Examining the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot

Cooperstown’s National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum released the 2025 ballots in mid-November. As has become more and more common in recent years, many BBWAA members share their ballots publicly, either via social media or published to their respective outlets, as they mail them in. Naturally, the discourse that follows is often a mixed bag of the Internet’s best and worst parts.

28 names appear on this year’s ballot, including 14 first-timers. Players need to be named on at least 75% of the ballots to gain induction.

The BBWAA writers have been called stingy by some in recent years, despite frequent suggestions that the ballots have been overloaded with qualified candidates causing a logjam slowing support. Gaining enough support to clear the 75% threshold has become more challenging.

Five years ago the group would only elect a pair. In his first year of eligibility, Derek Jeter received support on 99.7% of ballots (Yankees fans are still searching for the one writer who left him off their ballot). Larry Walker finally got over the hump in his last year on the ballot, being named on 76.6%.

Four years ago the BBWAA pitched a shutout. Nobody would gain induction.

Three years ago it was just David Ortiz, who saw support on 77.9% of ballots in his first year of eligibility.

Two years ago only Scott Rolen (76.3%, 6th year) would get in.

Last year, a trio of players exceeded 75%. Adrián Beltré was named on 95.1% of ballots, Todd Helton appeared on 79.7%, and Joe Mauer was on 76.1%.

Most baseball fans would look at this year’s collection of eligible names and think there are some obvious candidates to gain election. Given the BBWAA’s fickle track record, there is only one who could safely be viewed as a lock. Who will join Ichiro Suzuki next summer in Cooperstown remains to be seen.

I don’t have a vote, as I’m not a BBWAA member. While once a professional goal of mine, it likely will remain something that will stay out of reach. Still, let’s pretend for a few minutes that I can cast a ballot and examine the names who would receive my support.

Suzuki is the first obvious name to check off. The right fielder would appear to be a certain lock to receive more than 75% of the vote now that he will appear on the ballot for the first time. Some have rightfully wondered whether he could join Mariano Rivera as the second player ever to receive support on 100% of ballots.

The Japanese speedster batted .311/.355/.402 across his 19-year career in the major leagues. Suzuki collected 200+ hits in each of his first ten seasons, finishing with a total of 3,019 for his career. Add in the 1,278 hits he had in Japan’s NPB before coming to MLB and Suzuki’s career total exceeds that of Pete Rose, baseball’s hit king.

A fan-favorite throughout his career, Suzuki was a 10-time All-Star, won a pair of batting titles, took home ten Gold Glove Awards, and won the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards in 2001.

Three more outfielders join Suzuki on my hypothetical ballot: Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltrán, and Bobby Abreu.

Jones was named on 61.6% of ballots last year, his 8th on the ballot, and it’s somewhat baffling how he hasn’t received more support to date. Maybe the voters are just more critical of how his career ended given the limited offensive production he saw over his last five seasons after leaving the Braves. Despite those years, Jones still won ten Gold Glove Awards and made five All-Star teams while batting .254/.337/.486 with almost 400 home runs.

Beltrán slashed .279/.350/.486 over his 20-year career with 2,725 hits, including 435 homers and 565 doubles, while stealing 312 bases. The nine-time All-Star won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 with the Royals and appears on the ballot for the third time this year. He was named on 57.1% of ballots last year.

Abreu hit .291/.395/.475 over his 18-year career with 2,470 hits, including almost 300 home runs and 574 doubles, while stealing 400 bases. He’s on the ballot for the sixth time and received support on just 14.8% of ballots last year. With numbers so similar to Beltrán’s, Abreu should really see more support.

Next, there’s Billy Wagner. The flamethrowing southpaw was among the game’s best relievers. An argument could be made he was the best left-handed reliever we’ve ever seen — he leads all lefties in the modern era (minimum 900 IP) in ERA, WHIP, opponent’s average, and strikeout rate. Yet, gaining enough support to be elected to the Hall of Fame remains a challenge with how stringently the BBWAA has viewed relievers throughout history.

