This year I had the honor of filling out a Hall of Fame ballot for the fifth time, and as was the case with the previous four, I‘m endeavoring to explain my reasoning. This is something I feel every voter should do. Casting a ballot is a privilege that should demand not only due diligence, but also transparency.
Let’s cut to the chase.
Noteworthy among my 2025 selections is that the holdovers differ somewhat from previous ballots. My most recent Sunday Notes column — I missed last week’s due to a health issue — suggested a few of those changes. As I explained on December 22, my previous ballots all included Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, but I was seriously considering dropping them and instead voting for two of Félix Hernández, Dustin Pedroia, and David Wright. I did just that. Following no small amount of deliberation, I adopted my colleague Jay Jaffe’s stance that Manny’s and A-Rod’s being suspended after PED rules were put into place is a meaningful distinction. With neither erstwhile slugger having a realistic chance of ever being elected by the BBWAA — another factor in my decision — a strategic change seemed in order.
More on that in a moment.
I’d actually made a strategic change in my voting on last year’s ballot, which from a big-Hall perspective — and I am an avowed big-Hall voter — was stacked with worthy candidates (the 10-player limit remains an obstacle). Knowing that he would safely remain on the ballot, I temporarily dropped Andruw Jones with plans to resume voting for him this year.
The players who got checkmarks on my 2024 ballot, and did so again, are Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Chase Utley, and Billy Wagner (I have shared my reasoning for each in previous explanatory columns). Having re-added Jones, and with two first-year-eligibles being relatively easy choices — CC Sabathia and Ichiro Suzuki — I was thus left with three available slots. One of them went to a pitcher I hadn’t found room for previously.
My colleague Jay voted for Andy Pettitte last year, only to drop him on this year’s ballot with the caveat that he will continue to consider him in the future. I decided that he merited my current-ballot vote. Statistically similar to Sabathia in several categories (WAR, wins, and ERA+ among them), Pettitte, as Jay has explained, also possesses an impressive post-season résumé. Included within it are Pettitte’s having started three World Series-clinching games in which he allowed just three earned runs over 20 innings. While more a workmanlike performer than a bona fide star throughout his career, the southpaw’s numbers — meaningfully augmented by the Octobers — make him worthy.
Which brings us to the three players I most strongly considered for my two remaining votes (unlike Jay, I only briefly considered Russell Martin and James McCann). With all due respect to Wright, I opted to go with Hernández and Pedroia.
Hernández was the clearer of those choices. From 2009-2015, King Félix led American League starters in WAR, ERA, and innings pitched, while he was second in wins, and third in xFIP. Moreover, he made five All-Star teams, won a Cy Young Award, twice finished second for that honor, and threw a perfect game. While he falls short in counting stats — in many ways his résumé is the polar opposite of Pettitte’s — he was truly elite in his peak. Addie Joss isn’t a wholly unreasonable comp.
As for Pedroia, I’ll circle back to what I wrote in the aforementioned December column. Prior to suffering his career-altering injury, the Red Sox mighty-mite had a nine-year stretch where he was worth 45 WAR, made four All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves, earned both Rookie of the Year and MVP honors, and was an integral part of two World Series-winning teams. With the possible of exception of Bobby Doerr, he is the best second baseman in franchise history. Was Pedroia’s career more Cooperstown-worthy than Wright’s, or even Hernández’s or Pettitte’s? That’s strictly a matter of opinion. What constitutes a Hall of Famer is, and always will be, subjective.
To recap, here are my 10 selections:
Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Felix Hernandez, Andruw Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Chase Utley, Billy Wagner.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Joe Carter went 19 for 74 against Jimmy Key.
Gary Carter went 2 for 28 against Dennis Martinez.
Ty Cobb went 3 for 5 against Paul Carter.
Peanuts Lowrey went 13 for 26 against Schoolboy Rowe.
Kyle Farmer is 8 for 15 against Mitch Keller.
