Rookie cards of five great switch hitters

Batting from both sides of the plate is a skill few have mastered. But it's quite an asset for teams who can acquire or develop a player who has the ability to switch hit. The Seattle Mariners are feeling that benefit this year, with Cal Raleigh and the career year he's having. As he surpasses Mickey Mantle for the most home runs in a season by a switch hitter, we look back on other switch hitting sluggers and their rookie cards.

Roberto Alomar | 1988 Topps Traded

He never had huge power numbers, hitting 24 home runs in 1999, but Roberto Alomar certainly had not problem hitting for average. In his 17 year career, he hit below .270 just three times and ended with an overall batting average of an even .300. He made the Hall of Fame in 2011 on his second ballot, getting 90 percent of the vote.

Alomar's has a few rookie cards but his most recognizable one comes from the 1988 Topps Traded set. This card in a PSA 10 is reasonably priced for collectors. You can one in your collection for around $30, according to price comparisons from eBay sold listings.

Eddie Murray | 1978 Topps

Eddie Murray is one of the most iconic players to wear a Baltimore Orioles uniform, and his rookie card is just as famous. With the white and orange border, gold cup, and Murray's iconic mustache, the card is just vintage baseball at its best.

Murray played for 22 seasons, hit .287 and is a member of the 500 home run club with a career total of 504. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 on his first appearance on the ballot.

This card in a PSA 10 has a pop count of just 17 and brings a high premium. According to Card Ladder, the last sale of a GEM MT 10 occurred on August 17 for a whopping $50,400.

Chipper Jones | 1991 Topps Desert Shield

Chipper Jones was a rookie during the height of what is now known as the "junk wax era," which was a period of the late 1980s to the late 1990s where card companies were printing an exorbitant amount of cards. So Chipper has quite a few rookie cards.

However, one of his most valuable pieces comes in a form of an early parallel, the 1991 Topps Desert Shield. The 1991 Topps Desert Shield product is identical to the base 1991 Topps set, with the exception of an added gold foil stamp of the Desert Shield logo. This is also a precursor to the "1st" icon in the Bowman products, with the "#1 Draft Pick" printed in the top right corner.

According to Card Ladder, a PSA GEM MT 10 last sold on August 24, 2025 for $12,810.

Pete Rose | 1963 Topps

Pete Rose, nicknamed Charlie Hustle for his uninhibited efforts on the baseball field, got his rookie in an insert in the 1963 Topps Set. The 1963 Rookie Stars card features Pete Rose, Pedro Gonzalez, Ken, McMullen and Al Weis. Rose, who holds the MLB career hit record at 4,256, yet because of a betting scandal, the late star still remains out of the Hall of Fame.

As with most vintage cards, this one in a GEM MT 10 brings a premium value. But this one is more than a premium, you could consider it a small fortune at more than $700,000. The last sale, according to Card Ladder, happened over nine years ago on August 26, 2016 when it went for $717,000. It really is interesting to think about what this card could bring in the present market, where even after the post-COVID dip, cards have a considerable higher value than they did almost a decade ago.

Mickey Mantle | 1952 Topps

The gold standard of switch hitters, Mickey Mantle, and his 1952 Topps is probably only behind the Honus Wagner T206 as one of the most famous baseball cards in existence. The story goes, that in 1952 Topps printed more cards than they could sell. So with the excess product, they loaded them on to a boat, and dumped them into the ocean, thereby unintentionally creating a scarcity.

There are only three copies graded PSA GEM MT 10, and only six graded PSA Mint 9. Sales data for a PSA 10 is practically non existent. The last sale of a PSA 9 occurred with PWCC for $5.2 million, crushing the previous record of $2.8 million.