Wagner pitched 903 innings over his 16-year career, posting a 2.31 ERA and 0.998 WHIP while striking out nearly 1,200 batters. He saved 422 games and made seven All-Star teams.

Unrelated to his HOF-candidacy but still a fun anecdote I’ll always remember: Wagner was initially right-handed. He broke his arm as a kid, twice, and subsequently taught himself to throw left-handed only to regularly hit 100 mph on radar guns before it became a common thing.

If you need more convincing of Wagner’s case, old friend Lewie Pollis closely examined Wagner’s career in direct comparison to the ace-reliever portion of HOFer John Smoltz’s. It’s a thorough and excellent read.

Suzuki is not the only first-time-eligible player who would make my ballot, as a vote would go to CC Sabathia.

The burly left-hander was one of the game’s last true workhorses and a real fan favorite, pitching more than 3,577 innings over his 19-year career. Sabathia won 251 games and struck out 3,093 hitters. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007 and finished in the top 5 in voting four other times, while also making six All-Star appearances.

Next, we have David Wright, who appears on the ballot for the second time and received support on just 6.2% of ballots last year.

Wright’s career was cut short by injury but for a stretch he was among the game’s best hitters. The seven-time All-Star posted a .296/.376/.491 line for his career at the plate while winning a pair of Gold Gloves and finishing in the top 10 in MVP voting four times. All 14 of his big league seasons came with the New York Mets.

Wright’s inclusion also means a vote for Dustin Pedroia.

Pedroia also dealt with injuries that pushed up his retirement timeline. Like Wright, he spent his entire 14-year career with one team (the Boston Red Sox). Pedroia batted .299/.365/.439 while adding four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger Award, the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2007, and the MVP in 2008.

That’s eight. Voters are allowed to select up to ten names on their ballots.

Three more candidates might seem like obvious choices if not for their connection to PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs). Álex Rodríguez (34.8%, entering his 4th year on the ballot), Manny Ramírez (32.5%, 9th), and Andy Pettitte (13.5%, 7th) all face long roads to inclusion given the failures of their predecessors (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, etc.) to crack the threshold.

The PED issue is its own ball of contentious discussion. Pete Abraham wrote a few years ago in The Boston Globe about how approached voting for players from the PED era. While I don’t recall the exact phrasing Abraham used, the sentiment behind it stuck with me. His point, simply, was a reminder that Cooperstown hosts the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. One cannot fully and properly represent baseball’s history while ignoring the PED era.

Rodríguez, Ramirez, and Pettitte were arguably among the era’s best. They would all get my vote if we had room, but someone needs to be left out. That’s likely Pettitte.

That fills my ballot with ten names — Suzuki, Sabathia, Wagner, Jones, Rodríguez, Ramirez, Wright, Pedroia, Beltrán, and Abreu — leaving the remaining 18 out of the mix.

Of those, just one might receive some consideration from me. Félix Hernández spent 15 years with the Seattle Mariners, posting a 3.42 ERA while winning 169 games and striking out more than 2,500 hitters. He won the Cy Young Award in 2010 and made six All-Star teams.

Hernández had a solid career, but if other staring pitchers (Pettitte, Mark Buehrle, etc.) on the ballot aren’t getting enough support then it’s tough to see him reach the 75% threshold.

The other returnees to the ballot — Buehrle, Chase Utley, Omar Vizquel, Jimmy Rollins, Torii Hunter, Francisco Rodríguez — had fine careers but none have ever felt like potential HOFers.

While there are some fun names among the remaining first-timers on the ballot, most fall into the “good/great but not HOFer” bucket for me. This includes Carlos González, Curtis Granderson, Adam Jones, Ian Kinsler, Russell Martin, Brian McCann, Hanley Ramírez, Fernando Rodney, Troy Tulowitski, and Ben Zobrist.