Johnny Damon: Hall of Famer?

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Johnny Damon got his 2,654th career hit on Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds.  That would not be particularly notable except that he tied Hall of Famer Ted Williams for 71st place on the all-time hit list.

Earlier this season Damon hit the 500th double of his career, becoming the 11th player with at least 2,500 hits, 500 doubles, 200 home runs and 100 triples.  The other ten are all Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, George Brett, Robin Yount, Al Simmons, Paul Molitor and Goose Goslin.  Elite company for sure, and leads to the question of Damon's own Hall of Fame credentials.

Damon is in his 17th major league season, and the Tampa Bay Rays are the sixth team he has played for.  He has been part of two World Series champions, in 2004 with the Boston Red Sox and 2009 with the New York Yankees.  But he would not be considered among the elite players of his era, as he has only been selected to two All-Star teams (2002 and 2005). 

As of this writing, Damon has a .287 career batting average with the aforementioned 2,654 career hits, 501 doubles, 224 home runs, 1,084 RBI and 102 triples with 392 stolen bases.  His career-high for home runs is 24, which he has done twice (2006, 2009).  He led the American League in runs scored (136) and stolen bases (46) in 2000 with the Kansas City Royals, and also led the American League in triples in 2002 with 11.  Those are the only times Damon has led the league in any category during in his career.

Damon does rank in the top 10 of active players in hits (fifth), doubles (sixth), triples (second), stolen bases (fifth) and runs scored (1,603-third), which all qualify as fairly unglamorous categories that stand to be overlooked considering the era in which he played a large portion of his career. 

In my opinion, Damon is a borderline Hall of Famer that looks likely to lose votes to his more heralded peers.  If there was a "Hall of Very Good" he may belong, and his longevity should be noted, but he is simply not among the best players of the past decade and a half or so.  There is the possibility Damon will get more votes as voters that choose to take a stance against players that are thought to be tainted by performance-enhancing drugs become eligible.  Those voters may take a closer look at his numbers and consider putting him on their ballot.