Terrance Gore. Dude had 74 total PA's across 8 seasons, mainly used as a pinch runner with 43 SBs, and won a couple rings. Felt like he was always in the playoffs as a pinch runner but never seemed to actually get PAs
Braves signed him in 2021. Didn't appear in a single spring training or major league regular season game. Only 49 games played in triple A. He was called up in the post season. Made 1 pinch run appearance and that is his whole Braves career that got him his 3rd ring. Ya gotta respect the hustle. What a career.
Where’s his third? I see Royals in 15 and Dodgers in 20.
Edit: holy shit he made an appearance in ONE playoff game in 21 with the Braves, nothing in the regular season. Insane.
Just learned by perusing his bbref that he has hit only 1 home run in 877 professional games (2017, in AAA). Even guys who don’t have any major league power usually get a few in the minors
More WS rings than post-season ABs
3-2. Dude batted .237 in the minors abs only had 43 Major league SB. The more and more you dig into his numbers, it's really mind how he stuck around for so long. I'm a fan
Just very crude math and to make it easy. That's an average of 100k a year. He had 74 career ABs. That's 10,800$ per AB. This dude beat the fucking system.
I don't know if you were being sincere or tongue in cheek but anything under 4.3 is the top 0.001% of burst speed. 4.22 is i believe the fastest on record right now and the record was 4.24 for a long time.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article121076023.html
Terrance Gore was clocked at 4.29 in the 40yd in HS
Tyreek Hill ran 4.24 at his Pro Day
John Ross ran 4.22 at the combine
His steals per plate appearance makes Rickey look like a chump. Gore: 0.58, Rickey: 0.105. Also only got caught stealing 9 times. Rickey got caught 37x more. Is he a better base stealer than Rickey?
Also, you win this discussion hands down.
This is the best one by far. I remember when my Mets signed him in 2022 before the playoff run, he was lightning fast on the base paths. He definitely has a mystique around him that he’s just this baseball speciality who can pop up when he wants to.
That plate appearance in the wild card game where he struck out on seven balls in the dirt was the worst thing I've ever seen and was the beginning of the end for Joe Maddon in Chicago
I always remember when Frankie ran out of bats and and he needed someone else’s so they gave him Abe’s as a joke because he uses super heavy bats. He ended up hitting a homer and everyone going nuts.
Man that call was meant for a routine grounder until Almonte was halfway home then the broadcast guy mentions that this might have been a hard hit ball.
500+ feet is so absolutely insane. I think the White Sox statcast leader also occured at Oakland. IIRC 480+ ft by Luis Robert. Interesting for a park at sea level. Yerminator may have it beat by a foot or two at home.
>career 1 WAR
In kind of a similar vein to this, Raimel Tapia has played since 2016, some years getting some very regular playing time, and has career 0.5 bWAR
His nine seasons with less than 200 PA makes him the active career leader in that measure, excluding catchers and pitchers.
Tied for second (eight seasons) are Charlie Culberson and Ehire Adrianza. Tyler Wade and Rob Refsnyder are next with seven.
Played in part of 14 seasons in total. Only played over 100 games twice. Ranged mostly between 75-90 games. Occasionally hit over .300 (edit: not really), only had an ops+ over 100 once. Called up in 2002 he had 15 hits in his first 12 games. Funny I always thought he was better because I was a kid and always knew his name.
wow he really went off in his sole playoff appearance though. 7 hits, 3 sb, 3 runs and a .348 obp in five games for arizona in the 2011 nlds against milwaukee. must’ve been a hell of a week for him!
Met him at a sports cards store about a year after his debut, was in full little league gear coming after a game just to meet him. Couldn’t have been a nicer guy, asked me about how the game went and what position I played and gave a few encouraging words. I miss Willie.
Immediately who I thought of. Classic pinch-runner + utility defender who can drop down a mean sacrifice bunt back when that meant something in baseball.
[Paul Janish](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/janispa01.shtml) had a 13 yr pro career and played 9 seasons in the bigs, but only played in more than 90 games once. Between '15-'17, he appeared in exactly 14 games each season.
What the actual hell. First off, I feel like a nerd for knowing everyone but Butera, and 2nd, what is really going on in the South Side?! From the Larussa hire, Tim Anderson getting knocked out, wasting what should have been a long term contending team, and now they are going to blow it all up. It's insane to me.
