Chicago Cubs: Ron Santo’s career took a while to appreciate

It took Chicago Cubs legend, Ron Santo, a long time to gain election to the Hall of Fame. His career took a while for us to appreciate.

You don’t have to convince most Chicago Cubs fans that Ron Santo is a baseball legend. For years, fans were campaigning for him to gain election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former star third baseman didn’t do much to hide the fact that it would have meant a lot to him during his retirement days. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see it happen, as he passed away in 2010 before it finally happened in 2012.

During that time, Cubs fans cited what he meant to the team throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. However, many baseball fans didn’t feel that Santo deserved induction. Indeed, when we take a quick look at the traditional stats, the numbers aren’t quite there: 2,254 hits, .277 batting average, 342 home runs, and 1,331 RBIs. Especially for a player who plays at a position valued for its offense, that didn’t seem like enough.

However, as time has passed and more advanced statistics have gained in popularity, we’ve come to see Ron Santo in a new light. Many people feel that Santo unduly won election on the strength of his fight with diabetes and his broadcast work after retirement. Yet if we can put all that aside, the statistics make a strong case for Santo’s induction.

Many fans would be surprised to learn that Santo holds a higher career WAR than Ernie Banks does (70.5 vs. 67.8). Yet Banks was a slam-dunk Hall of Fame choice because he has the traditional stats, including 512 home runs and 1,636 RBIs. Santo, however, didn’t get in until nearly four decades after his playing career ended. Here, we look at two reasons why Santo has become more highly valued over the years.

Chicago Cubs: Ron Santo’s defense mattered

Ron Santo was not recognized overall during his playing days, as he never finished higher than fourth in MVP voting and only had three top-ten finishes. However, his defense was recognized by his peers, as he won five straight Gold Glove Awards between 1964 and 1968. He was the dominant defensive player at his position in the National League in the 1960s (while Brooks Robinson dominated in the American League).

However, when we look at the defensive metrics, they also show just how good he was with the glove. He made a lot of errors – 317 in his career – yet that was because he got to so many baseballs. When we look at Santo’s range factor – which measures how many plays he made per nine innings – he was routinely well above league average. For example, during his incredible defensive season of 1967, he was at 3.62, while the league average was 2.96.

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Throughout the 1960s, he was also routinely well above average in Total Zone Fielding Runs Above Average; for example, he was worth ten defensive runs above average in 1963 and a whopping 18 in 1967. Overall, Santo posted a decisive defensive WAR every year from 1962 to 1972, including a tremendous 2.7 in that 1967 season.

While Santo might not have been the gloveman that the Robinson mentioned above was, he still was an incredible defensive talent. It’s hard to measure a player’s true defensive worth, yet if he had played today, we’d be able to get a better picture of just how good Santo was on defense due to all the latest technology. Thankfully, more understanding of the game has allowed us to appreciate it.