Just the 18th third baseman elected, former Cardinal Rolen is thrilled by call to the Hall
When Scott Rolen first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2018, his son Finn told him on the way to baseball practice that he was sure he’d get in.
Rolen, a pragmatist, was hoping for a mere 5% to stay on the ballot. He got just over 10%, and when his son asked if they “won,” he confirmed they did.
Tuesday night, he won much bigger.
Rolen, who won three Gold Gloves and the 2006 World Series in his six seasons as a St. Louis Cardinal, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the class of 2023 by the voters of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Fred McGriff, elected unanimously by the Contemporary Baseball Era committee in December, will be the other inductee of the class of 2023 this summer in Cooperstown, NY. Rolen and McGriff will be joined by BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner John Lowe, formerly of the Detroit Free Press.
In his sixth year of 10 on the ballot, Rolen finished just across the finish line, accruing 76.3% of the vote. A player must reach 75% to be inducted; Rolen was inducted by a margin of five votes.
“There was never a point in my life when I thought I was going to be a Hall of Fame baseball player,” Rolen laughed on a conference call with reporters. “Never did I think I was going to get drafted. Never did I think I was going to play in the major leagues, never going to be whatever.”
Now, he’s what players dream to be.
Rolen became just the second primary third baseman elected – joining Chipper Jones – since Wade Boggs in 2005. He’s the 18th third baseman to be honored by the Hall.
Carlos Beltrán received strong support in his first year of eligibility, but was ultimately stymied by his involvement in the sign stealing scandal surrounding the 2017 Houston Astros.
The scandal first cost him his employment as manager of the New York Mets and now threatens to keep him from the Hall of Fame, despite a career which saw him record more than 400 home runs, 300 stolen bases, and 2700 hits while also winning three Gold Gloves.
According to Baseball Reference, Beltrán’s three most similar hitters are Andre Dawson, Billy Williams and Al Kaline; each is in the Hall of Fame.
Former Cardinals John Lackey and Jhonny Peralta were included on the ballot as assembled by the Hall of Fame, eligible after reaching ten years of service time. As neither cleared the five percent threshold (Lackey received one vote, Peralta none), both will be removed from the ballot moving forward.
Rolen is the first player who spent a significant portion of his career as a Cardinal to be elected by the writers since the late Bruce Sutter, who was elected in 2006. Ted Simmons was elected by the Modern Baseball Committee in 2019, and Tony La Russa was elected by the Veterans Committee in 2013.
In a statement, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. said, “on behalf of the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization, I would like to congratulate Scott Rolen on the well-deserved honor of being selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Scott was a cornerstone of our infield and lineup during his six seasons in St. Louis, and helped create many fond memories as part of the great Cardinals teams of the mid-2000s.”
Asked on MLB Network by Bob Costas if he’d made a decision regarding the logo which will adorn his plaque, Rolen said he hadn’t and would listen to input on the decision from the Hall.
His exclusion from the Hall of Fame until his sixth ballot reflects the challenges in being elected as a third baseman. He paired more than 300 home runs and 2000 hits with eight Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, and the 1997 NL Rookie of the Year award.
He is above the average of Hall of Fame third basemen in every player value metric, and by Jay Jaffe’s JAWS system, is the tenth-most valuable third baseman of all time. Of the nine players ahead of him, eight are in the Hall of Fame. The outlier, Adrian Beltré, is not eligible for election until this coming winter, and is expected to cruise to Cooperstown in his first attempt.
“I didn’t know any of that,” Rolen said about the value metrics early in the process. As it was explained to him that they worked in his favor, he decided, “well, then I love ‘em.”
Rolen is sixth all-time in defensive wins above replacement for third basemen, trailing Brooks Robinson, Beltré, Buddy Bell, Clete Boyer and Graig Nettles. He exceeded four of those six in offensive wins above replacement, trailing only Beltré (71.6) and tied with Nettles at 52.8.
After receiving the phone call from the Hall on Tuesday, Rolen said his family’s first reaction was to cry. “That’s just how we are,” he explained.
And then Finn Rolen, six years later, vindicated in his confidence, had a request for his Hall of Fame dad.
He wanted to play catch.
