Mario Mendoza sported quite the glove during his 9-year big league career. In 686 games spent between Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Texas, he was valued at a total of 4.0 dWAR, doing much of his work as a shortstop plying his trade on the concrete astroturf of the 1970s and early 1980s.
What he did not sport, however, was a bat. He held one, technically. Even tried swinging it every now and again, as his 4 career dingers do confirm. But as his career .507 OPS and 41 OPS+ suggest, hitting was absolutely not his forte. In fact, his struggles at the plate gave rise to the ‘Mendoza Line’ reference, one that referred to whether or not a player’s batting average began with a 2 or a woeful 1.