Roberto Alomar was as fun a player to watch as anyone his first six years in baseball. He seemed to be always on the go. He seemed to do everything well and with enthusiasm. WAR and Win Shares said he was a slightly below average fielder for his career, but I don’t remember seeing any weakness in the field.
In those years he led the Blue Jays to their only two World Series wins. In 1994 Roberto didn’t have as good of a season as he normally had. He came back a little in 1995. I didn’t find anything about injuries, but he wasn’t the same player those two seasons. Toronto traded him to Baltimore where he got to play with Cal Ripken at short. That was a strong double play combination, although Ripken was well past his prime.
That year Alomar had his spitting incident. It was bad at the beginning and Alomar was booed every where he played after it. However, he and the umpire he spit at made up and Alomar was forgiven. More of that needs to be done these days.
Alomar played better in Baltimore then in his last two years in Toronto. However, after three years he went as a free agent to Cleveland. There he had two great seasons and another at all star level. I don’t remember seeing him play much those seasons. He was playing as well as ever according to his statistics those years and he was still in his early 30s.
Cleveland must have been going for a salary cut as they traded Alomar for some prospects and mediocre players after the 2001 season, which was a great season for Alomar. Although none of the prospects panned out it worked for Cleveland as Alomar didn’t have a good season at all. In fact, his career went down hill and he retired after the 2004 season at the age of 34. It doesn’t seem injuries were a factor. At least not one big one.
I think through age 33 Roberto was on target to cross 1,000 points and become and inner circle hall of famer. A few more good years would have done it. However, it’s not bad to be one of the 100 greatest players of all time.
