Cleveland Indians: Who deserves to have their number retired next?

Kenny Lofton, No. 7

Next up is another guy I feel should already have his number retired, and that’s former center fielder Kenny Lofton.

Lofton is the franchise leader in stolen bases with 452, and no one else is within 150 of him. Like Thome, Lofton also finds himself on multiple top ten lists in Cleveland Indians’ history, including runs (third), WAR (fourth), and hits (ninth).

In fact, Lofton’s 48.5 WAR (per baseball-reference) is higher than Earl Averill‘s 47.9 and he has his No. 3 retired by the club.

Lofton also won multiple Gold Gloves as a member of the Cleveland Indians for his outstanding center field defense. He was also one of the most well-liked players among fans ever. So why hasn’t his number already been retired?

What hurts Lofton is that he never made the MLB Hall of Fame, and in fact, was knocked off the ballot after his first year of eligibility, failing to get even five-percent of the vote.

However, many consider this one of the bigger Hall of Fame voting blunders and Lofton’s overall resume is not only worthy of being in the Hall of Fame but better than many players that have gotten in recently or players that are about to get in (like Vladimir Guerrero).

Eventually, I believe cooler heads will prevail and regardless of if Lofton gets into the Hall of Fame (I believe he will eventually), I think the Indians will retire his number.

Likelihood of number being retired: High