Carlos Delgado's One-And-Done Hall of Fame Experience Is an Egregious Injustice
Hall of Famer? Maybe, maybe not - but he deserved more than one year on the ballot.
On January 21, we’ll find out which players will be the next ones to get enshrined at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It’s the highest individual honor an MLB player can receive, and there are plenty who should’ve gotten more consideration.
I could name several “one-and-done” injustices after falling off the ballot in their first year because they received less than 5% of the votes from BBWAA writers. But one that sticks out in my mind is former first baseman Carlos Delgado.
After finishing his MLB career in 2009 with the New York Mets, the 17-year veteran became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2015. He quickly fell off the ballot by getting just 3.8% of the vote. At the time this happened, he became just the third member of the 400-homer club to fall off the ballot so quickly, joining Jose Canseco and Darrell Evans.
If we just strictly look at the numbers, though, having this happen was absolutely outrageous.
Carlos Delgado’s Career Numbers & Achievements
Delgado played at the height of the steroid era. While he was never connected to performance-enhancing drugs, it was more difficult for him to rack up the type of individual accolades that could’ve strengthened his Hall of Fame case.
The left-handed slugger was a two-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger winner. He also finished in the top 20 of MVP Award voting six times. The closest Delgado came to winning the honor was in 2003 when he slugged 42 homers with a league-leading 145 RBI and a 1.019 OPS for the Toronto Blue Jays.
But still, the career stats jump off a page. Delgado played in 2,035 games across 17 seasons. He hit .280/.383/.546 with 473 home runs, 483 doubles, 1,512 RBI and 1,241 runs scored.
Would it have been a different conversation if he played another year or two and reached the 500-homer plateau? Maybe, but as Gary Sheffield has shown us, that also doesn’t matter as much as it used to.
He Was a Consistent Force at the Plate Every Year
Delgado appeared in 82 games between 1993-95 for the Blue Jays. His first full season came in 1996 as a 24-year-old. He impressed with a .270/.353/.490 line to go along with 25 homers and 92 RBI.
That began a dominant stretch in which he slugged at least 20 homers and 87 RBI in a season for 13 consecutive years. This stretch included nine years of 30-plus homers and 100-plus RBI. If he had accumulated just one more RBI in 2004 for Toronto, he would’ve reached these benchmarks nine seasons in a row.
Delgado surpassed the 40-homer plateau three times: 44 in 1999, 41 in 2000 and 42 in 2003. Each time that happened, he also drove in at least 130 runs. It’s worth noting that he hit 30-plus homers in a season for 10 straight years between 1997 and 2006. An average year for him during this span? It included a .287/.397/.571 line with 37 homers, 38 doubles, 116 RBI and 97 runs scored.
Playing on mostly unspectacular teams throughout his career didn’t help because he didn’t have an opportunity for any signature postseason moments to strengthen his case. But the one time he did get to play in October, he took advantage of it. Delgado hit .351/.442/.757 with four homers, 11 RBI and eight runs scored in 43 plate appearances for the Mets in the 2006 playoffs.
Is Carlos Delgado a Hall of Famer?
Will Delgado be enshrined in Cooperstown one day? It’s possible with the veteran’s committee down the road, but it seems unlikely given the backlog of other deserving players who should get in.
I just spilled a bunch of digital ink discussing Delgado’s consistently elite production throughout his big-league career. But it’s not necessarily to make the case that he should be in Cooperstown right now.
What makes me more annoyed than anything else is he didn’t have a chance to remain on the ballot for more than one year. Even if he didn’t eventually get in — which would be understandable — Delgado deserved better than to join a long list of one-and-done injustices.