Should Alan Trammell be in the Hall of Fame?

Editor’s note: This is the tenth and final installment of a daily series looking at players on the Modern Era Hall of Fame ballot, which will be voted on Dec. 10. We’ll look at the cases of all 10 people on the ballot and offer our takes on their candidacy.

Nothing illustrates how broken the overall Hall of Fame process is like Alan Trammell’s journey through it. The Detroit Tigers shortstop put up Hall of Fame numbers throughout his 20-year career, and yet here he is, being considered on the Modern Era ballot for the Veterans Committee after aging off of the traditional ballot.

Whether he’s in the Hall of Fame or not, his abilities as an all-around player just can’t be denied. He was an excellent fielder, though not a showy one, and has a career fielding percentage of .977. He could run, averaging 18 steals a year from 1979 to 1987. He could hit — boy could he hit — and retired with 2,365 hits. He hit .300 or higher in seven of 20 seasons, and reached double digit home runs in eight seasons. Sometimes a Hall of Fame player slips through the cracks of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and this might be one of those times.

There are a lot of reasons, or excuses, for why Trammell went 15 full years on the Hall of Fame ballot without garnering much support. There was a glut of players near the “top” of the ballot who clogged up the works for several years. Trammell’s vote totals went up once guys like Burt Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jim Rice, Tim Raines, and Goose Gossage were finally voted in, clearing the logjam, but resulting in years of lost opportunities for Trammell to gain more support. Plus, Trammell’s post-playing career was not helped by a less-than-sparkling stint as Tigers manager. The team never put up a winning record under his leadership and he was fired after three seasons.

Regardless of his history on the ballot, Trammell now has another chance at enshrinement. So let’s examine his case a little further and see whether the Big League Stew writers give Trammell their unofficial yay or nay.

LAST TIME ON THE BALLOT
Trammell last appeared on the BBWAA ballot so recently that you might still remember his exact totals. His final year was 2016, when he got 180 votes for 40.9% percent. He went out with a bang, as 40.9% was the highest he’d ever gotten on the ballot. In the end, Trammell just ran out of time to continue to garner support, the victim of crowded ballots with candidates that were more obviously exciting. The early years of his candidacy saw his percentages in the mid-to-late teens, but he finally broke past the 20% mark in 2010, his ninth year on the ballot. In 2012 he saw a massive swell in his totals, jumping up to 36.8%, but it was too little, too late.

PROS
• Trammell was one of the players who helped change the perception of shortstops. Along with Cal Ripken Jr. and Robin Yount, he proved that shortstops could run, hit, and hit with power, and add a whole lot to a team beyond just defense.

• Over his 20-year career, he hit .285/.352/.415, with 185 home runs and 412 doubles. He also drew 850 total walks while striking out 874 times, which is majorly impressive. He won four Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, and was an All-Star six times. He was robbed of the MVP in 1987, his most brilliant year as a player, coming in second to George Bell (who had outpaced Trammell in home runs, and that’s it).

• Trammell’s JAWS leaves few questions about his fitness for the Hall. His JAWS score is 57.5, nearly three points higher than the JAWS for an average Hall of Fame shortstop. And on top of that, his career WAR (from Baseball-Reference.com) is 70.4, which is almost four points higher than the average WAR for Hall of Fame shortstops.

CONS
• Trammell has a problem that’s similar to other Modern Era ballot candidates: his peak was too short. Trammell had a ten-year period (1980 to 1990) where he was excellent, but during that stretch he had several years that don’t measure up to the rest. Adding it all up, his peak might be on the short side, but the main issue is the lack of consistency.

• He never won an MVP award, which isn’t really a reason not to vote him into the Hall of Fame, but it’s a bit of a struggle to find reasons he shouldn’t be in. (Though he was the World Series MVP in 1984, so this point isn’t entirely true.)

• Injuries marred his 30s. From 1988 (his age 30 season) until his retirement after the 1997 season at age 38, he played more than 130 games just once. But even then, he was still putting up solid offense and defense. Seriously, it’s hard to find reasons he’s not in the Hall of Fame.

COMPARABLE PLAYERS
This might be the only spot where Trammell truly comes out behind. Baseball-Reference.com has him most similar to Edgar Renteria, who is not a Hall of Famer and fell off the ballot last year due to insufficient support. But things get a bit better from there. Number two on the list of Trammell’s comps is Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, and at nine & ten are Ryne Sandberg and Pee Wee Reese, also Hall of Famers. Maybe this is one of the problems with Trammell’s original candidacy: players like him are rarely Hall of Famers, and that’s a tough bias to get past.

OUR TAKES: SHOULD TRAMMELL BE IN THE HALL OF FAME
YES: Trammell has long been one of the most underrated players of his era. The offense was above-average at a tough position and the defense was strong. It’s about time he got in. (Chris Cwik)

YES: Alan Trammell’s exclusion from the Hall of Fame never really made sense to me, so here’s hoping it gets remedied this time. His career WAR is just about the same as Derek Jeter’s and his peak WAR is actually better. Trammell’s career is actually almost parallel to Barry Larkin’s numbers-wise. If Larkin is in, then Trammell should be too. (Mike Oz)

YES: Beyond just his numbers, which certainly make him deserving, think of the names that are always mentioned alongside Trammell’s: Barry Larkin. Robin Yount. Cal Ripken Jr. These guys, including Trammell, helped give baseball the speedy, rangy, plate-productive shortstop model we have today. He deserves to be in for many reasons, and hopefully this time they’ll get it right. (Liz Roscher)

YES: Along with Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Robin Yount, Trammell helped to redefine what a shortstop could be. His overall numbers might fall just short of theirs, but not by enough to suggest he doesn’t deserve the same recognition. (Mark Townsend)

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS SERIES:
• Steve Garvey
• Tommy John
• Don Mattingly
• Marvin Miller
• Jack Morris
• Dale Murphy
• Dave Parker
• Ted Simmons

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher