Yankees' Jacoby Ellsbury Nearing 500 Career Runs Scored

Going into Thursday's contest in the south side of Chicago, Jacoby Ellsbury of the New York Yankees is just two runs scored away from reaching 500 for his career. He'd become the 90th active player to reach this mark, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Ellsbury did most of this damage during a seven-year run with the Boston Red Sox, although several of those seasons were greatly shortened due to injury. His career-best total came in 2011, when he scored 119 times and finished second in AL MVP voting. 

In his first season in New York, the Yankees' center fielder hasn't hesitated to make an impact. Heading into Thursday's game, Ellsbury is second on the team in runs scored (22) and third in total hits (44). With the recent injury to Carlos Beltran, however, Ellsbury has relinquished his leadoff spot in the order to Brett Gardner, taking over for Beltran in the three-hole. This spot may limit his run totals moving forward, but Ellsbury should be able to rack up plenty of RBI hitting behind Gardner and The Captain, Derek Jeter. 

Ellsbury isn't the only active player approaching the 500-run mark. Other notable players entering Wednesday's games included Evan Longoria (494), Brian McCann (481), Andrew McCutchen (480) and Howie Kendrick (478).

Health permitting, the 30-year-old Ellsbury could conceivably double his total and reach the heralded 1,000-run mark, while hitting toward the front of a Yankee lineup that is seemingly revamped each year. 

All stats courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.