The Baseball RIP Roster for 2024

Issue #213

Every year the baseball world loses many former major league players. 2024 was no different, as three Hall of Fame players (Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson, Orlando Cepeda), the controversial all-time hits leader (Pete Rose), and a host of other well-known players all passed away. I did searches at Stathead to review the full lists and compiled the following roster of the most well known players (age of death in parentheses):

I recently did a lengthy profile of one of the top players here, Rickey Henderson: Best, Worst, Outliers, and Oddities. He is of course widely regarded as baseball’s greatest base-stealer, leadoff hitter, and run-scorer, amongst many other accolades.

Willie Mays remains in just about everyone’s all-time Top-5 overall player lists—often still ranking #1. He was an all-star in 20 seasons, won 12 Gold Glove Awards in CF, was Rookie of the Year in 1951, and took home two MVP Awards—but perhaps deserved more as he led the NL in WAR an amazing ten times!

Pete Rose was “Charlie Hustle” as a player, collecting more hits than anyone (4,256), and leading the NL in hits 7 times while winning three batting titles. He too was NL Rookie of the Year (1963), and was an All-Star in 17 seasons. He earned Gold Glove Awards in RF in 1969 and 1970, but as noted in the depth chart above, over his career spent significant time at four other positions as well: 1B, 2B, 3B, and LF.

Orlando Cepeda (1958-1974) was also NL Rookie of the Year, in 1958 in his case. He was a teammate of Willie Mays in San Francisco and was an All-Star in six consecutive seasons before being traded to the Cardinals in May of 1966. The next year he was again an All-Star and ended up winning the NL MVP as well. Overall he had eight seasons with 25+ HR and five with 100+ RBI, hitting 379 career HR with a .297/.350/.499 slash line and 133 OPS+.

Rocky Colavito (1955-1968) was a slugging RF/LF in the American League, mostly with the Indians and Tigers. An All-Star in six seasons, he hit 30+ HR seven times, and had 100+ RBI six times. He retired with a .266/.359/.489 slash line and a 132 OPS+.

Beyond those five biggest names, here are some highlights for the many other position players who passed away in 2024