Jim Thome’s Low Profile Hall of Fame Career

When I was approached with the idea of writing a column about Jim Thome‘s Hall of Fame chances in light of his hitting his 600th homer two days ago, I was a bit puzzled. Why wouldn’t he be a Hall of Famer? He’s only the eighth player in Major League history to reach the milestone and hitting homers is the most productive thing a hitter can do. Not only that, but he got on base at a prolific pace, leading the lead in walks three different times and regularly receiving over 100 free passes a year in his prime. He’s currently eighth on the all-time list. There’s no doubt in my mind that he is a Hall of Famer. Yet, his march to 600 homers was very quiet again there is that nagging whispering out there that maybe Thome wasn’t as good a player as his statistics say he is. Why is that?

Thome’s career has been both fortunate and unfortunate. He has been fortunate in that he has played on some terrific teams and has had the opportunity to play in a lot of postseasons. That’s exactly why he was unfortunate. His teams were never quite good enough to win the World Series and he was constantly overshadowed by other Hall of Fame caliber teammates. The 1995 Indians were one of the better regular season teams in recent memory. In a strike shortened year, they won 100 games, 10 more than any other team in baseball. That team was loaded with great players including Eddie Murray (Hall of Famer), Manny Ramirez (certainly has the stats to be a Hall of Famer), Omar Vizquel, Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle (50 homers, 50 doubles that year), Carlos Baerga and of course Thome. Thome was not the best player on that team, not even close. He was one of the best players on the 1997 Indians that almost won the World Series, but in the years following that, Cleveland signed another future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar. Combined with Vizquel and Lofton, the trio got on base a lot to provide cleanup hitter Manny Ramirez many opportunities. He had 96 runs batted in by the All-Star break in 1999. Even with a mark of 108 runs batted in for the year, Thome merely finished third on his own team.

It looked like Thome would finally get his due when he was signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies. He had two big years with the Phillies in 2003-2004 including leading the National League in homers with 47 in his first year in Philadelphia. His time was short in Philadelphia because there was another slugger in the Thome mold that was right behind him in the minor leagues. Ryan Howard emerged in 2005, Thome’s last year in Philly, and took home the Rookie of the Year award. The Phillies became a perennial divisional winner with four NL East crowns and counting with the help of Howard. Thome went to the White Sox.

He continued to do his thing–hit homers and get on base, but there seemed to be this nagging feeling that Thome was nearing the end. The numbers were still there, but the recognition was not. Certainly he wasn’t all that useful as a defensive player anymore, but in his first three years in Chicago, he hit 42, 35, and 34 homers respectively while driving in around 100 every year. In 2008, he provided the only run with what else but a home run to help the White Sox defeat the Twins in game number 163 to give Chicago the AL Central title. Even despite that production, he was traded in 2009 to the Los Angeles Dodgers near the trade-deadline just to become a bench player. He only got 17 at bats for the Dodgers without a homer. Essentially, he was the Dodgers’ answer to the Phillies’ Matt Stairs in the 2009 NLCS. Thome moved on from the National League to join the Twins in 2010. He was not an everyday player, but he contributed to a division championship with 25 homers.

Jim Thome was hardly ever perceived as the best player on his team. He has continued to plug along in relative obscurity which is surprising considering that his teams have combined for nine division championships. On those teams he was always that nice fifth or sixth hitter in the the order who would swing as hard as he could and bash 30 to 40 homers a year. I believe that is why he is not getting the credit he is due for the tremendous career he has had. Even if 600 homers is the new 500 homers in this era of inflated numbers, Thome definitely deserves a vote for the Hall of Fame.

Check out my thoughts on baseball @Jonathan_Bohall.