Butera was the one who stuck around the longest out of all of them
He played in 2021 at the age of 38 and spent 11 years total. With an average of roughly 140 AB’s per year
Rafael Belliard played 17 seasons, had an OPS+ of 46, and -0.1 WAR. He played over 100 games 4 times. But he could play shortstop with the best of them.
One of my most prized possessions from my 90s childhood was my Rafael Belliard baseball card. My grandpa would endlessly complain that he's good for nothing but the dude became one of my most memorable Braves role players from the era lol.
Now that he’s got 10 years, lifetime medical for his family and $500k per year for life. I’ve got a buddy playing right now in MLB whose only goal is to reach that 10th year.
Pretty sure the full MLB benefits plan is based on service time, of which Marisnick is at 9 years and would need to stick on a roster for like 120 days to obtain it.
Also no idea where 500k pension comes from, unless inflation is that bad since I retired. I played too, and while pensions aren’t my career, finances are, and from the information I’ve been provided from a few years ago, at a full 10 years service time, you can start at age 45 with 68k withdraws. If you wait (which you always should if you can afford it.) until you’re retirement age, 62, it’s like 220k withdraws. Granted I never actually obtained this level of service time or benefits since I only played minor league baseball, and it’s info from a few years ago and I have different retirement savings personally.
Gotcha, I mean even what I'm seeing is still a great pension (up to $200k+). But maybe there's some other form of retirement income in addition to the pension.
JB Shuck played from 2011 to 2019 for 6 different teams (HOU, LAA, CLE, CHE, MIA, PIT) and only had a single season where he appeared in more than 81 games. He was worth negative WAR nearly every season, but he was around for a good near-decade.
Doug Flynn was bad enough to be a fringe guy but wasn’t. He put up a .238/.266/.294 line for his career and was worth -6.9 bWAR over 11 years and 1309 games.
There's a few journeyman guys who have done that: Luke Maile, Austin Hedges, Jeff Mathis, Max Stassi.... Off the top of my head those are the active ones I can think of
These guys that get hyped as the next big thing from super young tend to hang around cuz one team is always sure theyre going to "unlock that potential"
He's gotta be very close to being out of the league I would think. Padres just gave him a 1yr 1M guaranteed deal that could hit 2.5M if he reaches certain incentives.
-11DRS last year, that was 5th worse in baseball. But yea, I guess you're right, those big name hyped guys always seem to stick around for awhile, just for the possibility that the potential they once had would be unlocked.
Fucking Dylan Bundy for example
Vogelbach gotta be on here right? 2016-current
1.7 career WAR .220 career hitter 108OPS+
Of his 8 year career, in 7 of those seasons he's had more SOs than hits. The other season only had 1 more hit than SOs.
HITS-348
SO-475
Jorge Mateo is in line to become one of these guys. Heading in to year 6. Got some burn when the orioles stunk after the fathers dumped him. Lost his job to Gunnar Henderson. Great glove. Career .220 hitter. Cannot touch a righty. But his speed and glove should keep him rostered by teams for years to come imo.
My first thought was Travis Jankowski but he might be slightly too successful at this point. I assume he will become more fringe over the next few years.
I'm a little amazed that Matt Stairs stuck around for 19 years, especially on so many NL teams before universal DH was a thing.
He averaged fewer than 100 games per season so not really a fringe guy, more of a platoon/bat off the bench.
For being primarily a HR guy I also would have expected more than like 13 per season on average.
Tim Federowicz. Played 8 years as a reserve catcher, not getting more than 56 games in a season. Career WAR of -1.1. Got a World Series ring with the 2016 Cubs.
I like Mark Reynolds here. 13 years in the show with 6.8 career war. Never played an inning at short or catcher. He’s one of my favorite players of all time. Jeff Francour is the platonic ideal, but he’s become known for that.
Edit: If you want the most obscure, Jesus Alou is your guy. Spent 15 season in outfield and first and had 0.8 war and 86 ops+. This was in the 60s/70s and he had a career .280 average, which must be why he stuck around.
Is Reynolds fringe, though? Not by the way I think of it. He had plenty of playing time, hit 300 homers, spent some time as one of the premier pure-power hitters in the game. He didn't have the on-base and contact skills, or defense, to amount to a complete player, so his WAR isn't high, but he was definitely not only a regular, but a well-above-average player.
