Imagination is about all sports fans have going for them at the moment, and NFL fans were given a real doozy of a challenge in that realm Tuesday: Suddenly, we are forced to picture Tom Brady in a uniform other than that of the New England Patriots.
Among active stars in baseball, there is no real equivalent that would provide such a jolting effect on the fan base. Brady might rate as the best NFL player of all time, and every ounce of value he has produced as a professional has come with the Patriots over a period that covers the entirety of the century. Brady was drafted by New England a couple of weeks after the 2000 MLB season began. There are no active big leaguers who played that season.
As someone whose all-time favorite baseball player is George Brett, perhaps I place more importance on the concept of the one-team Hall of Famer than I should. Yet I'm not the only one. There is even a Wikipedia page listing every player who lasted at least 10 years in the majors and spent them all with one franchise. The Hall of Famers receive special notation on that page, as they should. It's a precious thing, the one-team Hall of Famer. Brett is on that list, and though he retired more than a quarter century ago, he very much remains the most iconic personality in the history of the Kansas City Royals. And Royals fans don't have to share him with anyone.
You can say the same thing about Cal Ripken (and Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer) with the Orioles. Robin Yount with the Brewers. Derek Jeter (and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle) with the Yankees. Ted Williams (and Carl Yastrzemski) with the Red Sox. Johnny Bench with the Reds. Stan Musial with the Cardinals. There is something very special about the dynamic: the one-team Hall of Famer. After Tuesday's shocking tweet, Brady will no longer be that for Patriots fans.
At the same time, we're talking about professional sports. That Brady will play for somebody else -- and it looks like it will be the Bucs -- doesn't mean that he'll ultimately be remembered as anything but the Patriots' quarterback. All through the ages, even the greatest players have changed teams, often at the very end of their career, when they just wanted to keep playing. Michael Jordan played for the Washington Wizards. Willie Mays played for the Mets. Hank Aaron played for the Brewers. Ty Cobb played for the Athletics. The one-team Hall of Famer is such a special thing because it happens so rarely.
While acknowledging that there currently is no MLB player who could change teams tomorrow and create quite the same stir as Brady, that doesn't mean there aren't a few stars building up to becoming something similar. In fact, baseball has a few candidates to eventually join that exclusive list of one-team Hall of Famers. Most of them already have reached the point that to see them in a new uniform would be jarring, to say the least. But if it can happen with Brady, it can happen with anyone.
Here are a few one-team Hall of Fame candidates whom we hope to see back on the field in their familiar threads sooner than later, and a few others who are probably not Hall of Famers but nonetheless are synonymous with the teams for which they've always toiled. To illustrate the effect I'm referring to, I conclude the list with a few players who will fall off as soon as regular-season baseball resumes. If we had done this list a year ago, it would have been weird to imagine them in new uniforms. But this spring, those imaginings have turned into strange new realities.
Honorable mention: Nolan Arenado, Francisco Lindor, Kris Bryant
I just wanted to start with this trio because all three have accomplished so much early in their young careers that they have established their places in the respective histories of their franchises. They have also all been highly prominent names in the trade-rumor mill of the past few months. Their situations are more the norm than the exception in modern sports. And that's what makes the following players that much more worthy of appreciating.
1. Mike Trout
Before Trout signed his massive 12-year, $430 million extension with the Angels, it wasn't actually that difficult to imagine him in a Phillies uniform. That's what we always heard about the Millville, N.J., native -- that he was a Philadelphia sports fan, and every time he popped up on television away from the diamond, it seemed he was wearing an Eagles jersey.
The extension changes that. Trout is nearly a decade into a no-brainer Hall of Fame career and is building a staggering résumé that could conclude with his becoming the consensus best player in the history of the sport. He has done all of this for the Angels and that extension means there is a very real possibility that Trout will spend his entire career in Orange County.
The other thing that bumps Trout to the top of this list is his unchallenged place atop the Angels' all-time pecking order. After floundering for the first part of their existence, the Angels first rose into contention in the late 1970s with a roster mostly made up of free agents signed from other AL contenders, especially the Red Sox, Twins and Orioles. The title-winning 2002 Angels did so on the backs of a number of homegrown talents but no one who came close to achieving the breadth of what Trout has already done. Before Trout came along, the best one-team player in franchise history was probably Tim Salmon, who finished with 40.5 bWAR.
