Baseball Remembers: Ray Lankford
In St. Louis, Ray Lankford has received his proper due. In 2018, he was elected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame, and he deserved that honor. He’s comfortably in the top 10-15 hitters in the long, storied history of that franchise.
5th in HRs (228)
8th in steals (250)
9th in runs (928)
10th in doubles (339)
10th in RBI (829)
Tied for 11th in games (1,580)
12th in plate appearances (6,290)
It was a solid, valuable career.
But few people outside of St. Louis seemed to notice. In a 14-year career, Lankford made just one All-Star team. He received MVP votes just twice. But if you look at his career, you can kind of see why.
After a brief 39-game debut in 1990 that saw him flash a lot of promise (121 OPS+, 8 steals in 10 attempts), Lankford had a strong but somewhat disappointing rookie season in 1991. He led the league in triples, and stole 44 bases, and played a perfectly fine center field, but he was also caught stealing 20 times, had just a 94 OPS+, and struck out nearly three times more than he walked. He was also overshadowed by the excellent rookie season of Jeff Bagwell, finishing a distant third in Rookie of the Year voting.
His 1992 season was much improved. He went from 1.6 WAR to 4.6, and his OPS+ jumped to 143. But he also led the league in being caught stealing and strikeouts. He received a few MVP votes, but was just 18th in the voting.
That was the last season in 6 years in which Lankford would play as many as 150 games. He missed 35 games in 1993, and his batting line slumped to .238/.366/.346, an OPS+ of just 95. Then came the strike years of 1994 and 1995, and while Lankford’s performance came close to returning to his 1992 levels, the team was playing sub-.500 baseball and Lankford’s fellow outfielders Mark Whiten and Brian Jordan were having better seasons.
The 1996 season was Lankford’s best to that point in his career. His 5.0 WAR was a career high, largely because he stayed healthy, playing 149 games, kept his strong offensive level of the prior two years, but also had an excellent defensive season, posting 1.6 defensive WAR, top-10 in the league. And yet he was still passed over for both the All-Star team and Gold Glove award, the victim of other outfielders having career years (Gary Sheffield, Lance Johnson, Ellis Burks, etc.), or were prior Gold Glove recipients (Steve Finley, Marquis Grissom, Barry Bonds) whose reputations led to further awards.
Lankford improved again 1997, posting new career highs in homers (31), RBI (98), walks (95), OPS+ (159), and WAR (5.3), all despite missing 29 games. He finally made the All-Star team for the only time in his career, and finished 16th in the MVP voting. He then matched or improved most of those figures in 1998, hitting another 31 homers and driving in a career high 105 runs. He also had 6.2 WAR, a career high for the third straight season. And yet he was passed over for any awards and received no MVP votes because of a couple of factors:
He was batting behind Mark McGwire as he bashed a record 70 home runs, stealing any attention Lankford may have warranted.
Offensive numbers were through the roof league-wide. Lankford’s 31 homers tied for just 14th in the NL, and his total of 105 RBI was good for just 19th.
At just 31 years old when the 1998 season ended, Lankford was in good position to post some impressive career numbers, but then his durability failed him. He never again topped 131 games in a season, and had to shift to left field as he lost some speed and range, and the Cardinals brought up J.D. Drew and acquired Jim Edmonds to play center field. He was traded to the Padres in 2001 when Albert Pujols’ emergence (and lack of a position) made Lankford expendable.
Injuries, particularly to his hamstrings, limited Lankford to just 121 games in the two-and-a-half seasons after the trade. In 2004, he returned to St. Louis for one final year as backup, before retiring. He finished his career with 38.2 WAR and a 123 OPS+, very strong numbers considering the limited playing time in his 30s. The ‘94-‘95 strike likely cost him 60 games worth of stats and 2-3 WAR off his career totals.
All things considered, Ray Lankford reaped the benefits of playing in a high-offense time period, but also suffered through the downside of having his accomplishments overshadowed by much gaudier numbers posted by other players. That cost him some accolades during his career, so it’s nice to see the Cardinals honor him in retirement. He had a career that was worthy of it.