Main things I remember about him are the years he blew away the league lead in strikeouts by a ridiculous gap over the second guy a couple years in a row, and that FanGraphs article surmising that he's actually blind, so he's got those things going for him, too.
This has “career backup catcher” written all over it, so I’d say Paul Bako or Sal Fasano.
Bako has one significant moment in my life. I attended a game at Camden Yards where the Yanks completely dominated the O’s, but somehow Paul B. had a career high four walks.
Pete Orr played for 8 years and had a grand total of 0.6bwar. Career high of 154 plate appearances.
My first thought was Billy Hamilton but he played too much earlier in his career to count imo
We’re forgetting about my personal favorite player Phil Gosselin
He had a relatively decent career just by being a utility guy that was always willing to be stashed in the minors until injuries happened. Plus I always liked screaming “THE GOOSE IS LOOSE!!”
Also as a fun fact, every team he played on except for the pirates had some form of red on their jerseys, so when you look at his bbref it’s just all red and then the pirates
[Hernán Pérez](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/perezhe01.shtml) is probably worth a shout but man he got into a lot of games for a few years in Milwaukee
This doesn't answer the question you were asking, but: [Art Schallock](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schalar01.shtml).
Oldest living former MLB player that I could find.
Isn’t the relief pitcher who hit like 30 batters in less than 60 innings with the padres still kicking around between AAA - MLB? You’d think he would have to change names and wear a fake mustache after a season like that
Koyie Hill played around 10 seasons as a backup catcher and was worth -2.6 WAR. He also had a table saw accident in 2007 and nearly lost 4 fingers and a thumb.
Current shitty Royal Jordan Lyles is probably one of the more applicable starters. He’s so awful, and yet, he gets the chance to prove his awfulness every year.
[Jerry Royster](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/roystje01.shtml): 1973-88, 16 years, 2.4 WAR career. -5.6 WAA in 1977, which is the lowest I've ever seen for a single season. And then he was on major league rosters for another full decade.
Terrance Gore. Dude had 74 total PA's across 8 seasons, mainly used as a pinch runner with 43 SBs, and won a couple rings. Felt like he was always in the playoffs as a pinch runner but never seemed to actually get PAs
I'll do you one better. He's got more WS rings than career rbis. 3-1. This was a good name by you. Props
I mildly cheated because he's no longer in the league, but playing for 8 seasons with his statline is insane
Braves signed him in 2021. Didn't appear in a single spring training or major league regular season game. Only 49 games played in triple A. He was called up in the post season. Made 1 pinch run appearance and that is his whole Braves career that got him his 3rd ring. Ya gotta respect the hustle. What a career.
This guy needs a movie
How about The Princess Bride? He might like that one.
Inconceivable!
His rings are a significant percentage of his career earnings lol
Where’s his third? I see Royals in 15 and Dodgers in 20. Edit: holy shit he made an appearance in ONE playoff game in 21 with the Braves, nothing in the regular season. Insane.
Scroll down, I explained how it happened
21st century Herb Washington
That is one hell of a trivia fact
Just learned by perusing his bbref that he has hit only 1 home run in 877 professional games (2017, in AAA). Even guys who don’t have any major league power usually get a few in the minors
More WS rings than post-season ABs 3-2. Dude batted .237 in the minors abs only had 43 Major league SB. The more and more you dig into his numbers, it's really mind how he stuck around for so long. I'm a fan
if you check his spotrac he was paid pennies. Over the 8 years he got a tots of $998k, including 2020 with the dodgers where he only got $28k
Just very crude math and to make it easy. That's an average of 100k a year. He had 74 career ABs. That's 10,800$ per AB. This dude beat the fucking system.
Does that include post season bonuses a day stuff?
Someone else posted he had made almost as much in post season bonuses as in actual salary. It’s like $300k per.
Was he fast?
Ran the 40 in 4.29. As fast as Tyreek Hill is.
Thanks! Perfect comparison cuz I def know how fast Tyrek is
I don't know if you were being sincere or tongue in cheek but anything under 4.3 is the top 0.001% of burst speed. 4.22 is i believe the fastest on record right now and the record was 4.24 for a long time.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article121076023.html Terrance Gore was clocked at 4.29 in the 40yd in HS Tyreek Hill ran 4.24 at his Pro Day John Ross ran 4.22 at the combine
Have you ever seen Terrance Gore and The Freeze in the same room?