Trout already has 20.8 more bWAR than any other player in Angels history. By the time he's finished, he'll dwarf everyone else. I wish at least one George Brett on every franchise. It pains me to say it, but Trout is better than Brett, and he is well on his way to having a similar presence with the Angels franchise. He could end up as synonymous with his team as any player has ever been with theirs. So would it be weird to see him in, say, a Yankees jersey? Weird doesn't capture it. It would be bizarre.
He's a Texas guy, but with his lanky build, blond hair and surfer-boy looks, Kershaw has always been a natural fit to apply his dominance within the picturesque confines of Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers also are the right fit for Kershaw in that he continues a long line of historically great starting pitchers, one that extends from Don Newcombe to Johnny Podres to Don Drysdale to Sandy Koufax to Don Sutton to Fernando Valenzuela to Orel Hershiser and beyond. Great starting pitchers are what we think about when we think about the Dodgers. Kershaw is as great as any of those who have come before him, and most of them did the bulk of their damage in Chavez Ravine. Kershaw already is the Dodgers' franchise leader in bWAR among pitchers, with 65.3. He's close to overtaking Duke Snider (65.4) and Pee Wee Reese (68.2) for the all-time Dodgers lead in bWAR.
The Dodgers are an efficiently run organization, but they have chosen to keep Kershaw in the fold despite any future risk, and he has chosen to remain there. Given that this marriage has lasted this long, it's very difficult to imagine it breaking up before the day Kershaw announces his retirement. At one time you could imagine Kershaw playing for the Rangers or Astros, because we always kind of wonder whether a player will want to return to the area from which he came, as Ken Griffey Jr. once chose to do when he signed with Cincinnati. But it doesn't happen that way very often.
Here I'll note that while neither Trout nor Kershaw has been around long enough to match the Brady level of weirdness that would occur if they were to change teams, they are the closest things we have to that status in the majors right now.
3. Joey Votto
Votto is 13 years into a career during which he has compiled a .307/.421/.519 slash line for the Reds, the team that drafted him in 2002. That's a long time to be connected to one franchise. So over time, Votto has entered into the inner circle of all-time Cincinnati players. Despite the different high points in Reds history, especially the 1970s, the team hasn't had too many one-team Hall of Famers -- really just Bench and Barry Larkin, unless you recall 19th-century infielder Bid McPhee. (And if you do, please let us know the secret to everlasting life.)
Votto is under contract through 2023, with a team option for 2024. He's 36, so there seems to be a good chance he'll finish with Cincinnati, which is fitting. He also has a pretty solid Hall of Fame case, though you'd like to see him pad his counting stats a bit more. He's nearing milestones in hits (1,866), homers (284) and RBIs (944). He's also coming off his worst season.
There is one complicating factor here: Votto is originally from Toronto and he's probably the third-most prominent Canadian-born player, after Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins and new Hall of Famer Larry Walker. So he's the most prominent active Canadian player and an outspoken advocate for sports in that country. So could he finish his career with a victory lap in a Jays uniform? It would make some sense. It would also be weird.
4. Buster Posey
The Giants have a long and storied history, but Posey has already established himself as the best catcher in franchise history. He won the Rookie of the Year award in a Giants uniform. He won an MVP award in a Giants uniform. He has been a key part of three World Series-winning teams in a Giants uniform. Just a couple of weeks ago, Posey told reporters that he doesn't want to play for another team. That's good, because it would seem really strange for him to do so.
Assuming Posey doesn't play for another team, the question becomes whether he's a Hall of Famer. He's in a similar spot to Votto. He's not far off the mark when compared to the average Hall of Famers at his position, but you'd like to see him tack on some value. Posey is still only 33, but like Votto, he's coming off his worst season. The Giants franchise has had a few one-team Hall of Famers, led by Mel Ott. But they all played for the club when it was located in New York. Posey has a chance to be the first one-team Hall of Famer for the San Francisco Giants.
