Kenny Lofton played 17 amazing seasons in Major League Baseball, electrifying us all with blinding speed and highlight reel catches. He spent ten seasons in the Forest City, endearing himself to Tribe fans forever. Lofton’s speed and defense truly set him apart and made him one of the best center fielders and lead-off hitters in baseball history. However, the writers did not see it quite the same way as the average Indians fan may have, and he was dropped from the Hall of Fame ballot after 2013, receiving just 18 votes and a meager 3.2% of the vote.
For Lofton’s career he batted .299/.372/.423, his 622 career stolen bases are 15th all-time and his 1,528 runs scored are 60th all-time. A fun fact, Lofton’s career batting average when drawn out six decimal places is .299015 and had he had just four more hits it would have been .299507 and would have been rounded to an even .300. Now I doubt this is what killed Lofton’s chances at remaining on the ballot, but I’d be interested in knowing how many writers used his sub-.300 batting average against him when evaluating his credentials.
When evaluating Kenny purely on his hitting abilities, he falls far short of being Hall of Fame worthy. His career 107 OPS+ is a shade above average and not what most would view as of a Hall of Fame caliber. That is not to say Lofton didn’t have years when he was a great hitter, quite the contrary actually. In 1994, Kenny hit .349/.412/.536 for an OPS+ of 145. In 1996 he accumulated 210 hits and became the last Indians player to have 200 or more hits until Michael Brantley did so this past season. However, it is not his bat that should have earned him a spot in Cooperstown, it was his speed and defense.
Kenny’s 622 career stolen bases is a tremendous achievement in and of itself. Kenny stole 50 or more bases six times in his career and five of those instances he was the American League stolen base champion. Nevertheless, stolen bases don’t seem to carry as much weight with the BBWAA, as just nine of the top 20 players in stolen bases are in the Hall of Fame. However, as is the case with many fringe Hall of Fame players, it is important to examine their credentials in the context of the era in which they played. Kenny was a seemingly rare speedster in the era of the big boppers. Kenny’s career spanned from 1991 through 2007 and covered the entire Steroid Era. Of all the players who began their careers during the steroid era, only two have accumulated more than 500 stolen bases, Kenny Lofton and Juan Pierre (614 career steals). So even though Kenny’s stolen base numbers don’t compare to the numbers of Rickey Henderson or Tim Raines, he’s still the best base stealer of his generation and that should count for something.
The other aspect of Lofton’s game that set him apart was his glove. Kenny was an incredible defender in his day, perhaps the best defensive center fielder of the 1990’s. I implore you to show me a better catch that Kenny Lofton’s home run robbery of B.J. Surhoff in 1996, other than Willie Mays’ catch in 1954, you probably can’t do it. Kenny’s fantastic glove earned him four Gold Glove awards between 1993 and 1996. According to Baseball-Reference’s Total Zone rating, his glove was worth 112 total runs above average over his entire career.
Kenny racked up 68.2 WAR during his 17 year tenure. That figure is slightly below the 70.4 average WAR for the 18 Hall of Fame members who primarily played center field, above Hall of Famers Duke Snider, Andre Dawson, Richie Ashburn, and fellow speedster Billy Hamilton. In fact, the only Hall of Fame centerfielders ahead of Lofton are Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Willie Mays, that’s pretty good company to be in (Ken Griffey Jr. will join this list once he is inducted). The average seven-year peak WAR for the 18 Hall of Fame center fielders is 44.1 and Lofton is again a slight tick below that at 43.3. This 43.3 seven-year peak would be the eighth highest if Lofton had been elected, with Snider and Ashburn joining the aforementioned five ahead of him. No matter how you want to look at it, Kenny Lofton rates as one of the 10 best center fielders to ever play the game and that is no easy accomplishment.
When you look at Lofton’s game as a whole, he was a very good hitter who was the best base stealer of his era and possessed phenomenal defensive abilities. He fell off the ballot in his first year of eligibility primarily because of the logjam of players on that 2013 ballot. Hopefully one day the Veteran’s Committee looks at Lofton’s career and recognizes it for what it is, elite. Kenny was a game changer, he was one of the best of all-time and deserves to be a member of the Hall of Fame.
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