The Cleveland Indians retired the number of former first baseman Jim Thome over the weekend.
The now 47-year-old Hall of Famer, Thome, saw his No. 25 put up in a ceremony in Cleveland.
Thome’s best overall season was his final season with Cleveland. Before he left Cleveland to play for the Philadelphia Phillies, Thome led the league in walks (122), slugging percentage (.677), OPS (1.122), and OPS+ (197) in 2002, according to Baseball Reference. He slashed .304/.445/.677 (189 wRC+) with a 7.3 fWAR, according to Fangraphs.
Thome was originally drafted by the Tribe in the 13th round of the 1989 draft. He played for Cleveland for 13 seasons. Thome then signed with Philadelphia after a monster campaign in 2002.
The Phillies traded Thome to the Chicago White Sox for a package which included Aaron Rowand and Gio Gonzalez. Thome played a couple of nice seasons in Chicago before splitting time between the White Sox and LA Dodgers in 2009.
He went year-to-year after 2009. Thome played with the Minnesota Twins on separate one-year deals before making return trips to Cleveland and Philly, in that order. The Phillies shipped him to Baltimore to finish the 2012 season, where he played 28 games with the Orioles.
Thome finished his career with 612 home runs, 1699 RBI, and a .956 career OPS. Surprisingly, he never finished higher than fourth in MVP voting, and he only made five all-star teams. However, Thome obviously had the numbers to earn more honors. He is clearly a deserving inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Featured Image via Flickr/Erik Drost
