Reports are surfacing that Carlos Delgado will officially announce his retirement on Wednesday. It seems like this is the last, inevitable move in what has been a very successful 17-year major league career spent mostly with the Toronto Blue Jays; from 1993-2004, before playing for the Florida Marlins for a season and then the New York Mets from 2006-2009. Injuries have plagued his return to baseball ever since, prompting the slugger’s ultimate announcement.

Delgado will finish with a .280 career batting average, during which he also compiled 473 home runs, 1,512 RBI, 1,241 runs scored, 2,038 hits and 483 doubles. His career on-base percentage is an excellent .383 and also has an above-average .546 slugging percentage. These are all respectable numbers that have made Delgado one of the most feared hitters during his prime. The question now is whether or not those numbers make Delgado worthy of the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible.

Delgado lead the league in RBIs and doubles once each, and finished fourth in MVP voting in 2000 and second in 2003. He also has played in only two All-Star Games. Delgado hasn’t been a leader throughout most of his career, one of those “intangible” qualities, and that may hurt his chances. Perhaps worst is the fact that he failed to reach the arbitrary 500 home run total. Two decades ago, that number virtually guaranteed admittance, but now, 500 is becoming commonplace for the game’s best sluggers, and a total of 473 is no longer an impressive career total for a power hitter such as Delgado.

Unfortunately, Delgado’s numbers don’t quite measure up to many of those already enshrined in history, so he certainly won’t be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. After that, he’ll probably gain some momentum in voting, but considering the era Delgado played in, and teams he played for, he’ll remain a borderline candidate for years. However, in the end, Delgado will probably always fall short of the 75 percent of the vote needed to be honored in Cooperstown.