Dodgers: Three current players who could become Hall-of-Famers

The Dodgers possess one of the most talented rosters in baseball. How many current players could we see in Cooperstown someday?

The Dodgers have a rich history of legendary players who have been honored in the Baseball Hall-of-Fame. However, most of them spent the majority of their careers somewhere else, or date back to the franchise’s days in Brooklyn.

Dodger fans can look away before I mention examples, such as Mike Piazza and Pedro Martinez, two all-time greats who were traded away too soon. Other players who have played a short time in Chavez Ravine and reached the Hall include Jim Thome, Greg Maddux, and Rickey Henderson.

The last long-term Dodger player to get the call to Cooperstown was pitcher Don Sutton in 1998. Before him, it was another pitcher named Don, that is, Don Drysdale, who was inducted in 1984.

Suffice to say, it’s been a long time since a Dodgers player of recent memory has received Baseball’s most prestigious honor, while also considering the five-year waiting period for players to be eligible on the ballot.

This current Dodgers roster offers some hope to future generations of fans who hope to see Dodger blue well-represented in the Hall-of-Fame. There are three candidates who I believe have a real chance of being recognized down the road. Of course, players change teams, injuries happen, and careers take sudden turns, but as of right now, there are three legit candidates: one that is obvious, one off to a great start, and one who just needs to stay in Los Angeles.

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Clayton Kershaw

This is an easy one. Clayton Kershaw has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since he broke into the Major Leagues and pitched his first full season in 2009. If Kershaw ended his career today, he would be a Hall-of-Famer. He has pitched twelve seasons for the Dodgers, the same number as Sandy Koufax, and the similarity between the two southpaws is striking.

Over nearly an identical number of innings, Kershaw matches up with Koufax in almost every major statistical category. While Kershaw’s resume is a bit stained from his postseason struggles, his regular season record is overwhelmingly in favor of him becoming a Hall-of-Famer. Anytime you can match up with the great Sandy Koufax, you have reached an elite stratosphere of pitching.

Baseball Reference uses a variety of models to project whether a player is a Hall-of-Famer. According to JAWS, which measures a variety of factors in evaluating a player’s worthiness to reach Cooperstown, Kershaw already ranks 37th as a starting pitcher, close in ranking to Hall-of-Famers such as Nolan Ryan, Al Spalding, and Jim Palmer.

Kershaw has won three Cy Young Awards, five ERA titles, a Gold Glove Award, and even accomplished the rare feat of winning National League MVP as a pitcher. It’s only a matter of time before Kershaw’s name is listed atop the Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Mookie Betts

Let’s hope this one doesn’t break our hearts. Acquired in the offseason, Mookie Betts is set to become a free agent next winter, whether the 2020 season is played or not. In the best case scenario, a shortened season is played, Betts helps the Dodgers win their first championship since 1988 and decides to re-sign a long-term deal shortly after the parade in downtown Los Angeles.

However we get there, if Betts does stay with the Dodgers, he is surely on the right path to becoming a Hall-of-Famer.

The 27-year-old right fielder is one of the best players in baseball, which makes for great local talk show banter with perhaps the only player better than him, Mike Trout, playing down the freeway. Betts won the American League MVP in 2018, and has finished in the top ten of voting in each of the past four seasons.

The 5-foot-9 outfielder has proven to be an elite player in all facets of the game. He can hit for power, average, run the base paths, while catching everything hit his way. In 2018, he won the American League Batting Title while clobbering 32 home runs, swiping 30 bases, and winning the Gold Glove Award.

In total, Betts has three Silver Slugger Awards, four Gold Glove Awards, and has reached the All-Star game in every season since 2016. If that is not the profile of a Hall-of-Fame player, I don’t know what is.