He's a bit short on numbers. He's 35 and barely has 1700 hits. He's been valuable to the Tigers but no HOF. Not yet anyway. If he can get to 2500 hits there's a possibility.

With Lou out I don't see how he get in..

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_2B.shtml
Second Base JAWS Leaders.
Baseball Reference

JAWS -- Jaffe WAR Score System
Developed by Jay Jaffe and introduced on Baseball Prospectus.
JAWS contains a combination of Career and 7-yr peak WAR totals
allowing for comparison to average Hall of Famers by position.

As of now, Kinsler is 18th in total WAR for all 2Bmen in MLB history.
Avg of 20 HOFers at this position WAR 69.4 WAR7 44.5 JAWS 56.9
Kinsler's Numbers in comparison WAR 53.2 WAR7 40.5 JAWS 46.9

I have thought that middle infielders 2B and SS need the 2,500 hit threshold and good counting stats. Kinsler is just under 800 hits away from that number.

3 foot is in 19th place with WAR 50.9, WAR7 42.4 JAWS 46.7 but 2 years younger.

He has a chance, but imo, has to play at close to the level he has shown with the Tigers since his trade. Can Kinsler play 2B until he is 39 or 40?

Take a look at Lou Whitaker and the under rated Bobby Grich.
Then there are two more who are ahead of Kinsler and 3 foot, they are Cano and Utley.

Also, Kinsler seems to be aging like fine wine. He has only had one truly subpar year in his career, which he was still worth 2.0 WAR, which is a solid starter. Can't go wrong with the guy at 2b.

Through age 34

Player A = 6,065 AB 1,836 H .303 BAVG .347 OBP .411 SLG .758 OPS

Player B = 6,127 AB 1,696 H .277 BAVG .344 OBP .451 SLG .795 OPS

As stated, Bobby Grich and Lou Whitaker deserve to be in before Kinsler. I would also throw Willie Randolph as an equal to Kinsler. And then there is Jeff Kent.

Player A = Placido Polanco

Point. No one knows when regression will happen, but it absolutely happens and is generally more pronounced after 35 (PEDs excluded). No one wants to see their stars (i.e Al Kaline) age and start to decline. It is also harder for aging players to stay healthy for a full year.

In the end, it will be a numbers game. Prior to coming to DET, Kinsler never had more than 168 hits in a season. And only twice in 8 years did he have more than 158. Now he has gone 188, 185 and 178. He isn't guaranteed to play with DET in 2018. If his option is picked up for 2018, odds are that he is playing for another organization for 2019. In 2019, he will be turning 37, which was the age of Chase Utley last year.