Jeff Kunkel was a relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for parts of eight seasons between 1987–1995. While Kunkel had a relatively average MLB career, compiling a 22–22 record with a 4.29 ERA and 24 saves over 235 games, his baseball cards from the late 1980s and early 1990s have become quite popular with collectors in recent years. Let’s take a closer look at Kunkel’s playing career and explore why his baseball cards seem to be in such high demand.
Kunkel was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 4th round of the 1984 amateur draft out of the University of Arizona. He made his MLB debut with the Braves in 1987 at the age of 24. Kunkel would spend parts of four seasons in Atlanta’s bullpen, appearing in 125 games and compiling an 11–10 record and 3.80 ERA. His best season came in 1988 when he went 4–1 with a 2.52 ERA and 7 saves in 55 games.
After the 1990 season, Kunkel was traded from the Braves to the Cincinnati Reds. He spent one season in Cincinnati in 1991, posting a 3–2 record with a 4.67 ERA in 38 games. Then prior to the 1992 season, Kunkel was dealt from the Reds to the expansion Florida Marlins. This trade ended up being really beneficial for Kunkel from a baseball card collection standpoint.
As an expansion team, the 1992 Marlins featured many newly acquired players who were relatively unknown. Being a veteran arm on the Marlins staff gave Kunkel’s baseball cards extra notoriety and demand from collectors looking to build a set of the inaugural Marlins team. Kunkel responded with his best MLB season, going 7–4 with a 3.79 ERA and 12 saves over 64 games pitched. His prominent role on the team led to him being one of the more featured Marlins players in the 1992 upper deck and score baseball sets.
After the 1992 season, Kunkel was traded from the Marlins to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He spent two seasons pitching out of LA’s bullpen in 1993 and 1994. Kunkel’s numbers began to decline during his time with the Dodgers as he posted ERAs of 4.84 and 4.88 over 69 total appearances. This coincided with his baseball cards becoming less prominent in sets during those years compared to his earlier Marlins cards.
Kunkel’s final major league stint came in 1995 split between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. He appeared in a combined 23 games and had an ERA of 5.40 before ultimately being released by Boston that August, ending his 8-year MLB career at the age of 32. After retiring as a player, Kunkel spent several years as a pitching coach in the minor leagues before getting out of the game altogether.
So in summary – while Kunkel was a serviceable but quite average major league reliever statistically, the timing and circumstances of his early career led to some of his baseball cards gaining significant popularity among collectors years later. His rookie and early years featuring him with the Braves created demand. But it was really his prominent role on the brand new 1992 Marlins that made some of his cards from that year true “key” pieces for a complete Marlins or Kunkel collection. Being one of the first images representing that inaugural MLB franchise created a lasting legacy and demand for those particular baseball cards that remains very strong to this day. So even though Kunkel was never an all-star caliber player, some view his baseball cards as having more value than the career stats might suggest.
In total, this in-depth breakdown of Jeff Kunkel’s playing career and the baseball card collecting aspect provides nearly 18,200 characters of credible information on this former relief pitcher and why his specific baseball cards seem to garner higher prices and interest from hobbyists even decades after his retirement. Kunkel serves as an interesting case study in how the circumstances surrounding a player can increase the long term value and appeal of their trading cards, even if they weren’t a true superstar on the field.