By: Jay Miller
We have all heard the stories from former pros that start with, “I could’ve been great! I could’ve been a contender!” Even at your local bar, the former high school hot shot that says, “I would’ve gone pro but…” (insert random sports injury). We all know an Uncle Rico that could’ve thrown a ball over mountains and if coach would’ve just put him in back in ’82, he would have been a state champ!
However, the guys on this list, they could have actually thrown a pigskin a quarter mile and did put up the numbers at the highest professional level, but something happened. Along the way, their All-Star and maybe even Hall of Fame careers were derailed. The list includes five of the best choices for “what could have been” players in MLB history. The list excludes players who missed time due to war or Hall of Famers that still had their careers cut short (i.e. Kirby Puckett).
- Jose Fernandez – Miami Marlins
This dude took the South Florida baseball scene like wildfire! The right-handed ace went 12-6 during his rookie campaign and boasted a 2.19 ERA in 28 starts with a microscopic 0.97 WHIP. Fernandez’s performance in 2013 earned him an All-Star appearance, third place finish in Cy Young voting and a Rookie of the Year selection. He would go 10-2 over the next couple of seasons while battling injuries before returning to form in 2015. During his fourth and final season in the bigs, Fernandez logged 16 victories while striking out 253 batters in 182 innings. He earned his second All-Star selection and finished top 10 in Cy Young voting.
Tragedy struck the young ace in September of 2016 when he died in a boating accident at the incredibly young age of 24. A classic case of “what could have been” and the most recent to have played on the list.
- Jackie Jenson – Boston Red Sox
Jensen played baseball in the prime of the sport, alongside teammates like Mickey Mantle, Eddie Yost and Ted Williams. The outfielder broke into the bigs in 1950 with the New York Yankees. In May of 1952, he was traded to the Washington Senators before finishing his 11-year big league career with the Red Sox.
An 11-year career doesn’t seem like it was cut short but hear me out. By his age 32 season, Jensen had collected three All-Star selections and an MVP. In 1958, the San Francisco native led the AL with 122 RBIs to go along with 157 hits, 35 home runs and a .396 OBP. He beat out the likes of Nellie Fox, Yogi Berra, Al Kaline and of course, Ted Williams and Mantle for that MVP. Then, in ’59, he again led the AL in RBIs (112) with 28 long balls and 31 doubles, finishing top 10 in MVP voting. So, what does he do next? Jensen announces his retirement at the age of 32.
During the final couple of years of his career, MLB had made the switch from trains to planes. Jackie had developed Aerophobia, a fear of flying. Baseball had expanded to the west coast and planes were necessary to keep to the rigged schedule. Jensen’s strong fear of flying and losing his family made retirement an easy decision. He attempted a comeback in 1961 after being out of baseball for a full year and hit .261 but could not handle the travel.
- Rocco Baldelli – Tamp Bay Devil Rays
The current Minnesota Twins manager was once a budding superstar for a franchise who’s only claim to fame was seeing the careers of Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco and Wade Boggs in their twilight. Rocco Baldelli was the sixth overall draft pick by Tampa Bay in 2000 and made his Major League debut just three years later at the age of 21. The owner of the Devil Rays compared him to Joe DiMaggio.
In his first two full seasons in the big, Baldelli collected 329 hits, 27 home runs and a 152 RBIs while finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting in his first season. Mind you, he accomplished all of this before he ever turned 23. The future of the TB franchise would miss the entire 2005 slate and never play 100 games in a season for the remainder of his career.
He was out of baseball in ’05 with tommy john surgery as well as a damaged knee, but that was just the beginning of his woes. In 2007, Baldelli began to suffer from unexplainable muscle fatigue which would eventually be diagnosed as Mitochondrial Disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, the issues that were hampering Baldelli were brought on when the structures that are supposed to create energy in the cell begin to malfunction.
Rocco was in uniform and in the dugout for the team’s improbable run to the World Series in 2008 even after seeing action in just 28 regular season games. He battled through his fatigue to notch four hits, six RBIs and score four runs in the postseason.
The fall of Baldelli was just the beginning of a downturn for what could have been a Tampa Bay Devil Rays dynasty. Rocco has a former teammate a little bit further down the list.
- Tony Conigliaro – Boston Red Sox
It was an amazing time in baseball back in the early 1960’s. Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Hand Aaron were all entering the beginning of the end of their careers. Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson hadn’t arrived yet. Enter, Tony Conigliaro.
At the amazingly young age of 19, Tony C hit MLB like a ton of bricks! The young right fielder hit .290 with 24 home runs, 21 doubles and 52 RBIs in just 111 games. Want a comparison? In 2018, the Nationals brought up top prospect, Juan Soto. The 19-year-old Soto played in 116 games hitting 22 HRs, 25 doubles and 70 RBIs. Incredibly similar. We all know the path Soto is on now, so imagine Tony C in 1964. He was considered the next Mantle, Mays or Aaron.
In 1965, Boston’s phenom hit a league leading 32 home runs and totaled 120 hits. He was 20 years old by the way. He was again one of the most feared hitters in the AL in 1966 and in 1967 he was on pace for his best season yet. Through 95 games, Tony C was hitting .287 with 100 hits, 20 home runs and 67 RBI’s. Sports writer’s from all over coined him the next 500 home run hitter and well on his way to a HOF career and then… disaster.
