Each winter, I pore over the stats and select five new players to join the Heroes of Baseball. I look mainly at All-Star Game appearances and Wins Above Replacement—relative to peers—to make my choices.
A player that I select to be a Hero of Baseball is an active player who is about halfway into an official MLB Hall of Fame career. These are players who are on the path to Cooperstown, but they won’t make it unless they keep playing at a high level for a few more years. Why do it this way? It’s so I can predict future Hall of Famers before they actually retire (and thus hopefully acquire their cards and memorabilia before prices go through the roof).
After their performances in the 2019 season, here are five players on the path to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (it’s very likely that two or three of them are future Hall of Famers).
Mookie Betts
Nolan Arenado
Freddie Freeman
Aroldis Chapman
Josh Donaldson
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