Offseason of questions for Endy Horton (by 69cubs)

  Now that Tampa Bay has been eliminated in their quest to repeat as champions of Mathewson, one big question concerns the status of 37 year old veteran superstar Endy Horton.

  Endy, who will turn 38 next season will be on the final season of a 5 year, 83.5 million dollar contract that will pay him $20 mil in season 25. The one note on this is that the final season is a mutual option where Tampa can pay $5 mil to decline the option.

  Stat wise, his AB's HR's and RBI's are at career lows as his playing time has been cut, but with 418 ABs last season, he had 19 HRs, 77 RBIs, batting .275 and OBA of .345.

  If his option is declined, Tampa could choose to try and resign him at a lower cost, Horton could retire, or he could catch on with another team. My opinion is that he can be useful in a role for whatever team he is with.

  If he plays for Tampa next season, he has the chance, with 130 games played, to have more games played for Tampa Bay than any other franchise. This might affect which hat he wears IF he makes it to the HOF.

 If, at 38, he does retire, this brings up the question of "Is he worthy of the Hall of Fame?"

  Let's look back at his career stats below:
Franchise G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS STEAL % AVG OBA SLG
NB 725 2916 564 802 122 30 202 620 273 343 138 31 81.66% 0.275 0.339 0.545
ELP 696 2494 494 706 116 25 194 534 260 309 143 36 79.89% 0.283 0.353 0.583
TB 596 1999 348 561 92 16 115 373 184 243 49 23 68.06% 0.281 0.343 0.515
SEA 375 1491 279 420 78 14 104 273 128 213 77 23 77.00% 0.282 0.340 0.562
VC 161 613 104 179 29 6 37 129 73 72 45 8 84.91% 0.292 0.369 0.540
Totals 2553 9513 1789 2668 437 91 652 1929 918 1180 452 121 78.88% 0.280 0.346 0.551


PLAYOFFS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS STEAL % AVG OBA SLG
ELP 43 174 39 50 7 3 14 34 12 17 7 2 77.78% 0.287 0.335 0.603
NB 52 205 37 52 10 3 13 48 20 28 9 0 100.00% 0.254 0.322 0.522
TB 27 93 18 27 4 0 5 14 6 15 1 2 33.33% 0.290 0.335 0.495
Totals 122 472 94 129 21 6 32 96 38 60 17 4 80.95% 0.273 0.329 0.547
Above are his stats broken up by franchise for regular season and playoffs with career stats included. You can see he has been a consistent performer throughout his career and in different cities.

 Only 4 times in his career, did a team he was on not reach .500 winning percentage, they include his first 2 big league seasons in Seattle and his only season in Vancouver (my franchise) and no seasons in his last 10 under .500 for the team he has been on

 And his accomplishments and awards:
  • 4th all-time in games played by a position player.
  • 652 HRs (11 shy of top 5 all time)
  • 1929 RBI's (63 short of top 5 all time)
  • 1789 Runs (68 short of top 5 all time)
  • 1 K per 9 plate appearances (compare that to this season league average of 1 per 5.5 PA)
  • 32 playoff HRs
  • 8 all star appearances
  • 4 Gold Gloves at 3B
  • 8 Silver Sluggers (3 at 2B, 5 at 3B)
  • 1 Most Valuable Player award (El Paso)
  • 2 World Series Rings (New Britain and Tampa Bay)
With some of the numbers and the amount of accomplishments, I believe he will get in to the HOF within the first few seasons of his eligibility.

 Either way, he has had a great career and there are not many players that are this consistent for the length of their careers as Endy Horton has been!