MLB Hall of Fame: Tommy John’s legacy worthy of enshrinement

The surgery that bears Tommy John’s name has changed the modern landscape of baseball. Now, he is on the Hall of Fame’s Modern Baseball Era ballot, along with nine other players from the 1970’s and 80’s. Is his legacy enough to earn him enshrinement in the MLB Hall of Fame?

The story of Tommy John is one of the most well known narratives in baseball history. The Indiana-native started his major league career back in 1963 with the Cleveland Indians at the young age of twenty. During the first eleven years of his career, John was consistently good. He won 124 games, and never posted an ERA above a 3.91 with the Indians, White Sox, and Dodgers.

After a 13-3 season where he helped lead the Dodgers to the NL pennant, he suffered an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. At this point in baseball’s history, this injury was something that major leaguers did not come back from. However, Tommy John and legendary orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe changed the nature of this injury forever. Dr. Jobe performed a risky reconstruction of the ligament on John, which turned out to be successful. The surgery now bears Tommy John’s name.

As a result, Tommy Johny returned in 1976 at the age of thirty-three to have some of the best years of his career. After surgery, he won 164 games, made three All-Star games, and finished top-three in Cy Young voting three times. He retired in 1989 at forty-six year old following a twenty-six year career.

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It is undeniable that Tommy John’s legacy has had an immeasurable impact on the modern baseball landscape, as well as sports medicine as a whole. Now, a tear in a player’s ulnar collateral ligament is not an insurmountable obstacle. Pitchers, hitters, and athletes of other sports alike now have the opportunity to receive Tommy John surgery and come back better than ever.

However, did Tommy John do enough throughout his playing career to earn him a spot in the MLB Hall of Fame? That is a question many have debated for years.

Well, let’s look at the numbers.

Overall, Tommy John finished his twenty-six year career with a 288-231 record with a 3.34 ERA. His 288 wins rank him 26th all time, and he shares the leaderboard with many hall of famers. Unfortunately for John, wins are becoming a less and less relevant statistic when measuring the value of a pitcher.

The more interesting statistic is WAR. Due to his long career, John compiled a 79.6 career WAR, which would put him 21st all time among pitchers, per Fangraphs. According to Matt Kelly of MLB.com, the only pitchers above him in career WAR that are not in the Hall of Fame are Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens. Obviously, those two have been excluded for off-the-field issues.

In the end, the numbers that can get Tommy John into the Hall of Fame are a bit misleading. Because he played so long, his win total and WAR are both very high, and place him among other all-time greats who have earned enshrinement in the Hall. Yes, he was remarkably consistent, but he did not have the dominant peak in his career that is a requirement among Hall of Fame voters in the modern era.

Tommy John had plenty of chances to get voted into the MLB Hall of Fame, and has fallen significantly short each time. In his final year of eligibility in 2009, John only received 31.7% of the vote. 75% is needed to get in.

However, the Modern Era ballot could do things differently. Of the 16 voter committee, Tommy John would only need 12 votes to earn him a spot in Cooperstown. The committee could choose to take a different approach when considering John, and look past his statistics and further into the impact he had today’s game. Imagine if modern day pitchers like Walker Buehler, Yu Darvish, Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg, Charlie Morton, and hundreds of others had their careers ruined by a torn ulnar collateral ligament in their throwing elbow. Especially with pitchers throwing harder and harder every year, the importance of Tommy John surgery has exponentially increased.

Tommy John’s legacy grows every time a pitcher is given another chance to return to the mound. When Dr. Jobe first performed the surgery on John, he estimated it would have a success rate of 1 in a 100. Now, that success rate has risen to over 90%.  While his statistics might not be up to the standards of the MLB Hall of Fame, Tommy John’s impact on the game of baseball deserves to be recognized by the game’s most prestigious organization in some way shape or form.