The Hall of Fame welcomes 3 new members this cycle. Second Baseman Jeff Kent was elected via the Veteran’s Committee last month, but 2 new inductees got over the hump on Tuesday. Both somewhat scandalized players, and both Center Fielders, Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones are now hall of famers. The centerfield position in Cooperstown has had a few notable omissions in recent years with Kenny Lofton and Jim Edmonds both falling off the ballot in their first year despite having over 60 WAR and careers that at least deserved consideration. Prior to this year, only 8 centerfielders had every been elected by the writers, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Kirby Puckett, and Ken Griffey Jr. For comparison, RF has inducted 15 (and Roberto Clemente), while LF has inducted 13 by the BBWAA ballot. Only 1 center fielder had been inducted in the last 24 years before this ballot inducted 2 at the same time. This is a monumental shift and helps to show the evolving landscape of the Baseball Hall of Fame in the modern era.
Scandals
You can’t talk Hall of Fame without talking about scandals unfortunately. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez are all top 20 players in baseball history according to career WAR, but aren’t in the Hall due to connections to PEDs. Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, legends of their time, are surefire hall of famers if not for scandals involving betting on baseball games. Home Run racers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire who defined an era of baseball will not be represented in the Hall. Curt Schilling missed induction due to his off-field antics. Omar Vizquel, a borderline case who was trending in the right direction saw his candidacy tank when abuse allegations came out while he was on the ballot.
These events not only hold great players off the ballot but they also make it harder for everyone around them to earn candidacy as well. Take Barry Bonds for example, from 2013-2022 he appeared on the ballot, and year after year the same group of people used one of the spots on their ballot to vote for Barry Bonds. Would they have voted for someone else had Barry been off the ballot? Who’s to say. When it comes to 1 player, it probably doesn’t make a huge difference. This is amplified though when Bonds is on the Ballot at the same time as Clemens, and Schilling, and Sosa, and Manny Ramirez, and Alex Rodriguez. The scandalized players consistently got enough votes to remain on the ballot and more, but were never going to get inducted by the writers. If you were a voter who ignored PED’s in this era, you didn’t have a lot of votes left for guys like Jim Edmonds and Kenny Lofton.
There has also been an idea that’s become popularized recently about punishing “lesser” scandals by delaying induction rather than outright denying it. This seemed to be the case with both of our inductees this year. Beltrán played an integral role in the Astros sign stealing scandal, but unlike PED’s, that doesn’t taint the entire body of work, just 1 season, or possibly his Astros tenure. This caused many voters not to outright discard Beltrán’s candidacy, and while an unscandalized Beltrán might get in first or second ballot, he did ultimately get in.
Andruw Jones’ scandal involving domestic violence is one I actually didn’t hear brought up much throughout his candidacy. The conversation really hit the limelight when it became clear he was nearing the 75% threshold this year. It took until year 9 for one of the best defensive center fielders of all time, who also hit over 400 home runs, to get inducted. Whether that is due to scandal or other statistical reasons is unclear.
New Era Hall of Fame
Andruw Jones, despite racking up WAR and Home Runs, did not accumulate hits like a hall of famer traditionally does. He fell a few hundred short of the famous 2000 hit club, something that historically doomed one’s hall of fame chances, at least at the hands of the writers. In the modern day though, workloads are lower, raw counting stats are down, even when rate stats are down. This is especially true when it comes to pitching. While it’s a separate conversation, Felix Hernandez’s jump to 46.1% of the vote seems to be showing a changing of requirements at that position as well. Felix has less than 200 wins and less than 3000 innings, both of which are uncommon if not unheard of for a hall of fame starting pitcher. It’s clear the game is changing, and as such so are Hall of Fame “requirements”.
Short Lived Newcomers
It’s not uncommon for many or even most of the first year newcomers to the ballot to fall off of it the same year. What is uncommon though, is only 1 member of the group remaining on the ballot, with no 1st ballot hall of famers either. That’s what we had this year with Cole Hamels being the only survivor of a weak class of newcomers. Combined with the removal of many scandalized players, this opened up the door to really see how a lot of voters thought about some of these marginal guys on the ballot, outside of the inductees. Scandalized Ryan Braun was a one-and-done, with the other newcomers outside of Hamels and Braun receiving just 17 total votes.
Looking Forward to 2027 and Beyond
2027 brings one major new name to the ballot in Buster Posey, as well as a few others with a chance to stick around like Jon Lester, Ryan Zimmerman, Kyle Seager, and Brett Gardner. As a whole though, the class isn’t insanely deep, and with Manny falling off the ballot a few more votes could open up. I expect to see another year of redefining the modern Hall of Fame requirements. Most specifically this should happen at starting pitcher with Pettitte, Felix, Hamels, Buehrle, and Lester; as well as Second Base as Chase Utley is the closest to enshrinement, with Dustin Pedroia being an interesting conversation as well. Catcher should also be a fun conversation over the next few years with Buster Posey and Yadier Molina 1 year later defining the position for years but statistically might not matchup with hall of fame standards of the past.
