We’re back with MLB Monday to examine the career of Wally Pipp, mostly made famous as the guy that Lou Gehrig replaced in the New York Yankees lineup in the 1920s. Identified by researchers as “one of the Deadball Era’s premier sluggers” the truth is a little more accurate than that description, as Pipp was a slightly above-average hitter who should have been replaced by someone … it just happened to be Gehrig.

His career started in 1913 with the Detroit Tigers where he played in 12 games before returning to the minor leagues for all of the 1914 season. Before 1915, however, the Yankees came calling and purchased his contract from the Tigers. Pipp jumped right into action for New York at first base, playing in 136 games during his age-22 season, hitting .246 with a .706 OPS and four home runs—good enough for 3.3 WAR total.

Nothing about those numbers screams “great” at all, but he did draw 66 walks, steal 18 bases, and drive in 66 runs for a 69-win team that finished fifth in the American League. His OPS+ mark (111) demonstrated he was an above-average hitter even at a young age, however, considering this was the era of the aforementioned dead ball. The next year, Pipp improved to 4.2 WAR and 123 OPS+ marks, showing talent.

He also topped the majors with 12 HRs and the AL with 82 strikeouts, an interesting combination in an era of contact hitting. Either way, the average also improved to .262 and the OPS to .748—but this would remain his best season, by far, until his age-29 season in 1922. Although he lead the AL again in HRs (9) the following season, Pipp only would top the league in another offensive category one more time in his career.

Right there, we can see the word “premier” is not a usable description for Pipp’s career production. In 11 seasons with the Yankees, he compiled just 29.3 WAR overall—22.0 on offense—and his OPS data for his time with New York reveals, again, an above-average hitter, only: .757 OPS and 107 OPS+ marks. His .282 batting average was solid for his Yankees tenure, and he peaked in 1922 with 4.6 WAR before declining.

In 1923-1925 combined, Pipp managed to post just 5.0 WAR across 359 games before being replaced permanently in the lineup at age 32. He was never a serious MVP candidate, and basically, as the Yankees got better in the 1920s, Pipp was getting older and less effective. His stats from 1918-1921 were his standard production level: about 2.3 WAR per season from ages 25-28, with some outlier seasons here and there.

He did lead the AL in triples (19 in 1924), but that was his last hurrah. Pipp only hit .224 with a .541 OPS in 19 World Series games from 1921–1923, so he wasn’t a big postseason factor for the Yankees at all. After being supplanted by the talented young god Gehrig in 1925, he finished out his MLB career with three nondescript seasons for the Cincinnati Reds to the tune of 2.5 WAR from 1926-1928. If it wasn’t for Gehrig? He is no one.

And that’s the reality of Wally Pipp: slight above average and made famous by the man who replaced him.