall of Fame class announcement on Jan. 21, we’ll be examining the cases of notable candidates every Thursday. We’ve already covered Félix Hernández, CC Sabathia, Andruw Jones and Francisco Rodríguez. Up next is a trio of second basemen: Chase Utley, who’s in his second year of eligibility, and Dustin Pedroia and Ian Kinsler, who are debuting on the ballot.
In less than three weeks, members of the BBWAA will decide whether or not to do something they’ve done just five times in the past 60 years: elect a second baseman into the Hall of Fame.
Since Jackie Robinson was voted into Cooperstown in 1962, only five players who spent significant time at second base have been elected by the writers into the Hall of Fame. Other second basemen have earned entry during that span via the Veterans Committee, decades after their careers came to an end. But in over half a century, just five were deemed worthy by the writers who covered the sport while they were still playing.
It’s an impressive list of five names (this is the Hall of Fame, after all): Joe Morgan (elected in 1990), Rod Carew (‘91), Ryne Sandberg (2005), Roberto Alomar (‘11) and Craig Biggio (‘15). But the fact that so few players at an up-the-middle position have made it to baseball’s Mecca presents an interesting hurdle for the trio of second basemen that are on this year’s ballot.
Those three—Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia and Ian Kinsler—have impressive résumés. But are they good enough to merit serious Hall consideration? Let’s dive in.
Utley is something of an analytics darling. As part of a core of marquee players that included Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, he helped spearhead a mid-2000s run that saw the Philadelphia Phillies thrive. In the nine-year span from 2003 (Utley’s rookie season) through ‘11, Philadelphia averaged 90.9 wins per year, made the playoffs five times, won the National League pennant twice and won the World Series in ‘08. While Utley never got the recognition in the form of accolades as the best player on any of those squads (Howard and Rollins were the NL MVPs in ‘06 and ‘07, respectively), he was steadily outstanding throughout this period.
From 2005 to ‘09, only Albert Pujols put up a higher WAR among hitters than Utley’s 39.7. During this span, he led all second basemen in home runs (146), runs scored (553) and RBIs (507) by healthy margins. He did everything well, but no one thing best: for his career, the only stats he ever led the league in for a full season were runs scored (‘06), defensive WAR (3.5) and a three-year run in which he led the majors in getting hit by a pitch (‘07 to ‘09). He earned MVP votes in all five seasons—though, in keeping with his status as a perpetual bridesmaid, he never finished higher than eighth.
Part of why Utley’s recognition didn’t line up with his production is the fact that he played during the dawning of the advanced statistics age. WAR existed during Utley’s heyday, but it wasn’t a common term among everyday fans and likely was something voters of the time didn’t embrace wholeheartedly. To wit: in the five-year span mentioned above, Utley finished in the top five among NL hitters in WAR in each season. His MVP finishes during that time: 13th, seventh, eighth, 14th, eighth.
While Utley lacks the type of trophy case and awards haul that his Hall of Fame case may need, Pedroia has plenty of accolades to tout. A second-round draft pick out of Arizona State in 2004, he debuted briefly in ‘06 and was hitting leadoff in the World Series for the Boston Red Sox by the end of his rookie season in ‘07. Pedroia hit .283/.349/.483 during that postseason run, which Boston capped with a World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies, and was the runaway choice in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
The diminutive spark plug followed that up with arguably the best individual season of his career in 2008. He led the majors in hits (213) and doubles (54), fell .002 shy of Joe Mauer for the batting title and had a career-best .869 OPS. He finished first among an underwhelming group of MVP candidates (hey, it still counts), receiving 16 of 28 first-place votes. To underscore just how big of a disconnect there was between voters and WAR at the time: that season’s AL WAR leader (Nick Markakis) didn’t receive a single vote for MVP.
Like Utley, Pedroia was one of a collection of All-Star standouts during Boston’s modern dynasty. From 2007 to ‘17, the Red Sox made the playoffs six times and won two titles. He made four All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves and hit .302/.368/.443, consistently producing at the top of the lineup in front of heavy hitters like David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis and a slew of others that helped keep the Red Sox near the top of the sport for so long.
Boston put together one of the most dominant seasons of the 21st century in 2018, winning 108 games and going 11–3 in the postseason en route to another World Series, though Pedroia wasn’t a part of it. He underwent knee surgery after the ‘17 campaign that essentially ended his career, as he appeared in just nine games over two subsequent seasons and officially retired in ‘21.
And then there’s Kinsler, whose statistical profile bears more in common with Pedroia than Utley. The pair even overlapped briefly at ASU before Kinsler transferred to Missouri, where he developed into a 17th-round pick in 2003. He debuted with the Texas Rangers in ‘06 and was part of a nucleus of players that included Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and C.J. Wilson, among others. Collectively, they ushered in what, at the time, was the most successful era in franchise history.
In the 45 years of Rangers/Washington Senators history that predated Kinsler’s arrival, the team made the playoffs just three times. All three came in a four-year span between 1996 and ‘99, and all three resulted in first-round exits. Kinsler and Co. blew past that ceiling with back-to-back runs to the World Series in 2010 and ‘11, though the group fell short of the title both times (the latter in one of the biggest collapses in Fall Classic history).
At his best, Kinsler was a power-speed maven with on-base and contact skills that made him the prototypical modern leadoff hitter. He put up 30–30 seasons in 2009 and ‘11, one of 16 players to ever pull that off more than once. And while he never cracked the top 10 in MVP voting, he received votes in four different seasons and finished his career with four All-Star nods and two Gold Gloves. Across his 10-year prime from ‘07 to ‘16, he averaged 20 homers and 20 stolen bases per season with a 112 OPS+. And after crossing paths with Pedroia in college, he did so once more in the twilight of his career, landing with the Red Sox at the ‘18 trade deadline to snag a World Series ring shortly before calling it a career.
Will any of this add up to a Cooperstown bust for any of the three? It seems unlikely, at least via the BBWAA. Of the five second basemen voted in since 1962, all of them have résumé edges on this group. Morgan, Sandberg and Alomar all accumulated far more accolades (each made at least 10 All-Star appearances) and had longer careers. Carew and Biggio each reached the 3,000-hit mark and spent time at other positions (Carew at first base, Biggio at catcher and outfield). Based on JAWS, a look at a players’ Hall of Fame worthiness developed by FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe, Utley ranks 12th among second basemen, just behind Hall of Famers Frankie Frisch, Robinson and Sandberg. Pedroia and Kinsler rank 19th and 21st, respectively.
Last year, in his first on the ballot, Utley gained 28.8% of the vote. That’s well short of the 75% needed but not an insurmountable starting point. Closer Billy Wagner, who’s in his 10th and final year on the ballot, fell just short at 73.8% last year and is currently tracking to get over the hump this year (per Hall of Fame voting tracker Ryan Thibodaux). In his first year on the ballot, Wagner only picked up 10% of votes.
When the final tallies are revealed this year, none of these three are likely to be inducted. But where Pedroia and Kinsler debut—and how much traction Utley gains in Year 2—will be informative story lines to follow. Second base might be the Hall’s forgotten position, but this trio could, at the very least, add representation on the ballot for those vying for a spot in baseball’s most exclusive club.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Forgotten Position Has Some Hope—Just Not in 2025.