Does Terrance Gore have One of the Most Unique Careers in MLB History?

Terrance Gore playing for the Kansas City Royals, CCed by Liscense 2.0

Every season, we hear about a player winning the World Series with a team that they only played a handful of games with. But out of all those champions, there is one name that stands out: Terrance Gore.

Gore retired from professional baseball at 34-years-old, but he retired a two-time World Series champion. Last appearing in 2022, the former 20th rounder from 2011 only recorded 85 plate appearances throughout 112 games. The low number of plate appearances was both a gift and a curse for Gore. The former JUCO player by way of Georgia was one of the fastest in Major League Baseball throughout his eight seasons in the Majors. Due to his speed, Gore was used as a pinch runner, primarily coming late into games to steal bases. 

In Gore’s first career 54 games, which spanned from 2014-18, he went hitless in 13 at-bats. Overall, he would be a career .216 hitter in 74 at-bats. 14 of his 33 hits would come in 2019 with the Royals, where he hit .275 with a .715 OPS. But as I said earlier in the article, he was used for his speed. Gore would swipe 43 bases in his 112 career games, which would put him on pace for 62 steals in a 162 game season. Gore was only caught stealing nine times. 

Gore’s speed was good enough to make him a platoon player and late defensive replacement, which came in handy when the playoffs came. Gore was frequently added when rosters expanded for the postseason, leading him to notch two World Series rings. There are talks that he has three rings (Coming from the Braves 2021 season where he did not appear in the Majors in the regular season, but was on Atlanta’s NLDS and WS roster where he made one appearance as a pinch runner), but according to Baseball Reference, Gore is the ring holder of two. The two rings come from the Royals 2015 championship and the Dodgers 2020 championship. 

Gore last appeared with the New York Mets in 2022, where so many Met fans thought he was a good luck charm, Fans were perhaps onto something, as the Mets were 10-0 when Gore played. I personally was in attendance when Gore made his Mets debut against the Dodgers on September 1st in the 8th inning. Of course, Gore stole a base, leading Citi Field to go absolutely crazy. It would make you think the Mets themselves just clinched the pennant or something.

So Terrance Gore, a two-time World Series champion, who only played in 112 regular season games and only had two at-bats in the postseason, is part of forever with multiple teams. Gore’s career has to be one of the most unique and aura-farming careers yet. If you told me that I could just steal bases all day and not expect to actually hit the ball and I get thousands, possibly a few million dollars IN ADDITION to being part of not one,  BUT TWO World Series winning teams?! Well, sign me up as soon as you can.