Forgotten Pirate truly deserved spot on crowded Hall of Fame Eras Committee ballot

The Contemporary Era Baseball Committee recently announced that former All-Star and MVP second baseman Jeff Kent has been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Congratulations are in order, but ... this year's ballot was weak.

If the committee was serious about making it an interesting ballot, they should have included former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Kenny Lofton in the conversation. If he had been on the ballot, the results might have looked very different.

Kenny Lofton's time in Pittsburgh was a relatively uneventful stint. Lofton suited up for 84 games in 2003 for the Bucs, batting .277/.333/.437 with a 98 OPS+ and 1.7 bWAR. But Lofton's half-season tenure with the Pirates couldn't have ended worse. He, along with third baseman Aramis Ramirez, was traded to the Chicago Cubs in arguably the most disastrous trade in Pirates history.

His stint with the Pirates was a small footnote in an otherwise outstanding career. Lofton played in parts of 17 different seasons from 1991 through 2007, batting .299/.372/.423 with a 107 OPS+ and 2,428 total hits. You can't talk about Kenny Lofton without talking about his base running. His 622 steals rank 15th all time. He was also an excellent defensive outfielder. He is one of just 67 players in baseball history with at least 100 fielding runs (108, to be exact). Overall, he posted 68.4 bWAR.

In terms of WAR, he's ahead of the likes of Duke Snider and Andre Dawson. He has more hits than Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. His career includes seven seasons in which he swiped at least 20 bags, posted 1.0 or more defensive WAR, and had an OPS+ of 100 or better, meaning he was a good base runner, fielder, and hitter in each of those seasons. That is the third-most in baseball history, and the most since the Integration in 1947.

Forgotten Pirates player Kenny Lofton deserves another chance at making the Hall of Fame.

This year's committee ballot was crammed with too many former players who need more time since falling off the writer's ballot, were doomed to begin with, or simply aren't making it into the Hall of Fame at this point. Both Barry Bonds (a fomer Pirate superstar) and Roger Clemens were on this year's committee ballot, the second time they've appeared since falling off the writer's ballot. If neither Bonds nor Clemens have made it, Gary Sheffield definitely isn't getting voted in, given his similar connection to steroids. All three have recently fallen off the primary ballot, with Clemens and Bonds' final year coming in 2022, and Sheffield's in 2024.

The ballot also included Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy, who have been on the writers' ballot and appraised by committees a whopping 19 different times and still aren't in the Hall of Fame.

Had Lofton been on this year's ballot, he may have had a legitimate chance of getting voted into the Hall of Fame. He had more WAR than everyone but Bonds and Clemens on this year's ballot. He had more hits than everyone but Bonds and Sheffield. He clearly would have had the most stolen bases. Of the 16 voters, 75% of them would likely have seen him as a Hall of Fame choice and obvious snub.

Simply including him on the Contemporary Era Baseball Committee ballot this year would have righted one of the biggest wrongs ever by the Baseball Writers' Association. When Lofton's name first came up on the 2013 ballot, only 3.2% of voters included him on their ballot (5% is needed to stay on the ballot for the next year). One of the best base stealers of all time, who was an outstanding defensive center fielder and an above-average hitter for many years, was not given a second chance on the ballot. Many consider Lofton history's biggest Hall of Fame snub, not just because he deserves to be in Cooperstown, but because they didn't even give him a second chance.

Lofton has had all of one chance so far in his life to make the Hall of Fame. Bonds and Clemens have had a dozen, Sheffield has had 11, and Murphy and Mattingly have had nearly 20. Lofton is better than most of the players on this year's committee ballot, and was eligible, given that he debuted after 1980 and had been retired for at least 15 years. Given Lofton's illustrious career, we'll likely see him on another committee ballot in the near future. However, missing the chance to place him on this year's ballot adds yet another snub to Lofton's list.