Keith Hernandez will have his number 17 retired by the New York Mets but that might not be where it ends for him. In a once in a lifetime moment, we get a tweet from Andy Martino about Scott Boras that will not anger Mets fans.
As Martino shared, Boras is helping to make the case for Hernandez to get into the Hall of Fame.
Scott Boras has emailed out a packet making the case for Keith Hernandez as a Hall of Famer. Among the points: Every other position’s leader on Gold Gloves on in HOF except Keith. Every other player with 11 consecutive Gold Gloves is in Hall. Statistically best 1b of all time.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) July 8, 2022
Who would have guessed that Martino and Boras could combine together for one social media post that actually has Mets fans happy? It takes someone like Hernandez to bring us all together.
The Hall of Fame case for Mets legend Keith Hernandez is quite simple
Without going into all of the dirty details, Hernandez’s case for Cooperstown relies heavily on his defense but also gets help from winning an MVP and being a productive hitter. Working against him is a lack of power. His career high of 18 home runs which he had for the 1987 Mets is relatively low for a first baseman.
This shouldn’t remove him from Hall of Fame consideration. It’s like punishing a power hitter for being a bad defender and slow runner.
Most curious is how this former MVP, two-time World Series champion, five-time All-Star, and 11-time Gold Glove winner never got much attention at all on the Hall of Fame ballot. He didn’t even last the full ten years which required 5% of the vote. At his highest, Hernandez received only 10.8%. Maybe this had to do with him being present on the ballot from 1996-2004 when first basemen were hitting twice as many home runs as Hernandez ever did.
The Mets are doing the right thing by retiring Hernandez’s number 17. Boras, in what appears to be a babyface turn, is supporting him.
Hernandez was a different kind of player than many others at his position. It’s difficult to stack him against those guys but maybe it’s Ozzie Smith we should turn to. Although Smith had more hits than Hernandez, he was a far less impactful hitter. Teammates on the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals that won it all, we should await a push from Boras, Martino, and many others to put Hernandez into Cooperstown.