Baseball Hall of Fame: Shortstop
Best—Chris Speier, 31.3 fWAR, 64th among shortstops
Only three shortstops in the last 30 years received just one vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Chris Speier was the best of the three. He played 19 seasons in the major leagues and was a three-time All-Star who provided much of his value with his defense. His best season was in 1972 with the Giants when he hit .269/.361/.400 and was worth 6.0 WAR.
Speier was traded to the Montreal Expos for Tim Foli in the early part of the 1977 season. He continued to flash a good glove, but his bat was consistently well below average in his time with the Expos. In the 1981 NLDS, Speier hit .400/.526/.533 and helped the team beat the Phillies in five games, but he didn’t do much in the team’s five-game loss to the Dodgers in the NCLS.
In his mid-30s, Speier bounced around a bit from the Expos to the Cardinals to the Twins to the Cubs. He closed out his career with three final seasons with the Giants. His career was bookended by an NLCS loss to the Pirates in 1971 and an NLCS loss to the Cardinals in 1987, with both series losses coming as a member of the Giants.
Others—Walt Weiss (158th), Shawon Dunston (235th)
It’s incredible that Dunston played in 1814 games over 18 seasons in the major leagues and was worth a grand total of seven wins above replacement. He somehow made two All-Star teams and got a Hall of Fame vote despite never having an average season, not even when he hit 17 homers in 1986 (.278 OBP). He had a helluva throwing arm, though.