A Glimpse of Greatness
- Jeremiah Edwards
- May 15, 2017
- 3 min read
Name: Sandy Alomar Jr.
Card Company; Score
Year: 1991
Team; Cleveland Indians
Throws/Bats: R
Ht: 6'5
Sandy Alomar Jr’s story is one all too common when it comes to baseball catchers. That story being the one of countless injuries that derail a once promising career. While he is still a legend in the city of Cleveland, one has to wonder if he could’ve been a bigger star had injuries not ruined his career.
Alomar was drafted by the San Diego Padres and excelled in their minor-league farm system winning minor league player of the year in 1988 and 1989. However, his talent would never be recognized by San Diego as they already had decent depth at catcher. This would lead him to eventually get traded to the Cleveland Indians with two other players for Joe Carter. San Diego unsurprisingly lost this trade Joe Carter only played one season with the Padres before being traded again to the Toronto Blue Jays helping them win back to back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. While in Cleveland, Alomar became the first rookie catcher to start an All-Star game while also taking home Rookie of the Year honors and the coveted Gold Glove Award in 1990.
However, the injury bug would cost him the next 5 seasons of his career never playing more than 90 games from 1991-1995. Even though he did make a couple of All-Star teams in 1991, and 1992 nothing he did in those seasons warranted his selection. This tale is
all too common for catcher’s, and is why many clubs today worry about signing catchers to long term contracts. While there are a few exceptions to this rule (Buster Posey, Yadier Molina, Salvador Perez), there are players like Matt Wieters who had to wait what seemed like forever to sign with a team. Injury concerns for catchers is also why you see some catchers change positions like Joe Mauer to try and extend their careers. Even the greatest catcher of all-time Johnny Bench was eventually forced to play more first base as he got older.
Alomar’s best season came in 1997, which just so happened to be the year that the Cleveland Indians finally made a World Series. The Indians would eventually go on to lose to the then Florida Marlins in 7 games with Alomar hitting .367 with two home runs. In the regular season, Alomar would put up a stat-line of (.324 BA) (.354 OBP) (21 HR) (83 RBI), leading to his 5th all-star selection. This was a brief glimpse of what could’ve been but was quickly gone the following year. Even though he made an All-Star team in 1998 he turned in a below average season, with this being the last time he would ever play 100+ games again.
He would go on to play in a limited role with the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets before eventually retiring after the 2007 season. He would be inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame in 2009 and is currently their First Base Coach after stints as the Indians interim manager and bench coach. Sandy Alomar Jr. made the best out of what was an injury plagued career, but one can only wonder what could’ve been had he stayed healthy?
His story wasn’t the first of its kind nor will it be the last, as baseballs hardest position claims another promising career.
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