An early look at Phillies on 2020 Hall of Fame ballot
By John Town
Bobby Abreu
Abreu’s Hall of Fame case is going to be one of the more popular storylines surrounding next year’s voting. He may be the prototypical “Hall of Very Good” candidate.
Abreu’s career as a Phillie came during a very forgettable time of the franchise’s history. In nine years from 1998 to 2006, he had a .303/.416/.513 line, 139 OPS+, 195 home runs, 814 runs batted in, and 1474 hits. He made two All-Star teams in the latter stages of his Philadelphia career, winning the Home Run Derby in 2005.
Abreu remained a productive late into his career, finishing with an OPS+ above 100 all the way until his age-38 season in 2012. In 18 years, Abreu racked up 2470 hits, 288 home runs, 1363 runs batted in, and 400 stolen bases while maintaining a .291/.395/.475 line and 128 OPS+.
When looking at Abreu’s standard statistics, his case holds some legitimacy. He cleared the 2000-hit threshold and is one of only seven players to record 400 stolen bases and 550 doubles.
Abreu ranks ahead of 14 Hall of Fame right fielders in JAWS, although many of these 14 were elected by the Veteran’s Committee. Abreu’s standard and advanced stats compare quite similarly to Vladimir Guerrero, who was elected with 92.9% of votes in 2018. The main difference between Abreu and Guerrero is that Abreu never had the elite seasons that Guerrero and other Hall of Famers have.
Abreu has enough going for him that he should be able to stick around on the ballot for a couple years but may not have enough to push him over the hump. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him be inducted by the Veteran’s Committee later on.