Former Phillie Scott Rolen elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Scott Rolen — one of the greatest third basemen in MLB history — has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the museum announced Tuesday.

Rolen was the lone candidate elected by the BBWAA, receiving votes on 76.3% of ballots. Eligible candidates must receive votes from 75% of writers for election. Todd Helton and Billy Wagner were the next closest, finishing with 72.2% and 68.1% respectively.

The Contemporary Baseball Era has previously elected Fred McGriff, so the Crime Dog will join Rolen in this year’s Hall of Fame class.

A second-round pick out of Jasper High School (Indiana) in 1993, Rolen spent parts of seven seasons with the Phillies, the largest chunk of any of the four franchises he played with. Rolen won the 1997 National League Rookie of the Year as a Phillie, and was an All-Star in July of 2002, the waning days of his tenure with the team. In between those two accomplishments, he won three Gold Glove Awards.

Rolen would win eight total Gold Glove Awards during his 17-year career. Only Brooks Robinson (16), Mike Schmidt (10) and Nolan Arenado (10) have won the honor more times at the position.

Interestingly, legendary broadcaster Chris Wheeler discussed Rolen’s Hall of Fame candidate with Phillies Nation last January, and was extremely complimentary of his defensive prowess, among other things.”

“Well, he’s the best [defensive] third baseman that I ever saw, and I watched Mike Schmidt play every game of his career. So that tells you where I come down on Rolen,” Wheeler said.

“Now, offensively, he’s not Michael. He couldn’t hit like Mike Schmidt could.

“But I look at Scott Rolen and say ‘Yes.’ How many better third basemen have played the game of baseball. You had guys like Brooks Robinson, who everybody loved to watch. Could he play third base like Scott?

“Here’s the thing that Scott Rolen had that none of these other guys had. He was so big and so quick, that his range was unbelievable. Nobody’s had range like that, I don’t think, playing that position.”

Of course, Rolen’s legacy in Philadelphia is a complicated one, which is why he isn’t yet on the team’s Wall of Fame, and may very well don a St. Louis Cardinals cap on his plaque, despite playing 183 more games as a Phillie.

On July 29, 2002, the Phillies traded Rolen to the Cardinals along with Doug Nickle in a deal that brought back Plácido Polanco, Mike Timlin and Bud Smith. While that was a relatively decent return for a player on the cusp of free agency, it paled in comparison to the production that the Phillies would have received from Rolen at the height of his powers.

Disillusioned with the franchise’s commitment to winning — or lack thereof, in his opinion — Rolen’s exit from Philadelphia was messy, to say the least. He and then-manager Larry Bowa had a falling out, as detailed at the time by Murray Chass of The New York Times. Rather than accept monster contract offers (at the time) of either seven year and $90 million or 10 years and $140 million, Rolen forced a trade, making clear he had no intention of re-signing with the team after the 2002 season.

Instead, he would spend the next five-and-a-half seasons with the Cardinals. He helped lead the Cardinals to two NL pennants (2004 and 2006) and a World Series title in 2006. Between 2002 and 2007, FanGraphs says that Rolen was seventh among all position players in WAR, trailing only Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran and Ichiro Suzuki. His peak season came in 2004, when he slashed .314/.409/.598 with 34 home runs, 124 RBIs, 30 defensive runs saved, 1.007 OPS and a staggering 9.0 WAR.

Before his career concluded, Rolen also spent time with the Toronto Blue Jays and Cincinnati Reds, even making multiple All-Star appearances with the latter.

Rolen becomes the most recent former Phillie to be elected to the Hall of Fame since Jim Kaat, who was voted in by the Golden Era Committee in 2022. The most recent former Phillie to be elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA before Rolen was the late-Roy Halladay in 2019.

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