I’ll start this column on Pete Rose by saying: Pete Rose is a Baseball Hall of Famer.
He’s the Hit King – with 4,256 of them.
He played in 1,972 MLB wins, the most of any player all-time.
Played in 3,562 games total – also the most of any player all-time.
But he wouldn’t have been a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer, had he been eligible in 1991, five years after his playing career ended, as is standard.
Even assuming he wouldn’t have signed off on a lifetime ban for betting on baseball, he would only been a first-ballot guy.
The reason: Pete Rose was a compiler.
The first example of a compiler that came to mind for me as I set out to write this piece was Don Sutton, who was a 324-game winner, but only won 20 games in a season once in his 23-year career, while also having six losing seasons, which is why it took five years for Sutton to get into the Hall, finally getting inducted in 1998.
Lou Brock is maybe the best example among everyday players. The former stolen-base king is a member of the 3,000-hit club, but had a career WAR of just 45.3, for a 162-game average at 2.8.
For reference, the average Hall of Fame outfielder had an average 162-game WAR at 4.8.
For more reference: Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has a 3.1 WAR in the 2025 season through 47 games.
But Brock was a first-ballot Hall guy, because of the 3,000 hits and the stolen bases.
Back to Pete Rose: our featured guy here was not without accolades; he was a three-time batting champ and won one MVP award, in 1973, with some actually pretty modest numbers for an MVP – yes, a .338 batting average, which led the NL, but his .401 on-base percentage was sixth in the league, and his .838 OPS was, gulp, 15th.
Rose’s best statistical season was 1969, the year of his second batting title, with a .348/.428/.512 slash line, 16 homers, 82 RBIs, a .940 OPS – his only above-.900 OPS season in his 24-year career.
Rose had 10 200-hit seasons, but because he walked infrequently – his 162-game average was 71 bases on balls – he had just five seasons of a .400-or-better OBP.
His .303 career batting average ranks 179th on the all-time list; his .375 career OBP is 228th.
Rose’s .784 on-base plus slugging is 636th, down there with guys like Gary Roenicke, Johnny Damon, JT Snow, Chuck Knoblauch.
I’m not hearing anybody clamoring for any of those guys to be in the Hall.
Rose, of course, gets extra points for being larger than life.
His headfirst slide was unforgettable; he famously plowed through AL catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star Game.
The 44-game hitting streak in 1978 is as close as anyone will ever get to Joe DiMaggio.
I’m not arguing that Pete Rose isn’t an all-time great.
I can, though, see why, with the baggage of the betting scandal, it still might take him a time or two more to get into the Hall of Fame, now that he’s eligible.
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Chris Graham