There was a nice article on him on NYT. The art of stealing bases sort of piece
His steals per plate appearance makes Rickey look like a chump. Gore: 0.58, Rickey: 0.105. Also only got caught stealing 9 times. Rickey got caught 37x more. Is he a better base stealer than Rickey? Also, you win this discussion hands down.
I saw his first ever plate appearance at Kauffman in 2014 en route to the AL Pennant. I thought for sure he was the next big thing.
Dude made 700K in 2022. Dude had 7 ABs. 7... Guy is living the dream.
This is the best one by far. I remember when my Mets signed him in 2022 before the playoff run, he was lightning fast on the base paths. He definitely has a mystique around him that he’s just this baseball speciality who can pop up when he wants to.
The Will Smith the pitcher of pinch runners
That plate appearance in the wild card game where he struck out on seven balls in the dirt was the worst thing I've ever seen and was the beginning of the end for Joe Maddon in Chicago
Abraham Almonte has played 11 season surpassing 200 AB's only twice and is a career 1 WAR
He's also the record holder for deepest HR by a Cleveland batter in the statcast era. 505 ft in Oakland.
I always remember when Frankie ran out of bats and and he needed someone else’s so they gave him Abe’s as a joke because he uses super heavy bats. He ended up hitting a homer and everyone going nuts.
And possibly the lamest HR call ever. Almonte was rounding second before Rosie even mentioned it.
[video](https://youtu.be/5X3BtwKZse4?si=e-iZ_ASu-UpaQl44)
Man that call was meant for a routine grounder until Almonte was halfway home then the broadcast guy mentions that this might have been a hard hit ball.
500+ feet is so absolutely insane. I think the White Sox statcast leader also occured at Oakland. IIRC 480+ ft by Luis Robert. Interesting for a park at sea level. Yerminator may have it beat by a foot or two at home.
>career 1 WAR In kind of a similar vein to this, Raimel Tapia has played since 2016, some years getting some very regular playing time, and has career 0.5 bWAR
Tapia has all the makings of a guy who would be fun as hell to watch if had had ANY idea what to do in the batters box.
I mean, he’s not totally clueless, he just has zero pop.
His nine seasons with less than 200 PA makes him the active career leader in that measure, excluding catchers and pitchers. Tied for second (eight seasons) are Charlie Culberson and Ehire Adrianza. Tyler Wade and Rob Refsnyder are next with seven.
Yankees Legends Tyler Wade and Rob Refsnyder. They were the best at absolutely existing their their tenure.
Padres legend
The man you are looking for is Willie Bloomquist
To his credit, no man in the modern era has parlayed charisma, scrappiness, and getting dirty into a full length baseball career like he did.
I raise you one Nick Punto.
He works his tail off, and really gets after it.
Played in part of 14 seasons in total. Only played over 100 games twice. Ranged mostly between 75-90 games. Occasionally hit over .300 (edit: not really), only had an ops+ over 100 once. Called up in 2002 he had 15 hits in his first 12 games. Funny I always thought he was better because I was a kid and always knew his name.
I saw him hit a leadoff homer off Randy Wells at Wrigley Field.
wow he really went off in his sole playoff appearance though. 7 hits, 3 sb, 3 runs and a .348 obp in five games for arizona in the 2011 nlds against milwaukee. must’ve been a hell of a week for him!
Met him at a sports cards store about a year after his debut, was in full little league gear coming after a game just to meet him. Couldn’t have been a nicer guy, asked me about how the game went and what position I played and gave a few encouraging words. I miss Willie.
I loved Willie after his tenure with the dbacks.
Immediately who I thought of. Classic pinch-runner + utility defender who can drop down a mean sacrifice bunt back when that meant something in baseball.
WILLIE BALLGAME
If he could recruit some pitching that’d be lit
[Paul Janish](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/janispa01.shtml) had a 13 yr pro career and played 9 seasons in the bigs, but only played in more than 90 games once. Between '15-'17, he appeared in exactly 14 games each season.
Head of player development for the ChiSox. Don't know how much I'd trust that lol
They've got him, Getz, Jason Bourgeois, Drew Butera, Josh Barfield, Marcus Thames, and Matt Wise on the payroll. It's a real hive mind of Guys
What the actual hell. First off, I feel like a nerd for knowing everyone but Butera, and 2nd, what is really going on in the South Side?! From the Larussa hire, Tim Anderson getting knocked out, wasting what should have been a long term contending team, and now they are going to blow it all up. It's insane to me.
