Chicago White Sox: 5 players who could make the Hall of Fame
Tim Anderson
Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox could go on to be a Hall of Famer.
Besides closers, the one position that Hall of the fame voters loves to support is shortstop. Derek Jeter was elected nearly unanimously, despite having a lower career WAR than fellow inductee Larry Walker, who got 76% of the vote in 2020.
Longtime Cleveland Indian’s shorstop Omar Vizquel was nearly elected to the Hall of Fame despite pretty bad offensive stats until his candidacy began to be plagued by scandals. Another overrated shorstop, Jimmy Rollins, is likely to get tons of support in his first year on the ballot, despite only 47 career WAR.
Given the Hall of Fame’s bias towards shorstops, I think Tim Anderson will be a Hall of Famer, given his ability to surpass Rollins and Vizquel in career WAR and get over 2,000 hits. Anderson is a much better hitter than Rollins or Vizquel and he has a little bit of Derek Jeter and Barry Larkin in him.
Since the start of 2019, he’s been one of the best players in baseball. If he can keep it up for seven more years, he’ll be an easy Hall of Famer. That won’t be easy to do as he’ll have to remain both very good and healthy but I believe he can do it. With a Silver Slugger, all-star appearnce, and batting title under his belt, the accolades have just begun for Tim Anderson.
Eloy Jimenez
The Chicago White Sox are so lucky to have Eloy Jimenez on the team.
The main reason Eloy Jimenez has potential as a Hall of Fame candidate is because of his potential to get 500 home runs. In his first 212 career games, Jimenez hit 53 home runs. So if he plays 2120 games for his career, he’s on pace for 530 which would make him one of the greatest home run hitter’s of all time.
Though the 500 club has been somewhat watered down due to rampant steroid use, there are still only 28 members in there currently. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper will get there before Eloy Jimenez will but getting into a club with barely more than 30 players is Hall of Fame worthy.
There’s always the question if a mediocre player (like Adam Dunn) were able to reach 500 home runs, would they still make the Hall of Fame? Fortunately, Jimenez won’t be part of the equation as he’s a great player due to his ability to hit for average and power.
He’s also not as bad at defense as people think, at least when he’s not injurying himself out there. When it’s all said and done, I think he’ll be at least as worthy of the Hall of Fame as David Ortiz so I think he will make it.