Baseball Hall of Fame: Five Reasons Trevor Hoffman Is NOT a Hall of Famer

Despite being second all-time in saves, Trevor Hoffman is NOT a Hall of Fame player.

I should start by saying that I think Trevor Hoffman was a good pitcher. He had a long career with consistently better-than-league average ERAs. In 18 years in the big leagues and over 1,000 innings, Hoffman had an ERA of 2.87. That’s impressive, no doubt.

He was also consistent and reliable and fun to watch, with his ability to fearlessly throw change-up after change-up after change-up. Even when his fastball was long past the point of accurately being described as “fast,” Hoffman was able to get batters out with the deception of his change-up.

He played most of his career with the San Diego Padres, so he has iconic status in that town, along with Tony Gwynn. When he came into the game with “Hells Bells” blaring from the loudspeakers, it brought a surge of excitement for the fans. And most of the time, he got the job done. He converted around 90 percent of his save opportunities.

Despite all of the positives, I don’t believe Trevor Hoffman is a Hall of Fame pitcher. He’s the epitome of the modern day closer, the guy who is usually “saved” for the ninth inning when his team has a lead. In his career, 87 percent of the batters faced by Hoffman came in the ninth inning or later. He wasn’t a guy who was brought into a close game in the seventh or eighth inning with runners in scoring position even if that was the most important at-bat of the game. A setup guy would handle that spot, while Hoffman sat comfortably on the bench in the bullpen, waiting until the ninth inning.

Hoffman usually pitched between 60 and 70 innings per year; about one-third of the innings a starting pitcher would pitch. His 1,089 1/3 career innings doesn’t place him in the top 1,000 of MLB pitchers. Babe Ruth pitched more innings than Trevor Hoffman and also found time to hit 714 home runs (okay, that’s not really a fair comparison, but interesting nonetheless; did you know Babe Ruth pitched more innings than Trevor Hoffman?).

As good as Hoffman was, the limitations of his role as a pitcher and his failure to stand out among his peers make him unworthy of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here are the five reasons why.