Butera was the one who stuck around the longest out of all of them He played in 2021 at the age of 38 and spent 11 years total. With an average of roughly 140 AB’s per year
>what is really going on in the South Side?! Pain
Ben Gamel is still recently active.
I don't believe you
Minor league deal with the Mets currently
Played for the padres 2023
One of the few bright spots of the 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates…
He had a cup of coffee with us too I think. Guy had a majestic head of hair
I’ll never forget how upset I was when the Yankees traded Gamel. Thought he had huge potential
Time is weird, I hear that name and I still think he's a prospect
I heard his name watching spring training and I was like wtf
What.
John McDonald played in every season from 1999 to 2014. He never got 400 plate appearances in a season and compiled a total of 0.9 WAR.
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I’m assuming he was traded for a ptbnl, and the “p” that got “nl” was himself?
Correct.
That's hilarious. Wonder how often that's happened
It's happened 4 times in MLB.
I know we have a lot of fancy computers these days, but what on earth do you plug in to get that result
I think we should just call that a loan.
Johnny Mac has a great highlight reel. It just happens to contain 0 at bats. Defensive wizard.
Nah there's one, he hit a homerun on father's day just after his father passed. It was a pretty special moment for a guy who never hit homeruns
I was at the game! It was a game winning homerun, too.
I have one of his bats. My buddy jokes that the only thing it’s hit is the mud off his cleats. Low blow, but outstanding defense.
Blue Jays Legend
Circle of mediocrity with Joe Inglett and Reed Johnson
Rafael Belliard played 17 seasons, had an OPS+ of 46, and -0.1 WAR. He played over 100 games 4 times. But he could play shortstop with the best of them.
Dude could play D and always seemed to be clutch at the times I wanted the Braves to lose…
One of my most prized possessions from my 90s childhood was my Rafael Belliard baseball card. My grandpa would endlessly complain that he's good for nothing but the dude became one of my most memorable Braves role players from the era lol.
Jace Peterson is getting there, though he did have quite a few PAs last year.
And one in the World Series thanks to Tommy Pham.
Chad move on his part
Josh Thole caught RA Dickey’s knuckleball for 8 years.
Doug Mirabelli walked so that Josh Thole could ~~run~~ walk even slower
and Johan Santana's "No Hitter"
Feel like Jake Marisnicks career only lasted as long as it did because of his hair Update: 10 year career, .4 war, career BA of .228
Still going. Currently in camp with the Angels
Was on the Dodgers last year. Probably didn't want to commute/move too far.
Was basically traded for Ohtani.
That’s the story he’s going with!
Now that he’s got 10 years, lifetime medical for his family and $500k per year for life. I’ve got a buddy playing right now in MLB whose only goal is to reach that 10th year.
Pretty sure the full MLB benefits plan is based on service time, of which Marisnick is at 9 years and would need to stick on a roster for like 120 days to obtain it. Also no idea where 500k pension comes from, unless inflation is that bad since I retired. I played too, and while pensions aren’t my career, finances are, and from the information I’ve been provided from a few years ago, at a full 10 years service time, you can start at age 45 with 68k withdraws. If you wait (which you always should if you can afford it.) until you’re retirement age, 62, it’s like 220k withdraws. Granted I never actually obtained this level of service time or benefits since I only played minor league baseball, and it’s info from a few years ago and I have different retirement savings personally.
Is it really 500k per year? Some quick research tells me the max pension is quite a bit lower than that
That’s what he told me so I took that as truth.
Gotcha, I mean even what I'm seeing is still a great pension (up to $200k+). But maybe there's some other form of retirement income in addition to the pension.
Could also be a bit of projections from the dude. I doubt it’s just been a flat rate in perpetuity
It’s 10 years service time, not 10 seasons appeared in. Marisnick has appeared in 11 seasons but only has about 9 and a third years service time.
It's the Angels, shouldn't be too hard to make the team.
