McAleer's contributions to the game failed to win him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, however. In 1936, during the first elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he received just one vote in the balloting for 19th-century figures. Nevertheless, McAleer received an unofficial endorsement from Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie, who described McAleer as "one of the best ever". McAleer's obituary in "The New York Times" suggested that he was "one of the fastest outfielders the major leagues ever produced". In 2003, Bill James described McAleer as "the best defensive outfielder of the 1890s". More recently, baseball historian David Fleitz observed, "this brilliant defensive outfielder was a smart, clever, and ambitious man who helped to create two of the original eight franchises of the American League".