MLB Hall of Fame: 10 current players who are locks

3. Miguel Cabrera

As David Shoenfield of ESPN rightly pointed out just a year ago…

"Cabrera is now in his age-30 season, with 53.2 WAR. Through age 30, Pujols had 81.1 WAR. That’s how good Pujols was — nearly 30 wins better than a sure Hall of Famer who arrived in the majors at a younger age. Much of that advantage comes on defense and the basepaths, but Baseball-Reference estimates Pujols created 590 runs more than the average batter through 30, with Cabrera at 447 (and counting)."

Of course a year later, Cabrera’s career WAR is now at a 57.6, and while he hasn’t reached the career highs that Pujols has (and may never), still Miguel Cabrera is without a doubt one of the best, pure hitters in the game.

In twelve seasons as a pro (1st five with the Florida Marlins, last seven with the Detroit Tigers), Cabrera failed to hit over a .300 BA only twice – his rookie year in 2003, and barely missed it the next season in 2004. Since then, he’s put together a 12 year career slash that runs a cool .320/.397/.566/.964 – numbers that are very comparable to that of Pujols.

Additionally, Miguel has been an MVP candidate every single year since being a rookie (2014 still pending), and actually has won the MVP twice, back-to-back in 2013 and 2014. That alone is quite amazing!

Cabrera’s most impressive accolade though was becoming just the 15th player in major league history to win the Triple Crown! He did that in 2012, joining an array of amazing talent from baseball history such as Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and Mickey Mantle, and the first since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

While never being known so much for great glove work, Cabrera is clearly one of the best hitters in the game, and has won multiple Silver Slugger awards to cap off his other accolades.

Miguel Cabrera may or may not come to mind when you think of great all-around, multi-tooled players, or even if you’re thinking of locks for the Hall of Fame, but there is little question that if he continues to play as he has (with a 2014 slash line so far of .309/.368/.538./906) he will likely be a lock for the hall when he retires. Even at 31 years of age, with the numbers he puts up, he could surpass Pujols.