Baseball Lost A Team Of Legends This Year

2024 has been a difficult year of loss in every corner of the world. It’s also been keenly cruel to the collective memory of Major League Baseball — and its best players. To be sure, we lose icons in the sport every year. But the sheer number and depth of the talent among those who died in 2020 is overwhelming.

In the span of just a few weeks, not just one but two iconic St. Louis Cardinals died: Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. These were defining members of many Cardinals championship teams as players who stayed within the St. Louis family for decades after their careers ended. They were routinely included in opening day festivities at Busch Stadium, wearing their red jackets.

We lost Tom Seaver, the defining Met. Joe Morgan, perhaps the best second baseman to ever play the game, with the Cincinnati Reds and numerous other teams. Whitey Ford, big game pitcher par excellence for the New York Yankees. Al Kaline: Mr. Tiger. And just Saturday, we lost Phil Neikro, the master of the knuckleball.

That’s seven Hall of Fame players. To put it in perspective, we lost seven Hall of Famers combined from 2016 to 2019: Frank Robinson in 2019; Willie McCovey and Red Schoendienst in 2018; Roy Halladay, Jim Bunning and Bobby Doerr in 2017; and Monte Irvin in 2016.

The last time as many as four Hall of Famers died was 2010, when Ron Santo, Robin Roberts, Bob Feller and Sparky Anderson all passed — though Anderson had earned induction as a manager, not a player. Most years since the turn of the century, it’s one or two Hall of Famers; in 2004 and 2008, it was none.

What also separates 2020, though, is the sheer depth of talent we lost. And that’s been what continues to hit home for me: the list includes longtime stars, All-Stars and postseason heroes beyond those who were inducted into Cooperstown. To make sense of it all, I wanted to think of it in baseball terms, to appreciate just how much player production came from players who have died in 2020.

This year has seen the deaths of 15 hitters and nine pitchers with at least 10 career wins above replacement,1 including 10 above 40 WAR. Compare that to 2019: eight hitters, six pitchers above 10 WAR, just three players above 40. Or 2018: eight hitters, seven pitchers at or above 10 WAR, with McCovey, Schoendienst and Rusty Staub the only three above 40.

This is no mere calculation. Every hit, every strikeout, every diving catch is remembered by thousands of people, those who watched or listened to it, those who witnessed it in person. So to truly comprehend the number and ability of the baseball players we lost in 2020, I’ve compiled a 26-man roster of those who died this year. Say what you will about the Dodgers: This is a team that I think could beat anyone.

Hitters

Starting lineup

C Hal Smith, 4.2 career WAR, 1955-64: Smith enjoyed a distinguished decade-long career catching for the Orioles, Kansas City Athletics, Pirates, Houston Colt .45s and Reds. He played a key role for the 1960 World Champion Pirates, slashing .295/.351/.508 for the eventual winners, and served as Houston’s catcher in the team’s very first game in 1962. He homered, too, as the Colt .45s won 11-2. Smith finished his career with three double-digit home run seasons, a slash line of .267/.317/.394, and yet somehow, on this team, he’s probably the No. 8 hitter.

1B Bob Watson, 28.3 WAR, 1966-84: Among the many distinguished, if not quite Hall of Fame worthy, players on this team, Watson made a pair of All-Star teams and earned MVP votes in three different seasons. The longtime Astro — who also saw time with the Red Sox, Yankees and Braves — drove in 100 runs twice. 1975 is an example of his typical consistency: a .324/.375/.495 slash line, with 18 home runs and an OPS+ of 149.

2B Joe Morgan, 100.5 WAR, 1963-84: The most valuable everyday player and owner of the second-best WAR on the roster, Morgan defined the position of second base for more than two decades. He made 10 All-Star teams, captured two MLB MVPs as the best player on the Cincinnati Reds dynasty of the mid-1970s, and did essentially everything well on a baseball field. His career slash line of .271/.392/.427 understates his offensive greatness, with much of that raw production coming during the offensively challenged 1960s. His OPS+ of 132 is impressive for any position, but it’s fourth all-time among the 177 primary second basemen with at least 1,000 games played in MLB history.

3B Dick Allen, 58.8 WAR, 1963-77: From a legacy perspective, this hurts most of all. Allen is, by all rights, a Hall of Famer, but his reputation of being difficult — something our 2020 eyes must see through the lens of being an outspoken Black man in Philadelphia in the 1960s — kept him from enshrinement. He looked set to get enough votes from this year’s Golden Era Veterans’ Committee, but COVID-19 pushed back by a year that meeting, which is held in person. Now, if and when the call is made to honor a career featuring a remarkable 156 career OPS+, the NL Rookie of the Year award, seven All-Star seasons and an AL MVP award, it will be up to the rest of us to stress how long overdue it was.

SS Tony Fernández, 45.3 WAR, 1983-2001: Fernández falls just shy of Hall of Fame enshrinement, according to Jay Jaffe, the dean of such evaluations, but had a tremendous career all the same. He made five All-Star teams and won four Gold Gloves at the most important defensive position, with a .288/.347/.399 career slash line. He stole 20 bases or more in seven seasons and played on five different postseason teams — with .327/.367/.420 career production in the playoffs.