When many of us think about Rickey Henderson, we think of the blazing speedster who is the Stolen Base King of the MLB. He is often, deservedly so, called the greatest leadoff man of all time. Leadoff men historically have been base stealers, and Henderson is one of, if not the best base thief of all time. If we removed any ability to steal bases for Henderson, what would he be as a player?
He would still be a first ballot Hall of Famer. While many look at Rickey Henderson as a mere base stealer, he was an extremely well rounded player who does not get his respect.
Henderson posted an OPS+ of 127 over 13,346 plate appearances. His longevity and durability is matched only by a few in history: Hank Aaron, Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski being the only players with more plate appearances. Although hitting wise he does not stack up with greats like Aaron and Barry Bonds, he still fits comfortably in the next tier of OPS+, surrounded by players such as Eddie Murray and Yastrzemski, who admittedly took a hit in career averages due to playing a long time past their peak.
Henderson’s slash line was .279/.401/.419/.820. Extending this line over the length of his career, he racks up over 3,000 hits and has over 500 doubles and just shy of 300 home runs. Although Henderson is in the top 25 all time for singles, he had deceptive power delivered from his frame and batting stance.
As illustrated in this picture of him while on the Blue Jays, his stance shrunk his strike zone. The resulting smaller zone and potential for an extra base hit off of Henderson led to him getting walked 2,190 times, second behind steroid user healthy breakfast-eater Bonds. Although Henderson had some power, he was not as feared of a hitter as those surrounding him on the all time walk list, sluggers such as Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome. When you add in the fact the fact that pitchers did not want to give Henderson a free base due to his stealing abilities, his total becomes even more impressive.
Henderson’s defense is generally unheralded as well. He has 65 career Total Zone Runs, which although they do not balance out the 97 lost due to his playing of left for the most part, is still really impressive. At the tail end of his career, he was certainly less mobile than his younger self that saved 13 runs in CF in 1985, but was still adequate. He was a poor fielder, but the glove was balanced out by his bat and base running. Being able to field a position, especially heading into his 40s, granted the Mariners, Mets, Padres, Red Sox and Dodgers far more versatility compared to penciling him in at DH due to no speed.
Speed was a major part of Henderson’s game, racking up an incredible 144 runs gained from base running according to Baseball-Reference. This gave him 14.4 more wins, assuming a 10 Runs-1 win ratio. Henderson’s career Wins Above Average is 69.0, at aand WAR ofis 111.2. Lets conveniently subtract any runs gained from his baserunning. That calculation leads to a WAA of 54.2, and a WAR of 96.8. These are comfortably above hall averages. Now although Henderson would most likely not hold the record for career runs once his steals are removed, he still is an insanely valuable player even without stealing a base.
May your pennantly fly forever.
-Prentiss