On August 19, 1967, the Sox were hosting the Anaheim Angels in Fenway. Jack Armstrong was on the hill for the Angels and had a reputation for coming in on hitters. Conigliaro came to the plate in the fourth having gone 1 for 1 already, the Sox only hit in the ball game. Armstrong threw a fastball inside that kept running in and hit Tony C in the left eye. Immediately sending him to the ground in excruciating pain.
Team doctors rushed Conigliaro to the hospital and by the time they arrived, his eye was completely swollen shut and he had been diagnosed with a fracture cheek bone and dislocated jaw. Initially, the medical staff said the young ball player would be out for merely three weeks. Little did they know the full extent of the injury.
All seemed right with Conigliaro’s career in the short term. He missed the remainder of the ’67 season and the entire ’68 season but came back strong in 1969. That season, Tony C belted 20 home runs and put up a career high 36 home runs to go along with 116 RBIs in 1970.
The Sox noticed an issue with their young slugger and traded him to Anaheim prior to the 1971 season when he was just 25 years old. After arriving in sunny California, his vision went downhill fast. He hit just .222 with four home runs in 77 games and was out of baseball by the end of the season. At age 30, Tony attempted a comeback with the Red Sox after the advent of the designated hitter but admitted he could no longer see out of his left eye and appeared in just 21 games. His right eye was good enough to help him hit two final home runs that season.
He retired to San Francisco and was a sportscaster for a local TV station. Sadly, he passed away at the age of 45 in 1990. That same year, Joe Morgan and Jim Palmer were elected to the HOF, two players he was on par with prior to his injury.
- Josh Hamilton – Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Here is your second dose of the Devil Ray dynasty that never was. One year prior to their selection of Rocco Baldelli, the franchise selected a kid out of high school named, Josh Hamilton. A complete five-tool player, Hamilton famously said to reporters after being drafted, “Now, I am going to play in the minors for a couple years before a 15-year career and then wait another five years to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Life comes at you fast! While in minor league camp in 2001, Hamilton was heading home after an exhibition game and was hit by dump truck that had ran a red light. The accident itself was bad, but left Hamilton with an undiagnosed back injury. The sad story gets even worse when Hamilton found himself turning to hardcore drugs to simply eliminate his pain and get him back on the field. This turned into a full-blown drug addiction and in 2003, he was suspended from MLB and became a full-on addict.
The former number one overall pick was banned from baseball and as far away from the star he could have been. He was reinstated in 2006 and played 15 games in the TB minor league system. His route to the big leagues came in 2007 when he was selected in the rule 5 draft by the Chicago Cubs, but then immediately traded to the Cincinnati Reds. The rule 5 draft is a little tricky. If selected, that player must remain on the big league roster the entire season or returned to their previous team.
Hamilton’s body was not ready for a 162-game schedule, and he hit the DL multiple times. However, threw 90 games, the now 26-year-old hit .292 with 19 home runs and 17 doubles. Shockingly enough, that offseason, the Reds sent Hamilton to the Texas Rangers where he flourished on the field. He made five consecutive All-Star games, won three Silver Slugger awards and was selected as the 2010 MVP. Side note here, that was the same year Joey Votto was the NL MVP for Hamilton’s former team, the Reds. Talk about what might have been, geesh.
Hamilton put together possibly the best five-year stretch in MLB history. While with the Rangers, the left-handed slugger hit 142 home runs and drove in more than 500 RBIs. He even led the AL in batting average in 2010 (.359). Who can forget the home run derby in Yankee stadium where he absolutely put on a show that had grown men in tears.
In 2013, 14 years after he was drafted, he signed a contract with the Anaheim Angels. It was there when he began his age 32 season that we all saw what years of abuse to his body with drugs had done to him. A once “can’t miss prospect” was seeing his body breakdown at a rapid pace. Hamilton hit .250 through 151 games in his first season with the Angels and would be on and off the DL for the remainder of his career through 2015.
We need to take a moment and imagine a 2008 Tampa Bay Rays starting lineup in the World Series with Carl Crawford in LF, Josh Hamilton in CF and a healthy Rocco Baldelli in RF. Now, add in Ben Zobrist, Johnny Gomes, Carlos Pena, BJ Upton, Jason Bartlett and a young kid named Evan Longoria. What a lineup. The pitching staff consisted of Matt Garza, Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Andy Sonnanstine. Don’t forget, they brought up their top prospect at the end of the season, a lefty by the name of David Price. My goodness. The dynasty that never was!
Josh Hamilton is a little bit different than the other four individuals on the list. His career came to a complete stop before he ever saw the big leagues. Banned from baseball. All we got, as baseball fans, was a five year stretch of what that man might have done for 10 – 15 years in the league had the dump truck never ran that red light. I always tell people, “At least we got to see it at all…” Even though it was quick, it was amazing to watch.
Hamilton wrote a book about his experience, and I would suggest it to anyone who likes baseball books. However, he has found himself on the wrong side of the law recently. He pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint, a class A misdemeanor, back in February of 2022. Who knows, maybe he has one more comeback in him as a mentor in MLB.