Judging 2025 HOF candidates by their peak years
Brian Murphy
@Spokes_MurphyThere are two main ways to assess a ballplayer's Hall of Fame worthiness: career value and peak value.
While a player's career WAR should be taken into account, it's important to compare how players performed while at their individual bests. That's especially true for some players on the 2025 ballot. Their cases for induction become stronger when you isolate their peak seasons using WAR7. That metric is the sum of the seven best WAR seasons in each player's career.
Below, we've highlighted six players and listed where they rank among the 28 players on this year's ballot in Baseball-Reference WAR and WAR7. This is not to say that each of them deserves a place in Cooperstown. But with WAR7, they each deserve a little more consideration.
Chase Utley
WAR: 64.5 (4th) | WAR7: 49.3 (2nd)
Alex Rodriguez, at 64.3, is the WAR7 leader among the players on this year's ballot. But Utley jumps into the No. 2 spot because of his wonderful stretch of play from 2005-11. Those were his seven best seasons by WAR, and his 49.3 total was second only to Albert Pujols during that span. A-Rod was the one other player with at least 40 WAR during that period. Utley's 64.5 career WAR is just below the average for a Hall of Fame second baseman, but his peak ranks ninth-best at the position. That vaults him ahead of most of the Hall of Famers at the keystone, including Ryne Sandberg (47.1), Roberto Alomar (42.9) and Craig Biggio (41.8).
Dustin Pedroia
WAR: 51.9 (12th) | WAR7: 41.0 (7th)
Pedroia's seven best seasons included a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP Award, three Gold Gloves, three All-Star selections, a Silver Slugger and two of his three World Series rings. His 41.0 WAR7 puts him just behind Biggio but in front of other enshrined second basemen such as Nellie Fox and Bobby Doerr. Pedroia completed six seasons with at least 5.0 WAR, something only 13 second basemen have achieved (Utley also had six). And Mr. Laser Show likely would have strung more such seasons together if not for a debilitating left knee injury that he suffered in 2017. One year prior, Pedroia recorded 5.4 WAR. But after 2017, his age-33 season, Pedroia played in just nine MLB games before announcing his retirement in 2021.
Troy Tulowitzki
WAR: 44.5 (T-19th) | WAR7: 40.2 (8th)
Unfortunately, like Pedroia, most of the players on this list had their career -- and ultimately their place in baseball history -- altered by injuries. Tulowitzki is definitely among that group. On the bright side, he is one of six shortstops who had four seasons with at least 6.0 WAR by the end of his age-26 campaign. Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra are the only other shortstops to do that in the Integration Era (since 1947). Tulo then enjoyed 5-WAR years at ages 28 and 29. That latter year saw Tulo accrue 5.7 WAR in just 91 games. That's the third-most WAR by any AL/NL position player in the Modern Era (since 1900) who played in no more than 100 games. By the time he turned 30, Tulowitzki had 37.8 WAR -- more than Barry Larkin, Pee Wee Reese and Ozzie Smith at that age, to name a few.
Tulo missed at least 30 games in 10 of his 13 big league seasons. After missing the entire 2018 season due to injury, he retired in the summer of 2019 at 34 years old. All of that inactivity obviously impacted his career WAR total, which ranks 34th at the position. But his peak ranks 21st.
Ben Zobrist
WAR: 44.5 (T-19th) | WAR7: 39.7 (10th)
Zobrist is tied with Tulowitzki in career WAR and likewise makes a huge jump up the ballot when you order everyone by WAR7. Six of his top seven seasons came from 2009-14, when his 36.1 WAR was third-best in MLB, behind Robinson Can¨® (39.8) and Miguel Cabrera (38.9). Zobrist had the second-most WAR in the Majors in 2009 (8.6) after producing a 149 OPS+ over 599 plate appearances and providing plus defense at just about every shot; catcher and pitcher are the only positions he didn't play that year. Zobrist's career WAR is tied for 36th among second basemen, but he is 19th by WAR7.
Not included among those seven seasons? Zobrist's 2016 -- the year he made himself a central character in a historic moment. After putting up 3.4 WAR during the regular season, Zobrist helped the Cubs reach the World Series and then came through with the game-winning hit in the 10th inning of Game 7 to snap Chicago's 108-year championship drought.
David Wright
WAR: 49.2 (15th) | WAR7: 39.5 (11th)
Wright retired after the 2018 season, his 14th in the Majors. But his time as a standout player effectively ended in 2015 as neck, shoulder and back ailments really began to take their toll on the Mets third baseman, who played in only 75 games from 2015-18.
Prior to that, however, Wright was Hall-worthy at the hot corner. He had 46.5 WAR through his age-30 season. That is 11th-best at the position, right between Hall of Famers Scott Rolen and Home Run Baker. Besides six All-Star nods, two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers, Wright's seven best seasons contained 39.5 WAR. That is only slightly less than what first-ballot inductee Paul Molitor achieved during his peak (39.7).
Hanley Ramirez
WAR: 38.0 (22nd) | WAR7: 35.1 (16th)
The 2006 NL Rookie of the Year with the Marlins, Ramirez put himself on a Hall of Fame track through his first five full seasons in the bigs. That period featured a 136 OPS+ and 26.1 WAR through his age-26 season. Considering that Ramirez was rarely an above-average defender, that WAR total emphasizes how good of a hitter he was in his prime. His two other top seasons came in 2013 and 2014 with the Dodgers. In '13, Ramirez posted a 189 OPS+ and 5.2 WAR in just 86 games. Injuries became a major story in the latter half of Ramirez's 15-year career, but his peak exceeds that of Hall of Fame shortstops such as Phil Rizzuto (34.8) and Luis Aparicio (32.7).