Should Indians Great Omar Vizquel be in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

By Dennis Sosic

The countdown begins.

Finding out who will be the Super Bowl champs? No. Finding out if the Cavs. Oh, never mind.

The only accomplishment that we can look out for the Cavs is if they will finish with the worst record in the NBA this season.

With Tribe Fest this past weekend and Spring Training only a month away, I am counting down to baseball being here! Baseball brings optimism, families together, and eventually great weather. I started to reminisce about the former Tribe teams and their impact in Cleveland.

One of the most popular and essential players in Tribe history is Omar Vizquel.

Vizquel is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the second year after securing 37% of the vote in his first year of eligibility. That is considerably short of the 75% required to be recognized as a Baseball Hall of Famer. This level of support normally doesn’t designate a fast track to Cooperstown.

So, is Vizquel a Hall of Famer?

The Good

Omar Vizquel was the glue on the Cleveland Indians teams that christened then Jacobs Field when the city of Cleveland was desperate to have something to cheer for after the Cleveland Browns left Cleveland in 1995.

The Indians won six division titles in a seven-year span and two pennants while averaging 93 wins a season.

All Tribe fans remember the highlight defensive plays from Vizquel who made them look so easy.

He was the game’s premier defender at shortstop during his prime.

His hardware justifies that with him winning 11 Gold Gloves in his career including winning nine straight Gold Gloves from 1993-2001.

That total is more than any other shortstop besides Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who won 13.

Additionally, he finished his career with a .9847 fielding percentage which is the best for ALL MLB shortstops (min. 1,000 games).

Besides his fielding prowess, Vizquel should also be recognized for his longevity and durability.

He played for 24 seasons and ranks 12th all-time with 2,968 games played. He has played more games at shortstop than any other player in the history of baseball.

Furthermore, Vizquel has turned 1,744 career double plays in his career, which is the most for a shortstop all-time.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Vizquel’s offensive game was his plate discipline. Over his 24year career, he struck out only 1.087 times out of 12, 013 plate appearances. Even more impressive, he walked 1,028 times, only 59 times less than he struck out!

Omar was never known as a good hitter however, he was always a solid top-of-the-lineup hitter. With 256 sacrifice hits (bunts) and 94 sacrifice flies, he has the most combined sacrifices (350) since 1954, the first year Baseball Reference measured sacrifices.

THE BAD

Does his Gold Gloves and longevity make up for his bat?

One of the strongest cases against Vizquel is his below-average offensive output. His career .272/.336/.352 batting line works to an 82 OPS+, which means that Vizquel was 18 percent worse than the average hitter in his career.

Vizquel’s career total of 45.3 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) ranks 28th among all shortstops, and a substantial 21.4 WAR below the standard at the position.

The player that Omar normally gets compared to is the Wizard of Oz Ozzie Smith. There are only a few similarities between the shortstops. Vizquel holds the edge in fielding percentage, .985 to .978, BUT both were 12 points higher than their shortstop counterparts during their careers.

Vizquel’s slash line resembles Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith’s .262/.337/.328. However, Omar played in a much higher-scoring era than Ozzie and Smith finished with an 87 OPS+.

Here is where the comparisons should end. Ozzie won 13 Gold Gloves compared to the 11 that Omar won. It was always mentioned that Omar Vizquel was a better hitter than Ozzie Smith.

In fact, Vizquel has more hits, more home runs, and a better batting average. However, Ozzie Smith finished his career with a 90 wRC+ (This takes the statistic Runs Created and adjusts that number to account for important external factors—like ballpark or era. A 100 wRC+ is considered average.)

Omar finished up his career with wRC+ of 83. Smith has seven seasons with a wRC+ at or above 100, while Omar only had two seasons that hit that number.

THE UGLY

The buzz about Vizquel has always been about the fact that he had a great glove. Sure, he made numerous highlights plays and was seen nightly on every MLB highlight show.

However, the metrics tell us a different story.

His 29.5 defensive WAR trails behind Hall of Fame shortstops Ozzie Smith (44.2), Cal Ripken Jr. (35.7) and Luis Aparicio (31.8). The stat measures how many wins a player contributes through his defense relative to the efforts of a replacement-level player at that same position.

Another metric that showcases the quality of a defender is Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA).

This individual defensive metric is created using play-by-play data with adjustments made based on plays made, the expected number of plays per position, the park, and base-out stats.

In his career, Vizquel had an FRAA of 129.8, which is just above such players as Craig Counsell (127) and Placido Polanco (128).

Those players have as much chance of being enshrined in the Hall of Fame as I do!

Omar ranks seventh overall among shortstops and is significantly behind Hall of Famers Mark Belanger (241) and Ozzie Smith (239).

Without attempting to bore you with more defensive metrics (if it’s not too late), Omar’s career Range Factor (putouts + assists/defensive innings played) of 4.348 per nine innings was below the league average of 4.50.

Additionally, Omar was also not a great base-runner.

He stole 404 bases in his career, which places him 72nd on the all-time list. Astonishingly, he was also caught stealing a massive 167 times which lands Vizquel in the Top 20 All-Time in that dubious category.

THE BALLOT

The election results on the ballot vote by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will be announced on Monday, January 22nd.

An elector will vote for no more than ten eligible candidates considered worthy of election. Any candidate receiving votes on 75% of the ballots cast shall be elected to membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I believe two first year players have the best chance to be inducted this year. Mariano Rivera, baseball’s all-time saves leader with 653, is the greatest relief pitcher of all-time. He is a sure-fire lock.

Roy Halladay, who died in 2017, was a two-time Cy Young winner and was one of the most dominant pitchers of his era. I think Halladay gets in as well. Following those two rather no-brainer selections, it gets rather interesting.

Two players who have a favorable chance to get in are Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina. Martinez is in his 10th and final year on the ballot.

He is geared to be voted in this year as he received 70.4% of the vote in 2018. Pitcher Mike Mussina’s vote share has gone up in each of his first five years on the ballot, reaching 63.5% last year.

On the other hand, I do not see any other available players getting in from a list that includes Todd Helton, Andy Petitite, Fred McGriff, Larry Walker, Roy Oswalt, none of the steroid scandalized players, and Vizquel.

THE VERDICT

I hate to break the hearts of all Tribe fans, but I don’t see Vizquel getting in the Hall of Fame. Omar was a very good player and help propel the Tribe teams in the 1990s to the playoffs in every season. The Tribe was the talk of the city.

He was a good not great defender who was known for his highlight plays on ESPN that exhibited his defensive prowess. However, is that enough to get the call to the Hall of Fame? His defensive mastery did not overshadow his mediocre bat and below-average baserunning ability.

I believe that the BBWAA will and do not see Omar Vizquel as a Hall of Famer and he will not be voted in during his remaining eight years of eligibility.

With all that being said, I have no doubt that Vizquel WILL get in eventually.

He will be voted in by the Veterans Committee, a group of individuals dedicated to seeing that older players, executives, and even umpires get their due recognition. They allow almost everyone in the Hall that is not involved in some type of performance-enhancing drugs or off-field transgressions.

The committee voted in such so-called worthy players as Bill Mazeroski and just recently Harold Baines.

Both players who really are not Hall of Fame worthy players.

Actually, they are not even close