In a Game of Stars, Derek Jeter Distinguished Himself With a Flip

Though Jeter was occasionally a punching bag for baseball’s sabermetrics world during his career, the combination of his huge moments, World Series rings, consistency and longevity have made him an obvious Hall of Famer. His 72.4 career wins above replacement don’t hurt, either.

But for Jeter to be named on every ballot, and Soriano on none, is still something of a surprise, at least through the lens of where they stood early in Soriano’s career.

The former double-play partners were quite the duo from 2001 to 2003. In fact, it would have been easy at the time to argue that Soriano was on his way to surpassing Jeter, at least as an offensive player. In their three full seasons together, Jeter hit 49 homers, drove in 201 runs, stole 70 bases and compiled 12.5 wins above replacement. Soriano, 18 months younger, hit 95 homers, drove in 266 runs, stole 119 bases and compiled 10.2 WAR in that period.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/sports/baseball/derek-jeter-alfonso-soriano-hall-of-fame.html?emc=rss&partner=rss