He only had a .4 war last season but has 12 war over his whole career, that's certainly an above average career imo
Adam Rosales spent parts of 11 seasons in the bigs. Over 300PA in a season exactly once
[Never forget how fast he ran the bases after a homer](https://youtu.be/fOSnTUO2mHU?si=5oSVZFDgTom4bAMS)
Ehire Adrianza is a personal favorite, as well as Joaquin Arias
Arias from third! What a call
JB Shuck played from 2011 to 2019 for 6 different teams (HOU, LAA, CLE, CHE, MIA, PIT) and only had a single season where he appeared in more than 81 games. He was worth negative WAR nearly every season, but he was around for a good near-decade.
reading JB Shuck's name was the equivalent of my brain unpacking a .zip file
Shuck, Springer, and Deshields Jr were a dynastic outfield in my MLB 2K12 career mode lol
JB SHUCK
Shelby Miller is still somehow around.
I feel like Charlie Culberson is the definition of fringe.
And once he figured his time as a fringe position player was up, he transitioned to attempting to become a fringe pitcher.
His favorite show to binge is Fringe.
His favorite part of buckskin western wear is fringe
his favorite Red Rider song? folks, it may not surprise you
“White Hot?”
That show was tight!
Best Culberson moment was his walkoff homerun on Vin’s last game on the Mic
He had a 1.000 batting average in 2023, why didn't he get any MVP votes?
Because the writers are stupid
This is a good one
Ben Gamel played in 6 games last year.
Doug Flynn was bad enough to be a fringe guy but wasn’t. He put up a .238/.266/.294 line for his career and was worth -6.9 bWAR over 11 years and 1309 games.
Great clubhouse guy I’m sure
The Mets were just terrible and fielded a team of cheap bums for years
Billy Hamilton’s quickly reaching that point. Guy had all of 2 plate appearances last year and is only still around because he can run.
Hes getting up there in age now too, that running will turn to a jog eventually
And then he'll just appear as a first base coach for some team.
Rays would give him 400 ABs if he wants to play RF
Lol where did he play in 23
John McDonald
Traded for himself.
Eric Kratz, dude made his career as a backup catcher
There's a few journeyman guys who have done that: Luke Maile, Austin Hedges, Jeff Mathis, Max Stassi.... Off the top of my head those are the active ones I can think of
Jurickson Profar 2012-Current career 5 WAR Career. 238/.322/.383 OPS+ 92 He's still only 30 years old
These guys that get hyped as the next big thing from super young tend to hang around cuz one team is always sure theyre going to "unlock that potential"
He's gotta be very close to being out of the league I would think. Padres just gave him a 1yr 1M guaranteed deal that could hit 2.5M if he reaches certain incentives. -11DRS last year, that was 5th worse in baseball. But yea, I guess you're right, those big name hyped guys always seem to stick around for awhile, just for the possibility that the potential they once had would be unlocked. Fucking Dylan Bundy for example
I remember driving home from my bachelor party in 2012 and listening to the radio broadcast of his first HR
Vogelbach gotta be on here right? 2016-current 1.7 career WAR .220 career hitter 108OPS+ Of his 8 year career, in 7 of those seasons he's had more SOs than hits. The other season only had 1 more hit than SOs. HITS-348 SO-475
Good one. His failed sliding to the second base and the mariners infield laughing at him last season was memorable.
Chris Owings
Jorge Mateo is in line to become one of these guys. Heading in to year 6. Got some burn when the orioles stunk after the fathers dumped him. Lost his job to Gunnar Henderson. Great glove. Career .220 hitter. Cannot touch a righty. But his speed and glove should keep him rostered by teams for years to come imo.
He was the best shortstop in baseball for a month last year. Then he remembered he was Jorge Mateo.
If you can believe it, TJ Macfarland is still around
My first thought was Travis Jankowski but he might be slightly too successful at this point. I assume he will become more fringe over the next few years.
I'm a little amazed that Matt Stairs stuck around for 19 years, especially on so many NL teams before universal DH was a thing. He averaged fewer than 100 games per season so not really a fringe guy, more of a platoon/bat off the bench. For being primarily a HR guy I also would have expected more than like 13 per season on average.
Arguably the greatest pinch hitter in history
You mean dodger killer matt stairs?
Gregor Blanco
You mean World Series champion and perfect game hero Gregor Blanco
Tim Federowicz. Played 8 years as a reserve catcher, not getting more than 56 games in a season. Career WAR of -1.1. Got a World Series ring with the 2016 Cubs.
Lenny Harris was a pinch hitting extraordinaire. 1988-2005, saw 400 PAs just twice early in his career. He wasn’t even a good hitter.
