Jeff Kent definitely won’t be making the Hall of Fame for anything he did during his five-year stint with the Mets. In fact, he probably won’t make it at all this year. A compilation of all BBWAA ballots made public (great work by Ryan Thibodaux) shows that Kent currently has 13.1 percent of the vote. This is about one-third of all Hall of Fame votes, so Kent would need a lot of anonymous friends to make it this year– or any year, for that matter.
But Kent is by far the most criminally under-supported player on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot. He is the best offensive second baseman of his day, and the best power-hitting second baseman of all time. His 377 career home runs are the most ever by a second baseman by a country mile– 76 to be exact. He’s also third all-time amongst second basemen in RBI, tenth in hits, fourth in doubles, second in slugging percentage and third in OPS.
That kind of positional dominance should put anyone in the Hall of Fame.
Kent had a nine-year stretch from 1997-2005 with the Giants, Astros and Dodgers with offensive numbers that would make you think he played first base rather than second. During that span, he batted .296/.365/.529 while averaging 28 home runs and 110 RBIs a year and finishing in the top ten in MVP voting four times, including the year he won the award in 2000. Even during a time where home runs were rampant, this is pretty unprecedented for a second baseman.
Since this is a Mets site, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention his career with the Mets. Kent was acquired in the David Cone trade with Toronto in 1992, and left in the Carlos Baerga trade in 1996. He wasn’t the star he’d later become while he was in Flushing, though he did have some good seasons. Kent batted .279/.327/.453 in 498 games over that span. His best seasons came in 1993 and 1995, where he hit 21 and 20 homers respectively. So perhaps he wasn’t as bad with the Mets as hindsight would have us remember.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention his defensive woes. He was one zone fielding run below average for his career, a -0.6 career dWAR and a .982 career fielding percentage. So he wasn’t a great defensive player, but the amount of value he brought to the offense was unprecedented at his position.
So Kent is essentially the Mike Piazza of second basemen. And he belongs in Cooperstown for the same reasons that Mike Piazza does.
