Don't forget how good this slugger was

From Sept. 15-Oct. 15, MLB.com is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting stories that pay tribute to some of the most significant and talented players from Latin America in the game's history. A version of this article was first published in April 2020.

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Have you forgotten how good Carlos Delgado was?

You shouldn’t. Because while Delgado received just 21 votes and fell short of the 5% threshold in his one and only shot on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2015, he almost certainly deserved a longer look. Among the slugging first baseman's many accomplishments are his 473 home runs, the most by a player born in Puerto Rico.

For a reminder of what Delgado could do, let's look back at a couple of his biggest performances, as well as his career track record.

The double trifecta

Delgado was in the midst of his fearsome slugging prime in April 2001, a month in which he finished with 10 homers and a 1.173 OPS as Toronto raced out to a 16-9 record and a tie with the Red Sox for first place in the American League East. And he could go off in bunches. On April 4, Delgado had pummeled the Devil Rays for three homers at Tropicana Field. Two days later, he swatted a couple more at Yankee Stadium against the eventual AL champions. And roughly two weeks after that, on April 20 at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, Delgado was ready to dole out more punishment.

Toronto's star got his night started with a towering, first-inning blast off Royals starter Mac Suzuki that hit the scoreboard in straightaway center field. In the seventh, he greeted reliever Tony Cogan with a pull shot down the line for No. 2. Then, in the ninth, Delgado knocked a fountain shot to right-center -- and the 200th homer of his career -- off closer Roberto Hernandez to finish off the rout. He did all of that after the Blue Jays arrived at their Kansas City hotel at 5 a.m. CT, following a 17-inning loss to the Yankees the night before.

Delgado's second hat trick of April made him just the fourth player, to that point, to notch two different three-homer games in the same month, following Doug DeCinces (Aug. 1982), Willie Stargell (April 1971) and Johnny Mize (July 1938).

"Carlos might be the best hitter in the game," said Deglado's manager at the time and current Blue Jays broadcaster, Buck Martinez. "He is as smart a hitter as I've ever been around."

Delgado finished the 2001 season with 39 homers, 31 doubles, 102 RBIs, 111 walks and a .948 OPS -- numbers that were so overshadowed in the Steroid Era environment that he didn't make the All-Star Game, win a Silver Slugger Award or garner a single vote in the AL MVP race. That would be something of a theme in Delgado's career, in fact. He was only a two-time All-Star (2000 and '03) despite 11 seasons of 30-plus homers and six with an OPS+ above 145.

The four-homer club

Two seasons after the pair of three-homer outbursts, Delgado topped himself and cemented his place in long ball history.

It was Sept. 25, 2003, and Delgado was nearing the end of one of his best seasons. At age 31 for the Blue Jays, he would slash .302/.426/.593, pop 42 homers and lead the AL with a 1.019 OPS, 161 OPS+ and 145 RBIs. For once, recognition would follow. Delgado was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger Award winner and logged his best MVP finish, placing a close second the Rangers' Alex Rodriguez.

It didn't hurt that Delgado made history on that Thursday night in Toronto, despite fighting off a cold. Facing the Devil Rays, he walloped a prodigious three-run blat in the first inning off starter Jorge Sosa, hitting the windows above the center field wall at the ballpark now known as the Rogers Centre. For good measure, it was the 300th roundtripper of his career.

But Delgado was not done. He batted three more times -- each leading off an inning -- and went deep each time. Delgado got Sosa again in the fourth. He got lefty Joe Kennedy in the sixth, tying the game after a Tampa Bay rally. And he got righty Lance Carter in the eighth, yet another game-tying shot, this one prompting him to fling his bat aside in celebration. (Toronto would go on to hit three homers in the inning, for a wild 10-8 victory, with Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella describing Delgado's performance as "a Herculean effort.")

"I was pretty fired up. I'm not going to lie to you," Delgado told reporters after the game. "As you can tell with the bat flip. I didn't know what I was doing. I was on Cloud Nine out there and enjoying it."

More than 20 years later, Delgado is still one of only 18 players (16 in the Modern Era) to homer four times in a game. He's the only one on record to do it while finishing the game with just four plate appearances.

Better than you remember

Delgado always had the potential to take over a game, but he was super consistent, too. Beginning in 1997, Delgado crushed 30 or more homers in 10 consecutive seasons, making him one of only six hitters in history (Barry Bonds, Jimmie Foxx, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa) to produce that long a stretch. (His streak was broken in 2007, when he homered "only" 24 times for the Mets. Then he came back to club 38 more the next year at age 36.) All that slugging added up to 473 career round-trippers, the most of any one-and-done Hall of Fame candidate.

Delgado also produced a .900-plus OPS in nine straight campaigns from 1998-2006. His career OPS finished at .929, the second-highest of any one-and-done candidate behind Lance Berkman (.943), who logged more than 800 fewer plate appearances and played in 156 fewer games.

In fact, Delgado’s career batting line stacks up surprisingly well against that of David Ortiz. Of course, Ortiz was far more decorated than Delgado, with a far more extensive postseason record. (However, it should be noted that when Delgado got his only postseason opportunity, for the 2006 Mets, he rose to the occasion with a 1.199 OPS, four homers and 11 RBIs over 10 games.) And unlike Big Papi, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Delgado remained in the field as a primary first baseman for his entire career.

Meanwhile, Delgado's only appearance on the BBWAA ballot could not have come at a worse time. To this point, 13 players on that 2015 ballot have become Hall of Famers -- four on that ballot, six on future BBWAA ballots and three via the Hall's Era Committees. (And that doesn't even count the controversial trio of Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling.) In other words, one could argue Delgado did not get a fair hearing.

At some point, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee might take a closer look at Delgado -- much as it did with another similar slugger, Fred McGriff, when it sent him to Cooperstown in 2023.

In the meantime, it's worth looking back and remembering how much pain the Puerto Rican slugger could inflict on unsuspecting baseballs.