Hall of Fame Poll: Miguel Tejada

I was going to skip Miguel Tejada, but he had a pretty decent career.

He played 16 seasons, for 6 different teams. He hit .285/.336/.456 with 307 home runs in 2171 games. That’s good for a 47.3 bWAR.

He played mostly shortstop, 1946 games there, which makes his batting numbers look better.

Miguel played in six All-Star games. He was the AL MVP, back in 2002, hitting .308/.354/.508 with 34 home runs and 150 (!) RBI. He received MVP votes in 5 other seasons.

He had a streak of five seasons with more than 100 RBI. He hit the 100 mark in one other season. He played 162 games six straight seasons, a pretty good stretch for a SS. His streak would last 1152 games, good for 5th in MLB history.

On the flip side, he served a 105-game suspension for using PEDs back in 2013 (which was the end of his career). Apparently it was amphetamines the he was caught using. He said he had a medical permission to use it, but that it had run out. And there was a small matter of pleading guilty for lying to Congress.

Jose Canseco’s book on PEDs mention Miguel and said that Jose believed Miguel used, and other players ratted him out as well. His name, among many many others was in the Mitchell report.

And he was one of many from the Dominican Republic who lied about his age.

Most similar careers: Red Schoendienst (elected by Veteran’s Committee), Eddie Yost, Edgar Renteria, Tim Wallach, Steve Garvey.