Ray Lankford Career Statistics and Performance Overview
Category: Finance | Title: Ray Lankford Stats: Career Numbers, Teams, and Key Milestones | Tag: Baseball Statistics | Meta Description: Ray Lankford stats including career batting average, home runs, stolen bases, and team history...
Ray Lankford compiled a Major League Baseball career line of a .288 batting average, 314 home runs, and 1,365 hits over 1,843 games between 1990 and 2004. His most productive seasons came with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he hit 238 home runs and drove in 887 runs from 1990 to 2001. Lankford also recorded 345 stolen bases, placing him among the top base stealers of his era. He was a two-time All-Star and finished in the top 10 in Most Valuable Player voting three times.
Lankford’s defensive metrics reflect his range in the outfield, with a career Defensive Runs Saved total of 144 and a Gold Glove-caliber peak in the mid-1990s. His peak five-year weighted runs created plus (wRC+) averaged 130, indicating a significant offensive advantage over league average. He remains a notable figure in the Cardinals franchise history and is frequently referenced in discussions of 1990s outfield production.
Ray Lankford Year-by-Year Splits and Team Transitions
Lankford’s best individual season came in 1997, when he hit 31 home runs, stole 50 bases, and posted a .305 batting average for the Cardinals. That year he finished 14th in National League MVP voting and led the league in outfield assists. His 1996 campaign saw a .293 average with 33 home runs and 105 runs batted in, forming part of a core that powered St. Louis to the postseason.
After leaving St. Louis following the 2001 season, Lankford played for the San Diego Padres and briefly for the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies. His production declined in later years, with a combined .249 average across his final three seasons. He retired after the 2004 World Series championship with the Cardinals, having appeared in 11 postseason games.
Ray Lankford Legacy and Current Public Data Sources
Lankford’s career statistics are maintained on official MLB records and the Baseball Hall of Fame’s historical database, where he is listed among the top 50 Cardinals career home run hitters. His stolen base totals and outfield defensive metrics are often cited in sabermetric analyses of 1990s baseball.
For current and historical verification of Ray Lankford’s stats, the primary public sources include the official MLB statistics portal and the Baseball Reference player page, which aggregates game logs, advanced metrics, and season-by-season splits. The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) also hosts biographical profiles and contextual analyses of his career. These resources provide the most complete and updated public data on his performance and ranking among his peers.