Billy Butler – Royals Hall of Famer?

Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Since he first debuted as a big leaguer in 2007, Billy Butler has been a very productive player for the Kansas City Royals. Despite how productive Butler has been, it seems a lot of fans tend to underrate him, focusing more on what he can’t do – field or run well – instead of what he can do. And what he can do is hit a baseball. He does that extremely well. In fact, here are Butler’s stats as a major league player.

Here are some more numbers to chew on to give you some perspective on where Butler currently stands among Royals’ legends. Going into this season, Butler has a career slash line of .300/.362/.468. His average places him 3^rd all-time in Royals’ history, behind George Brett (.305) and Jose Offerman (.306). His OBP is good for 9^th all-time, just seven points behind Mike Sweeney and Brett. Butler’s SLG of .468 puts him 8^th, one point behind Willie Aikens.

With 956 career hits, Butler sits just 44 shy of 1,000, and in 10^th place in Royals’ history, 21 behind David DeJesus. As most of you probably know, Butler has been a doubles machine in recent years, and his career number of 217 reflects that. He’s in 8^th place in that category, 6 away from tying Joe Randa. How about home runs? Before his breakout season last year in which he hit 29, many fans were saying Butler only had “doubles power.” With 103 career home runs, Butler is 6 behind Bo Jackson, which would tie him for 10^th place in Royals’ history. He’s also 10^th in career RBI with 480, 29 behind Willie Wilson. As for runs, Butler is 15^th, with 383, just behind fellow current Royal Alex Gordon, and 25 behind Kevin Seitzer. What about triples? Well…Butler has 4 of those, and that’s good enough for me.

Having said all that, let’s take a look at where he may end up after this season. Most projections have him coming just shy of his 2012 numbers, so let’s say he hits 25 HR, 38 2B, 180 H, 100 RBI, and 80 R. After a 2013 season like that, Butler would end up 7^th all-time in hits, 7^th in home runs, 6^th in doubles, 6^th in RBI, and 12^th in runs in Royals’ history.

The Royals can also control him through the 2015 season, if they exercise his option.

With 2 more seasons of those numbers, Butler could move into 6^th in hits, 4^th in home runs, 5^th in doubles, still 6^th in RBI (Sweeney would be just out of reach), and 8^th in runs. Obviously, some may see those as optimistic projections since players of Butler’s body type tend to not age well.

But here’s a reminder: Butler is still just 26 years old.

We’re only talking about 2 more seasons after this one, and Butler’s been able to stay healthy to this point, so I think he should still be a very good hitter come 2015. And who knows? If he is still productive at the end of this contract, and the team can lock him up for a few more years, Butler would have a shot at climbing those all-time ranks even more. He might not be able to catch Number 5, but making it to 2^nd place wouldn’t be out of the question in most of those categories. Take a look at some of the names Butler is going to be passing in the next few years, along with some names he’s already passed. These are names every Royals fan should recognize.

In hits:

In HR:

In 2B:

And again, Butler is only 26, still in the prime of his career.

Regardless of whether or not Butler stays beyond his current contract, I think it’s time for people to realize how special of a player he really is. He is arguably one of the best 15 hitters in all of baseball right now. His power from the right side of the plate is incredibly valuable in this lineup. He is the most reliably productive player on this team. And he is well on his way to becoming a Royals Hall of Famer.