5. Jose Altuve
In Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, the Astros already have been blessed to have a couple of one-team Hall of Famers. Altuve has a lot more work to do to gain that status. And let's face it, fair or not, Altuve's place as the AL MVP in 2017 for the title-winning, now-tainted Astros might work against him when the time comes to vote for Cooperstown immortality. Yet, infamy has its own way of connecting a person to a time and a place. In a way, that makes the notion of seeing Altuve in, say, a Marlins uniform seem as unlikely as it would be strange.
6. Stephen Strasburg / Ryan Zimmerman
Here we begin a short tour of teammates, beginning with two leading lights of the defending champion Washington Nationals. Now, here I have to acknowledge a lament for the jilted baseball fans in Montreal. When the Nationals were located there and playing as the Expos, they simply did not hang on to their stars. On that list of one-team players who logged at least 10 seasons, Montreal had one: pitcher Steve Rogers. Rogers was a good player but far from a Hall of Famer.
Now in its first generation as the Washington Nationals, the franchise has produced a couple of stars synonymous with the team. That's especially true for Zimmerman, a free agent this offseason who had reached the point where he was either going to continue with the Nats, or he wasn't going to continue at all. He has become the franchise leader in hits, total bases, homers and RBIs, among other categories. Now that he has been a regular on the Nats' first championship team, he has cemented his status as an icon. That said, Zimmerman is probably not Cooperstown-bound.
Strasburg, on the other hand, might well be. He has got some work left to do, but Strasburg already ranks third on the Nats' career bWAR list behind Rogers and Cooperstown-bound teammate Max Scherzer, who has also played in the majors for the Diamondbacks and Tigers. If Strasburg does reel off a string of healthy, productive seasons, he'll enter the Cooperstown conversation. And after signing a big contract to return to Washington over the winter, chances are he'll be doing that in a Nats uniform. A San Diego native who played his college ball at San Diego State, he'll always have connections to that part of the world. But if he were going to end up with his hometown Padres, it feels as if it would have happened this winter.
By the time Strasburg finishes out his current deal, it'll be impossible to picture him with another club.
7. Yadier Molina / Adam Wainwright
If players could go into the Hall as a combo, Molina and Wainwright might do so. Molina might get there on his own merits. Wainwright, probably not, but that's not to say he hasn't had a great career. Prospect hounds from way back might have a hard time thinking of Waino as a one-team player because he was once an up-and-comer in the Braves' organization. But his entire big league career has unfolded in St. Louis. He and Molina have been batterymates since Wainwright broke in during the 2005 season. Not only is it impossible to picture either player in any uniform other than the Cardinals, it's impossible to picture them without each other.
8. Alex Gordon / Salvador Perez
Like Zimmerman, Gordon's free agency this winter was one of "I'm playing for the Royals or not at all." Gordo is not going to be a Hall of Famer. But next to Brett, he's probably the second-most iconic player in Royals history. (You can make a good argument that Frank White ranks second, but we won't conduct that right now.) Gordon was with the Royals when it still felt like their rebuilding plan would never end. He was there during their rise. He was standing on third base when Kansas City fell one run short of the title in 2014, and he was in the thick of Kansas City's run to the 2015 championship. And now that the title team has been broken up, he's still there, bridging the gap to what Royals fans hope will be the next contending team. On top of all of that, Gordon is from nearby Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up a fan of the franchise. In a just universe, he will never wear the uniform of another team.
Yet I have to lump Perez in with Gordon. He too is a vestige of the title teams. He's the greatest catcher in franchise history. In many ways, Perez has been the heart and soul of the franchise since he broke into the majors, and he has become a beloved resident of Kansas City. Now that Perez has survived KC's latest tear-down process, it is really difficult to imagine him with another team, though he's still only 29. After missing the 2019 season with a knee injury, Perez has a lot to prove when we eventually get the 2020 season underway. I would also make the argument that if Perez has a successful second act to his career and spends most of it behind the plate, he'll have a serviceable Hall of Fame case. That's a long way down the line.
