Ask almost any Phillies fan, and they’ll tell you Chase Utley belongs in the Hall of Fame.
How could he not? He was the greatest player on the greatest team in franchise history. The Phillies claimed five straight NL East titles from 2007 to 2011, winning two pennants and a World Series in the process. It was easily the best five-year span in the team’s long and (mostly disappointing) history.
Utley hit .290/.386/.503 over those five seasons, producing 33.3 FanGraphs WAR, third-most in baseball and easily the highest total on the Phillies – although Roy Halladay, who joined the club for the final two seasons of that magical run, ranked just above him with 33.5 fWAR between Toronto and Philadelphia.
Among Phillies, 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels ranked a distant second with 21.0 fWAR during the glory years, while 2007 NL MVP and de facto team captain Jimmy Rollins ranked third with 19.9 fWAR of his own.
Beyond WAR, Utley led Phillies hitters (min. 162 games) in batting average, on-base percentage, and wRC+ while trailing only Ryan Howard in home runs, RBI, and OPS.
The star second baseman also represented Philadelphia at the Midsummer Classic more often than any of his teammates from that era, starting four straight All-Star games from 2007-10. Indeed, including his All-Star appearances in 2006 and 2014, he has started more All-Star Games than any Phillies player aside from Mike Schmidt.
The Phillies are one of only three NL teams to ever win five division titles in a row (the Braves and Dodgers have done it multiple times over). At least one mainstay from that era has to be a Hall of Famer, right? And if it’s going to be anyone, it has to be Utley.
Well, not so fast.
Ask almost any casual observer or baseball traditionalist, and they’ll tell you Chase Utley falls short of the Hall of Fame criteria.
Utley never won an MVP; in fact, he never finished higher than seventh in voting. The only category he ever led the majors in was hit-by-pitches. And as good as his defense supposedly was, he never won a Gold Glove.
Time and again, Utley was overshadowed by teammates with flashier skill sets and postseason performances, including Howard, Rollins, Hamels, and Halladay.
On top of that, his career and his peak were short by Hall of Fame standards. He started more than 120 games in a season just seven times and qualified for the batting title just nine. He ranks 300th all-time in plate appearances and 295th in games played.
Utley was fantastic from 2005-14, but he spent the next four years barely hanging around – and bringing down his career rate stats in the process.
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