By admin 
We’re evaluating the Hall of Fame candidacies of at least one player per team this week (some a little more unlikely than others) in advance of the inductions of Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent scheduled for Sunday. We tackled (wrong sport!) the American League East on July 22 and the AL Central on July 24. Now: the AL West.
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Athletics: Nick Kurtz
No matter where they play, the Athletics always find cornerstone players. Kurtz has a chance to become much more than that as he leads the Athletics into Las Vegas (which we’ll believe when we see it and maybe not even then). He’s 10 homers shy of becoming just the 22nd player ever with multiple 30-homer seasons at age 23 or younger. Amongst the first 21 are Hall of Famers Frank Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Andruw Jones, Joe DiMaggio and Mel Ott along with the Cooperstown-bound Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera as well as the PED-tainted Alex Rodriguez. There’s a long way to go for Kurtz, but that’s pretty good company.
Houston Astros: Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez
All caveats apply about how voters might treat Altuve, who was a far more prominent member of the trash can-banging 2017 Astros than Carlos Beltran. But Altuve, who is signed through 2029, will likely be nearly 20 years removed from that tainted title by the time he reaches the ballot.
Father Time having his way with Altuve – who was TRIPLED up earlier this week and is on pace for his worst big league season – makes it less likely he’ll retire with 3,000 hits and a .300 average (he’s at 2,462 hits and a .301 average right now). Still, even if he falls short of those milestones, he’s likely to end his career as the most prolific second baseman of his era – and someone who retires after Chase Utley, the model for the peak-era superstar at an underrepresented position, has rolled into the Hall of Fame.
The more fascinating case in Houston belongs to Alvarez, whose Triple Crown pursuit (he leads the AL with a .327 average, 34 homers and 77 RBIs) underlines just how terrifyingly awesome he is.
Alvarez, 29, has 204 career homers. Twenty-six of the 55 non-Hall of Famers who had at least 204 homers through their age-29 season are either still active, not yet eligible for the Hall or tainted by PED usage. If Alvarez can get to 220 homers this season – which would mean he hit 50 blasts this year – that ratio becomes 24 out of 42.
An even better indicator of Alvarez’s excellence: Amongst hitters with at least 3,000 plate appearances, Alvarez’s .978 OPS ranks 14th all-time and fifth in the expansion era behind the PED-tainted Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and Mark McGwire as well as fellow active slugger Aaron Judge.
As a designated hitter, Alvarez needs another 3,000 plate appearances like his first 3,000. He pulls that off and he’s following the David Ortiz path to Cooperstown.
Los Angeles Angels: Mike Trout
There’s a really good chance Trout never plays another postseason game for the forever adrift Angels. But becoming perhaps the first position player to earn unanimous election into the Hall of Fame is a pretty good consolation prize.
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Trout leads all active players with 90.1 WAR, ranks amongst the top five in homers, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (obviously) and runs scored while placing amongst the top 10 in stolen bases and RBIs. He was already entrenched within the inner circle even before bouncing back this season – when his .844 OPS is 126 points lower than his career mark and STILL good for a 140 OPS+, meaning he’s 40 percent better than the league average. Not bad. (Unlike the Angels)
Seattle Mariners: Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh
At just 25 years old, Rodriguez already ranks ninth all-time in WAR (25.2) for a franchise whose top six players all-time include four Hall of Famers (Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Ichiro Suzuki and Randy Johnson), one guy who appears on his way (Felix Hernandez) and one guy who would have been in years ago if not for those pesky PEDs (Alex Rodriguez). For the record, the seventh- and eighth-place players are Kyle Seager and Jamie Moyer, which is just a fantastically weird combo.
Rodriguez has yet to top the .853 OPS he posted as a rookie, but he’s produced two 30/30 seasons and placed within the top six in the MVP balloting twice while playing plus defense. That his most similar players through age-24, per Baseball-Reference, include Tony Conigliaro, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Grady Sizemore are a reminder of all that can go wrong – and just how high Rodriguez’s ceiling is if he remains healthy.
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Raleigh barged into the Hall of Fame conversation last season by hitting 60 homers – shattering Salvador Perez’s previous single-season record for a catcher by a whopping 12 dingers – and finishing second in the AL MVP balloting behind Judge. But Raleigh has just 10 homers this season, when his .572 OPS ranks next-to-last amongst the 164 players with at least 300 plate appearances. And his .165 batting average is last, a mind-boggling 28 points lower than Jarren Duran.
This year has been so rough, it’s dropped Raleigh’s career OPS by 25 points (from .798 to .773) and his career average by seven points (from .226 to .219). It’s way too early to give up on the 29-year-old Raleigh, but also not too early to wonder if making 499 starts at catcher while hitting 151 homers the previous four seasons is already catching up to him.
Texas Rangers: Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager
I’ve written plenty about deGrom’s fascinating Hall of Fame case as the most dominant pitcher of his era, but even as the active leader in ERA and WHIP and the all-time leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio, he still needs a little more volume. And it’s not happening this year, when the 38-year-old is on pace to finish with his highest ERA of his career. DeGrom’s peripherals are still strong – he’s averaging 10.9 whiffs per nine, right in line with his career norms, and his WHIP is a sterling 1.05 – so it’s not impossible to believe he can still author another Cy Young-caliber season. You know, as long as there’s baseball after this season.
Seager feels like the hitter parallel universe version of deGrom. The shortstop has generated 44.1 WAR, placing him within the top-40 all-time at the position, and is just 32 years old with five years left on his contract. But he’s mixed in five 5.0 WAR seasons with five non-pandemic seasons in which he’s collected 3.8 WAR or less. He’s in the midst of his worst season (a .667 OPS with a .182 batting average) and has been shelved twice with back injuries. Seager has never been known as a quick healer, so while he could resume a Cooperstown surge, it’s possible he’s peaked and the back half of his contract will be an albatross for the Rangers.
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This story was originally published July 26, 2026 at 5:35 AM.