Jeff Kent: The One That Got Away
Published by Toronto Mike on January 21, 2009 @ 14:50 in Toronto Blue Jays
Jeff Kent exceeded all expectations. Drafted by the Blue Jays, I remember his debut on April 12th, 1992, against the Baltimore Orioles. I remember how he filled in for an injured Kelly Gruber, and then we used him as trade bait to land David Cone from the New York Mets.
That trade took place on August 29, ending Jeff Kent's career with the Jays at a measly five months. We won the next two World Series, but we completely gave up on a player who would debatably become the 3rd-best offensive third baseman in the history of the game, ahead of Ryne Sandberg and Robbie Alomar and just behind Rogers Hornsby and Joe Morgan.
Yes, he was that good. He's the career home-run leader among second basemen with 351, 74 more than Ryne Sandberg. A five-time All-Star and the 2000 NL MVP, Kent had a .290 career batting average, 377 homers, 1,518 RBIs and a .500 slugging percentage.
Jeff Kent could have been ours, but we were living for he moment back in '92. Instead, we all had to watch his awesome 17 season career from afar. Today, he announced his retirement.
With Sandberg in the Hall of Fame, shouldn't Kent follow? I say yes.
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Buffalo Boy Mike
January 21, 2009 / 16:02
Kent should go in but he won't be the next 2nd baseman in, that will be Robbie Alomar.
You could say that about a lot of former Jays, look at Cris Carpenter we could have had him in his prime, instead we thought we had better and let him go before he even had a chance.
Mike Timlin could have stayed and provided years of a quality set up man out of the pen.
Woody Williams had a few good years after leaving us.
KElvim Escobar is still a very strong starting pitcher.
Brandon Lyon is a quality reliever.
There were so many guys we just let go becuase we wanted to hang onto a lot of the guys that got us there after 93 that we didn't think of the future.