How Is Keith Hernandez Not A Hall Of Famer?

By : Mike Rifkin

On Saturday the New York Mets will retire the number seventeen in honor of First baseman Keith Hernandez. The Mets acquired Hernandez from the St. Louis Cardinals in 1983 for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Hernandez was the first captain in team history and was a big piece when the Mets won the World Series in 1986. Now Hernandez is a color commentator for the Mets. This got me thinking why is Hernandez not in Cooperstown?

Hernandez has 11 gold gloves which is the most for a first baseman in MLB history. But that’s not Hernandez’s only accolade he is a two time World Series Champion, five time All Star, a batting champion and was a CO NL MVP in 1979 where he had 11 home runs, 105 RBI and had a slash line of .344/.417/.513.  Herandez’s career slash line was .296/.384/.436 with 162 home runs and 1,071 RBI and 2,182 hits. Now the power numbers aren’t great but Hernandez was top three in the following categories from 1976-1988 WAR(60.7), oWAR (46.9), OPS+ (132), RBI (1,022), Batting Average (.301), OBP (.390), hits (2,049), Doubles (407), and runs scored (1,076). To be honest I don’t know a ton on the analytics but if that is the way the game itself is going and the voters can see those numbers I am not sure how Hernandez isn’t in Cooperstown because surely he belongs.