9. Ryan Braun
One strange, modern factor in determining whether a player sticks with one franchise is a matter of the timing of his service clock and his rise to prominence. Braun's career illustrates this notion. He was a Rookie of the Year and a perennial All-Star for the Brewers right out of the gate and an MVP in his fifth season. In 2008, he signed an early extension that ran through the 2015 season, several years beyond his MVP performance in 2011. But before that season even began, he signed an extension to the extension, taking him through the upcoming campaign. There have been some trade rumors regarding Braun over the years, but he forewent the chance to ever be a free agent.
Now, like Posey, he has been talking to reporters about how he can't see himself playing for another team. And to be honest, given Braun's unpopularity with opposing fans ever since his PED suspension, it's unclear if any team would want to deal with the headaches that could come with having him. Braun is beloved in Milwaukee, though, and you simply can't picture him playing for another club.
10. Dustin Pedroia
At this point, we pretty much know that if Pedroia is going to play at all, it'll be for the Red Sox. That perhaps is the one silver lining in a cloud that hovers over a career clipped by injury. There's no doubt that before the injuries started to pile up, Pedroia was on a Hall of Fame trajectory. He was an MVP and linchpin on two different title teams (and a member of a third, albeit on the injured list). From 2007 to 2016, only four position players produced more bWAR than Pedroia.
My personal guiding light is that if a player is on a Hall of Fame path for a full decade, that's enough to get him in. But that's far from a consensus opinion, so we'll have to see how his case unfolds. I bring this up because I don't think it's debatable that picturing Pedroia with another club is beyond weird. The only thing that remains to be settled in this context is whether he eventually joins Williams, Yaz, Bobby Doerr and Jim Rice as one-team Hall of Fame Red Sox.
11. Brett Gardner
Gardner isn't a Hall of Famer, but after re-upping with the Yankees this winter, he's almost certainly going to play his entire career in the Bronx. (Of course, teams might not get in 140 games this season. Let's hope that's not the case.) No, Gardner is nowhere in the neighborhood of career Yankees like DiMaggio, Mantle, Jeter, Gehrig or Whitey Ford. But after he returned to the team this winter, it's hard to picture him wearing anything but pinstripes.
12. Madison Bumgarner / Felix Hernandez / Mookie Betts / Anthony Rendon
And this is the part where we see how the impossible-to-picture becomes the new normal. Bumgarner with the Snakes? King Felix with the Braves? Betts and Rendon are young enough that seeing them in Southern California will be strange, but also part and parcel to modern-day movement among professional athletes. Nevertheless, it will take some getting used to.
For me, Bumgarner is the most jarring name in this group. Not to take anything away from Hernandez, but through no fault of his own, he never got the chance to shine for the Mariners in October, when images of him dominating from the mound at Safeco Field could have embedded themselves onto the national consciousness. For Bumgarner, though, we saw him allow a single measly run over 36 innings during three World Series for three different championship teams in San Francisco. In fact, you can argue that the image of Bumgarner stalking the mound during the Fall Classic is the iconic image of the 2010s.
Now Bumgarner plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks and we got the first glimpse of this hard-to-fathom turn of events during his spring training outings. If Opening Day had come off as planned, he would have taken the mound at Chase Field against the Braves. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker wasn't going to tab King Felix as his Opening Day starter, but in many ways, it would have been fitting if he had.
Bumgarner can carve a new legacy in Arizona, as Randy Johnson once did. A good correlative would be the career of Orel Hershiser. He came up with the Dodgers and became a star with that franchise. When he set the consecutive scoreless innings record in 1988 and teamed with Kirk Gibson to carry a flawed Dodgers team to a World Series win, it created some of the most indelible images of the past few decades in baseball. Yet just a few years later, he was wearing an Indians uniform. He ultimately pitched in two World Series for Cleveland, more than the lone Fall Classic appearance he made for L.A.
Yet we still think of Hershiser wearing Dodger blue, and not because he remains a fixture at Chavez Ravine calling games for the team's television broadcast. It's because Hershiser was at his best with the Dodgers. It's not the end of the world when the greats change teams, for them or for us. But that doesn't mean we can't appreciate the ones who never leave.