After trailblazing career, Abreu happy to be back

on-base percentage, slugging, runs, doubles and a slew of advanced metrics. But Abreu also carries a unique mantel as a pioneer for Venezuelan players. A nation once known exclusively for its exceptional middle infielders — Omar Vizquel, Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio and Dave Concepcion — Abreu broke the mold.

He is fourth all-time in games played among Venezuelans; trailing only Miguel Cabrera in career WAR, among position players and pitchers. His 2,088 outfield starts in the bigs are the most among Venezuelans, and only four others have more than 1,000 (Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Gonzalez, Tony Armas and Gerardo Parra).

For a Phillies organization with a long history of finding Venezuelan ballplayers (five are on the 40man roster, while Freddy Galvis had a long tenure in town), that history resonates.

“Obviously there was always that sense of pride,” said second baseman Cesar Hernandez through a team translator. “Bobby is from Venezuela, he participated in the Home Run Derby and he won it (in 2005), had the Venezuela flag around him, it was very emotional to see him do that. It was definitely encouraging and motivating to see someone who’s from where I’m from accomplish something like that because that really inspires you and motivates you to try to be like him or follow his footsteps.”

“Before when you talk about Venezuelans, you talk about the shortstops, Omar Vizquel and those guys,” Abreu said. “You never talked about outfielders. When I came, you wanted to show you can be a good player to follow, too, and to show your skills and show that outfielders can do good things, too.”

Hernandez said he gravitated toward watching the infielders his country produced in abundance, and understandably so. He got to meet Abreu during a Venezuelan Winter League season in which he played on a team with Abreu’s brother. In Hernandez’s youth, the Winter League games garnered the most attention back home, and Abreu played a big part in that community, too.

“It was great any time I went to Venezuela to play winter ball because we knew we were going to see really high quality baseball and have a chance to meet him or play a game with or against him,” Hernandez said.

That career WAR of Abreu’s, in addition to being a nice even 60.0, is squarely in Hall of Fame consideration territory. It’s ahead of several in Cooperstown, including Aparicio, Mike Piazza, Vladimir Guerrero, Willie Stargell, Whitey Ford, George Sisler, Tony Perez and the unanimous Mariano Rivera (positional differences play a role).

Yet chatter about Abreu’s Hall candidacy isn’t all that robust. He’ll be on the ballot for the first time in 2020, trailing only sure-fire first-ballot candidate and former Yankees teammate Derek Jeter (72.4) among the newcomers. And while Abreu’s traditional numbers are solid (288 homers, 2,470 hits, 1,363 RBIs and 1,453 runs scored), he knows he’s shy of some of those magic numbers that Cooperstown desires.

“I do think about it,” he said. “There are some numbers there. I think everybody now has more time to see what I’ve done in baseball. … I know I don’t have 500 homers. I didn’t used to hit a lot of homers. But stolen bases, I did a lot of things, and right now everyone is starting to see what is going on.”

For now, he’s going to enjoy his trip back to Philly. He hasn’t spent much time here since his career ended as a Met (after being released as second-tenure Phillie in March of that year). He’s mostly been spending time with family and he balked when asked if he had interest in a post-playing career in baseball.

The next thing on his retirement list is this weekend’s enshrinement. Getting to be around his many former teammates on the 2009 team, celebrating its 10-year anniversary, will be special for him, even if he was only part of that in spirit, too.

“To have the opportunity to be in the Wall of Fame, it’s exciting for me,” Abreu said. “It means a lot to be a part of the history and the traditions of the team.”