Alfonso Soriano

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Alfonso Soriano

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Alfonso Soriano

Five facts about Alfonso Soriano:

Alfonso Soriano was named to seven All-Star teams. He won four Silver Sluggers and received MVP votes five times.

Soriano hit 30 or more home runs seven times. He stole 30 or more bases five times. He did both in the same season four times.

Soriano's four 30-HR/30-SB seasons are the most in major-league history by a non-Bonds: Barry and Bobby Bonds each had five such seasons. Soriano is one of four players to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.

Alfonso Soriano's highest MVP finish was 2002 when he finished third. That season, he batted .300/.332/.547, with 51 doubles, 39 home runs, 102 RBI, and led the American League in hits (209), stolen bases (41), and runs scored (128). Soriano's 2002 season is the only season in major-league history in which a player had at least 30 home runs, 40 stolen bases, and 50 doubles in the same season.

Alfonso Soriano never played a single inning in the outfield until his age-30 season in 2006. He led the National League in outfield assists in each of his first two seasons as an outfielder, 2006 and 2007, and in double plays by an outfielder in each of his first three seasons as an outfielder (as well as in 2012).

The first two tables below present Alfonso Soriano's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1999	NYA	23	9	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.2
2000	NYA	24	22	1.0	1.3	-0.2	-0.3
2001	NYA	25	158	16.3	17.1	1.4	-0.3
2002	NYA	26	156	22.8	19.2	6.4	4.3
2003	NYA	27	156	21.9	18.7	5.8	3.8
2004	TEX	28	145	18.0	18.1	2.2	0.4
2005	TEX	29	156	20.0	20.1	2.3	0.4
2006	WAS	30	159	23.0	19.6	4.0	2.0
2007	CHN	31	135	20.3	16.7	4.2	2.5
2008	CHN	32	109	16.2	13.2	3.5	2.2
2009	CHN	33	117	15.8	14.3	2.0	0.6
2010	CHN	34	147	16.7	15.8	1.5	-0.1
2011	CHN	35	137	15.1	15.4	0.4	-1.0
2012	CHN	36	151	19.9	20.1	0.7	-1.3
+– 2013		37	151	21.7	19.1	3.9	1.8
	CHN		93	12.2	12.4	0.4	-0.8
	NYA		58	9.5	6.6	3.5	2.6
2014	NYA	38	67	4.4	5.9	-1.0	-1.6
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,975	253.5	234.9	37.3	13.6
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			44	4.7	5.7	-0.3	-0.9
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,019	258.3	240.6	37.0	12.7

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1999	NYA	23	9	0.3	0.4	0.0	0.0
2000	NYA	24	22	0.9	1.4	-0.3	-0.4
2001	NYA	25	158	16.1	17.3	1.0	-0.7
2002	NYA	26	156	22.5	19.5	5.9	3.8
2003	NYA	27	156	21.3	19.3	4.5	2.5
2004	TEX	28	145	18.4	17.7	2.8	1.0
2005	TEX	29	156	20.9	19.2	4.1	2.2
2006	WAS	30	159	23.5	19.1	5.1	3.1
2007	CHN	31	135	19.2	17.9	2.4	0.7
2008	CHN	32	109	15.8	13.6	2.7	1.3
2009	CHN	33	117	14.7	15.4	-0.2	-1.6
2010	CHN	34	147	17.0	15.5	2.1	0.5
2011	CHN	35	137	15.6	14.8	1.5	0.0
2012	CHN	36	151	21.2	18.8	3.3	1.3
+– 2013		37	151	21.3	19.5	3.1	1.1
	CHN		93	12.5	12.1	1.1	-0.1
	NYA		58	8.7	7.4	2.0	1.2
2014	NYA	38	67	4.8	5.5	-0.3	-0.9
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,975	253.6	234.8	37.7	13.9
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			44	4.6	5.8	-0.6	-1.2
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,019	258.2	240.7	37.0	12.7

This is Alfonso Soriano's first year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Vote Prediction

Alfonso Soriano had a better career than probably most of the other players debuting on this ballot. But even so, it is an honor for Alfonso Soriano simply to appear on a Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Player Won-Lost Records and Alfonso Soriano

Alfonso Soriano was originally a second baseman - actually, he was originally a shortstop but, like a lot of players, moved off of shortstop largely before he reached the majors (well, that and the shortstop job was filled for the Yankees when Soriano showed up). Anyway, Soriano wasn't a great defensive second baseman but his batting and baserunning more than made up for it, leading to four All-Star selections as a second baseman, including three times starting for the American League. For his career, Player won-lost records show Soriano with 7.9 pWins over positional average as a second baseman.

Then, in 2006, at the age of 30, Soriano moved to left field. Soriano was better defensively in left field than at second base and continued to be an excellent hitter for several years. This produced three more All-Star selections for Soriano as an outfielder, including as the starting left fielder for the National League in 2006. For his career, Player won-lost records show Soriano with 7.6 pWins over positional average as a left fielder.

The next table shows all players who earned at least 5 career pWOPA in both the infield (excluding first base) and the outfield. Players are ranked in the table by their combined pWOPA in both the infield and outfield (again, excluding first base).


		Infield			Outfield
	Player	pWins	pLoss	pWOPA	pWins	pLoss	pWOPA
1	Mel Ott	40.5	27.8	12.1	373.8	265.8	90.5
2	Chipper Jones	280.3	212.5	62.0	51.9	40.0	8.7
3	Jackie Robinson	147.3	104.3	43.2	23.3	15.8	6.1
4	Gary Sheffield	74.9	69.7	5.1	236.8	191.7	32.3
5	Pete Rose Sr.	154.8	143.5	11.6	190.5	160.7	19.8
6	Robin Yount	195.8	188.4	21.7	157.1	145.0	9.1
7	Dick Allen	98.6	76.0	19.9	41.1	29.1	9.7
8	Harmon Killebrew	101.7	80.7	18.0	69.0	54.4	10.2
9	Miguel Cabrera	93.4	73.9	17.9	51.6	42.1	6.7
10	Pedro Guerrero	48.3	41.9	5.2	79.3	60.2	16.6
11	Don Buford	82.0	74.3	7.9	79.6	63.5	10.7
12	Ben Zobrist	125.3	118.4	9.6	73.2	63.7	7.9
13	Pepper Martin	56.8	48.7	7.5	82.1	68.9	9.0
14	Alfonso Soriano	98.8	94.2	7.5	149.3	134.7	6.8

It's a small list and highlights a nice accomplishment for Alfonso Soriano, transitioning seamlessly from excellent middle infielder to excellent corner outfielder.

Article last updated: December 25, 2019

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series

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