Shohei Ohtani & Aaron Judge's "greatest seasons didn't have 200 hits" while Pete Rose had several, says MLB analyst on Reds legend

Pete Rose's death has reignited discussions about his legacy and place among baseball's greatest. His career statistics were compared to the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge who both had outstanding offensive seasons in 2024.

Rose played 24 seasons in the big leagues with the majority of it with the Cincinnati Reds. He recorded 4,256 hits in his career. In his last season as player-manager, an investigation was launched into allegations of Rose betting on baseball.

As a result of the investigation, he was deemed permanently ineligible to participate in baseball activities and was never given a chance to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. While there were multiple attempts at reinstating Rose, it all failed.

Baseball analysts and players have continuously discussed Rose's immense contributions to the sport. On "The Mayor's Office with Sean Case" on Tuesday, co-hosts Casey and Rich Ciancimino talked about him in the context of current MLB stars like Bobby Witt Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.

"[6:55] Do you know how hard it is to get 200 hits in a season?" Casey said. "I had a year where I hit .330 whatever, in 1999, I felt like I got two hits a night and I had 197, I didn't even get to 200. It'd be like getting 200 hits for 21 seasons in a row and then adding 56 more hits and to get to 200 hits is impossible, so we'll never see that again."

"I have the hit leaders in Major League Baseball this year ... You know how many players had 200 hits this year? Bobby Witt and [Luis] Arraez got it in his last game. In game 162, he got his 200th hit. Vladimir Guerrero had 199. Guess who didn't have 200 hits? Two of the greatest seasons, Judge and Ohtani did not have 200 hits. That's how hard it is."

Analyst David Samson would choose Pete Rose over 'likable' players

On his "Nothing Personal with David Samson" podcast on Tuesday, Samson discussed how Rose wasn't the most liked figure in the baseball community. However, he said that he would rather have a team filled with characters like Pete Rose as it would bring results.

"[2:45] There's a million baseball players who were amazing, who weren't people you'd like to have a beer with," Samson said. "There are scores of players who aren't very good who you'd like to hang out with, not a criteria ... Give me a full team of Pete Roses and I will win the World Series six times at least."

Pete Rose's Hall of Fame discussions are expected to continue as players and analysts remain divided about it.