WHY I THINK JEFF KENT SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN

WHY I THINK JEFF KENT SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN 

By- Damien 

Second base is not considered a power position. Second basemen tend to be smaller, nimbler guys, not hulking power hitters. At bat they are usually slap hitters. Jeff Kent went against the narrative and became an elite power hitter in his prime, the 2000 NL MVP, and the all time leader in home runs and RBI’s by a second baseman. Because of players like Kent, more and more second basemen are trying to hit for power and finding success. 

Jeffrey Franklin Kent was born on March 7, 1968, in Bellflower, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. At first he wasn’t into baseball (he preferred motocross), but he eventually started playing and became a stud. He was a star shortstop in high school, but ran into some problems in his senior year. Although he had established himself as a power hitter, he was kicked off the team for an “attitude problem.” He didn’t earn any baseball scholarships, and was accepted by the University of California at Berkeley for academics. As a freshman at UCB, he was offered a spot on the baseball team as a walk-on, and he ended up setting the school record with 25 doubles, setting the stage for a successful college career. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 20th round of the 1989 amateur draft and was assigned to St. Catharines in the New York-Pennsylvania League. In his first season as a pro, Kent led the league in home runs. Kent powered through the farms for the next two seasons and made the Jays in 1992. He played only 65 games for Toronto before he was traded to the Mets. He finished the 1992 season with 11 home runs in 305 at bats. He continued to improve his power, averaging about 20 homers a season for the next few years, and was picked up by the Cleveland Indians in midseason 1996 for the pennant drive. Kent found stability with the Giants in 1997, and from there his career started to take off. 

Kent batted .250 with 29 homers and 121 RBI’s in 1997. He followed up with an even better season in 1998, hitting .297 - 31 - 128. He made his first all-star team in 1999 and won the NL MVP Award in 2000 when he batted .334 with 33 home runs and 125 RBI’s, beating out the runner up, teammate Barry Bonds, by a stunning 113 points. Despite his success, however, Kent was not popular. He built up a reputation for being arrogant. “It’s not arrogant,” Kent once said, “it’s confident.” Confident or not, the press didn’t like him, although he was establishing himself as a perennial MVP candidate. In 2002, 34 year old Kent batted .313 and hit a career high 37 home runs, but all was not well. On June 25, Kent and Barry Bonds had a brawl in the dugout. The two never got along, and this incident only added fuel to the fire. Although Kent won a Silver Slugger and helped the Giants win the pennant, he was traded to the Astros after the season. Kent missed out on 100 RBI’s for the first time in seven years in 2003 (he had 93), but his acquisition forced four time Gold Glover Craig Biggio to the outfield. 

Now those who reject Kent’s Hall of Fame case generally say that Kent was a bad fielder (because they admittedly don’t have anything against his hitting). Really? Biggio had been the Astros’ regular second baseman since 1992, and was coming off a fine defensive season in 2002, posting a fielding percentage of .988 (seven points above the league average). When Kent came along, Biggio was the one to move. Kent was coming off a season in which he’d led NL second basemen in double plays, and he sure wasn’t gonna move. He remained Houston’s second baseman until he was granted free agency a year later. After that, Biggio became the second baseman again for the rest of his career. If Kent was really such a bad fielder, then how was he able to beat out Biggio for the Astros’ second base job? 

After he left the Astros, Kent went over to the Dodgers, winning another Silver Slugger in 2005 with 29 homers and 105 RBI’s. He enjoyed three more quality seasons after that, and retired after hitting .280 in 2008 at the age of 40. 

Kent fares well compared with the second basemen in Cooperstown. Out of his 377 career home runs, he hit 351 when he was playing second base, the most in MLB history and 74 more than Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, who ranks second. His other counting stats are also quite impressive: 1,320 runs scored, 2,461 hits, 560 doubles, 1,518 RBI's. His slash line was .290/.356/.500, making him one of only two second basemen (min. 7,000 PA) with a slugging percentage of at least .500. The other? Rogers Hornsby. Kent had eight seasons with over 100 RBI’s, the most of any second baseman (Hornsby had five). However, due to his unpopularity, he was passed up ten times by the BBWAA. After he was aged off the 2023 ballot, Kent said that the voting was “a head scratching embarrassment.” I can’t help but agree. The BBWAA voting has been very inconsistent over the years, and made a big mistake in omitting Kent. His next opportunity will come when the Contemporary Game Era Committee votes in 2026. One can only hope that the Committee will vote him in. 

LIFETIME STATISTICS 

Games career: 2,298 season high: 159 in 2000 and 2001 

At Bats career: 8,498 season high: 623 in 2002 

Hits career: 2,461 season high: 196 in 2000 

Doubles career: 560 season high: 49 in 2001 

Triples career: 47 season high: 8 in 2004 

Home Runs career: 377 season high: 37 in 2002 

Runs career: 1,320 season high: 114 in 2000 

Runs Batted In career: 1,518 season high: 128 in 1998 

Stolen Bases career: 94 season high: 13 in 1999 

Walks career: 801 season high: 90 in 2000 

Strikeouts career: 1,522 season high: 133 in 1997 

Batting Average career: .290 season high: .334 in 2000 

On Base Percentage career: .356 season high: .424 in 2000 

Slugging Percentage career: .500 season high: .596 in 2000 

Total Bases career: 4,246 season high: 352 in 2002 

Sacrifice Hits career: 10 season high: 6 in 1993 

Fielding Percentage career: .978 season high: .989 in 2004 

Double Plays career: 1,362 season high: 120 in 2002 led NL 2B: 113 in 2002*

Putouts career: 4,816 season high: 462 in 2001** 

Assists career: 5,918 season high: 430 in 2005 led NL 2B: 390 in 2001 

*Kent turned seven double plays at first base in 2002, but led NL second basemen with 113 

**Kent made 193 putouts at first base in 2001; his single season high as a second baseman is 325 in 1997 

DID YOU KNOW? 

-finished sixth in the NL MVP Award voting in 2002, eighth in 1997, ninth in 1998, 13th in 2004, 19th in 2005, and 26th in 1999 

-won three NL Player of the Month awards and three NL Player of the Week awards 

-hit 2-for-8 with two runs scored in five all-star games (four starts) 

-led the NL in sacrifice flies in 1998 (10) and 2001 (13) and ranks 26th on the all time list with 103 

-led the NL in extra-base hits in 2002 (81) and ranks 43rd on the all time list with 984 

-his 49 doubles in 2001 set a Giants franchise record which still stands 

-slashed .276/.340/.500 with nine home runs and 23 RBI’s in 49 career postseason games 

-batted .276 with three home runs and seven RBI’s in his only World Series, 2002 

-hit 8-for-13 (.615) with a homer in the 2006 NLDS 

-went 5-for-5 and hit for the cycle on May 3, 1999 

-went 5-for-5 with two doubles and a home run on June 12, 1999, barely missing his second cycle of the season 

-went 1-for-2 with a double on his MLB debut 

-went 1-for-2 in his final MLB game  

-homered in his first at bat as a Houston Astro 

-turned a triple play on August 19, 2004 

-ranks 48th in career assists at any position 

-among MLB second basemen, ranks 13th in career games, 14th in double plays, 20th in putouts, and 17th in assists 

-also played 116 games at first base, 158 at third base, three at shortstop, seven as a DH, 42 as a pinch hitter, and four as a pinch runner