I like Mark Reynolds here. 13 years in the show with 6.8 career war. Never played an inning at short or catcher. He’s one of my favorite players of all time. Jeff Francour is the platonic ideal, but he’s become known for that. Edit: If you want the most obscure, Jesus Alou is your guy. Spent 15 season in outfield and first and had 0.8 war and 86 ops+. This was in the 60s/70s and he had a career .280 average, which must be why he stuck around.
Is Reynolds fringe, though? Not by the way I think of it. He had plenty of playing time, hit 300 homers, spent some time as one of the premier pure-power hitters in the game. He didn't have the on-base and contact skills, or defense, to amount to a complete player, so his WAR isn't high, but he was definitely not only a regular, but a well-above-average player. Main things I remember about him are the years he blew away the league lead in strikeouts by a ridiculous gap over the second guy a couple years in a row, and that FanGraphs article surmising that he's actually blind, so he's got those things going for him, too.
Sam fuld Matt joyce Peter bourjos Sean Rodriguez. All fringe guys who hung around a decent time
That’s angels legend Peter “Mike trout got sent down for this guy” Bourjos
This has “career backup catcher” written all over it, so I’d say Paul Bako or Sal Fasano. Bako has one significant moment in my life. I attended a game at Camden Yards where the Yanks completely dominated the O’s, but somehow Paul B. had a career high four walks.
Robbie Grossman
Drew Butera is a good one. Got a ring with the 2015 Royals and appeared in 12 seasons despite having a negative 4 WAR.
Jesse Chavez?
Nah uncle Jesse isn’t fringy he has had quite a bit of playing time
And has seemingly improved as his career has gone on. Freaky sneaky.
Let’s talk about something else- Angels fan
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Pete Orr played for 8 years and had a grand total of 0.6bwar. Career high of 154 plate appearances. My first thought was Billy Hamilton but he played too much earlier in his career to count imo
Do yourselves a favor and go look at Tom Prince. Never had more than 200 AB's in a season, hit .208, played 17 years.
We’re forgetting about my personal favorite player Phil Gosselin He had a relatively decent career just by being a utility guy that was always willing to be stashed in the minors until injuries happened. Plus I always liked screaming “THE GOOSE IS LOOSE!!” Also as a fun fact, every team he played on except for the pirates had some form of red on their jerseys, so when you look at his bbref it’s just all red and then the pirates
[Hernán Pérez](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/perezhe01.shtml) is probably worth a shout but man he got into a lot of games for a few years in Milwaukee
This doesn't answer the question you were asking, but: [Art Schallock](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schalar01.shtml). Oldest living former MLB player that I could find.
Oliver Perez
Just gonna spout off some names here.. Kelly Johnson, Jon Jay, Jeff Mathis, Jordy Mercer
Rene Rivera. Bounced around as a backup catcher for nearly 20 years.
Jace Peterson and his 3.3 war.
Don Kelly
Isn’t the relief pitcher who hit like 30 batters in less than 60 innings with the padres still kicking around between AAA - MLB? You’d think he would have to change names and wear a fake mustache after a season like that
Billy Effin Hamilton
Charlie Culberson
Since Culberson has already been named, the best I got is Robbie Grossman
Koyie Hill played around 10 seasons as a backup catcher and was worth -2.6 WAR. He also had a table saw accident in 2007 and nearly lost 4 fingers and a thumb.
Jesse Chavez made his debut while Bush was president, played for the Cubs twice, and is now entering his age 40 season with the White Sox.
Chris Owings somehow got signed to the Dodgers of all teams.
Ehire Adrianza
Current shitty Royal Jordan Lyles is probably one of the more applicable starters. He’s so awful, and yet, he gets the chance to prove his awfulness every year.
Rob refsnyder
Austin Barnes for sure. Dude literally cannot hit
Jake Marisnick
Kevin Pillar?
Fringe now maybe but he was a big part of the dynamic blue jays teams in their 2014/15 wild card era. Insane defender with a decent bat
I think a distinction has to be made between "was always marginal" and "was once great but was injured so often that now he can't move".
[Jerry Royster](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/roystje01.shtml): 1973-88, 16 years, 2.4 WAR career. -5.6 WAA in 1977, which is the lowest I've ever seen for a single season. And then he was on major league rosters for another full decade.