Despite 500 Homers, David Ortiz Not a Lock for Hall of Fame Amid PED Suspicion, DH Position

by Eric Fulton
It wasn’t all that long ago that the 500 home run club was an exclusive fraternity where only a handful of baseball players reached the incredible milestone. At the time, those who reached that historic plateau were considered in everyone’s eyes Hall of Fame locks. However, hitting 500 home runs in a career now certainly doesn’t guarantee Hall of Fame status. Especially for those who cheated their way to get to the once iconic number.

On September 12, David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox became the 27th player in Major League Baseball history to reach the 500 home run club.  He is just the third active player to have 500 or more home runs, trailing only Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols. The next player closest to reaching 500 home runs is Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers who currently has 410 home runs. However, it would take another three to four years for him to reach the 500 home run plateau, and he probably doesn’t have that many years remaining in his career.

The 500 home run club was once a great list of Hall of Fame players. However, that has been clouded by players who took steroids or another performance enhancing substance. Unfortunately, players like A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmerio fall under the steroid cloud and those players will not be inducted, at least for a long time, if ever.

What is also unfortunate is David Ortiz has occasionally been talked about alongside the aforementioned players when it comes to steroid use. It’s long been believed that Ortiz tested for a PED during the MLB’s trial testing period, before they officially outlawed illegal substances. That is one reason why Ortiz is probably not a Hall of Fame player. Yes, he was a big part of the Boston Red Sox ending their 86 year championship drought in 2004 as well as the two more titles (2007 and 2013) they have won since.

The second biggest reason Ortiz might not be deserving of one day being enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame is he has played most of his career as a designated hitter in the American League. Take Edgar Martinez for instance. Edgar Martinez played his whole career with the Seattle Mariners, an American League team. He spent the majority of his career as a designated hitter and he has numbers good enough to be in the Hall of Fame but currently isn’t. The one knock against him is never having to have played much defense and thus not being considered an all-around player.

Would I vote for David Ortiz to Cooperstown if I had the chance?

That is a tough decision.

I felt like he could have done more on the field and the performance enhancing drugs is also an issue too. So I think it is too close to call. I will say even with all the judgments, Ortiz has been a great part of the game. I think with most of the players that I mentioned they don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because of the steroids. Ortiz is maybe the toughest call, but it looks like he will be waiting a while before he gets into Cooperstown. 

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