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The Boston Red Sox will head into the 2025 season with a deep starting rotation. Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler join holdovers Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford, while Lucas Giolito is set to return from Tommy John surgery. Richard Fitts and Quinn Priester provide further depth, as do swingmen Cooper Criswell and Josh Winckowski. Moreover, Patrick Sandoval is expected to enter the mix once he returns from TJ of his own in the latter half of the campaign.
Asked recently if the club is considering a six-man rotation, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters that he has “batted around“ the idea with manager Alex Cora and pitching coach Andrew Bailey, adding that they need to see how things unfold in spring training and make a decision from there.
I asked the pitcher-turned-executive where he stands philosophically, given that arm health is a primary consideration when opting for a six-man rotation.
“Philosophically, I’m supportive of anything we can do to keep our best players on the field, performing at a really high level,” Breslow responded. “This could potentially be one of them. It necessitates particular construction of the bullpen, as well. We need to have relievers who are capable of throwing multiple innings. I think we have that when you think about guys like Winchowski, guys like (Garrett) Whitlock, who has done this in the past. Criswell can bounce back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen. I think we’re well-positioned to implement a six-man rotation if that’s the way we want to go.”
In other words, stay tuned.
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When I put together a piece titled Tigers and Twins Winter Meetings Notes a few weeks ago, one of the subjects covered was platooning. Sharing their thoughts were the teams’ respective presidents of baseball operations, Detroit’s Scott Harris and Minnesota Derek Falvey.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson had an interesting take of his own during the Dallas get-together.
“The more you can do to stabilize a lineup, the better,” said Wilson, who took over the helm in Seattle after Scott Servais was given his walking papers in late August. “But I think there are opportunities when platoons can be sort of a stable thing, and it kind of worked that way for us towards the end of the year. If there are platoons again as we go forward, I hope to make them as stable as possible.”
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A quiz:
Who has the most hits in Philadelphia Phillies franchise history?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
The Colorado Rockies are hiring Scott Oberg as a minor league pitching coordinator (per The Denver Post). The 34-year-old University of Connecticut product pitched for the Rockies from 2015-2019 and has spent the past two seasons as a part-time pitching consultant with the club.
Gary Sutherland, an infielder for seven teams across a big-league career that spanned the 1966-1978 seasons, died on December 16 at age 80 (per Baseball Player Passings). Primarily a second baseman, “Sudsy” stroked a personal-best 157 hits with the Detroit Tigers in 1974. He was known more for his glove than his bat.
Charlie Maxwell, an outfielder whose career spanned the 1950-1964 seasons, died on December 27 at age 97. A left-handed hitter who grew up in Paw Paw, Michigan, Maxwell was at his best from 1956-1960 when he mashed 120 home runs while playing for the Detroit Tigers. He had five extra-inning homers in 1960.
Lenny Randle, an infielder/outfielder who logged 1.016 hits while playing for five teams from 1971-1982, died on December 29 at age 75. The Arizona State University product is perhaps best known for punching manager Frank Lucchesi while with the Texas Rangers, and for trying to blow a slow-rolling ground ball foul while with the Seattle Mariners. In 1983, Randle later became the first MLB player to play professionally in Italy,
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The answer to the quiz is Jimmy Rollins, with 2,306. Mike Schmidt and Richie Ashburn rank second and third, with 2,217 and 2,214 hits respectively.
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Which of Albert Pujols and Frank Thomas was the better hitter? I asked that question in a Twitter poll a few days ago, and the results strongly favored the former. Pujols, who will become Hall-eligible in 2028, garnered 66.7% of the votes cast. Thomas, who in 2014 was elected in his first year on the ballot, received just 33.3%.
Pujols logged 13,041 plate appearances, while Thomas had just 10,075, so the erstwhile St. Louis Cardinal and Los Angeles Angel predictably has the edge in counting stats. Most notable are his advantage in hits (3,384 to 2,468), home runs (703 to 521), and RBIs (2,218 to 1,704). But was he actually the better hitter?
Over their careers, Pujols slashed .296/.374/.544 with a 141 wRC+ and a .385 wOBA. Thomas slashed .301/.419/.555 with a 154 wRC+ and a .416 wOBA.
Over their best 10-year stretches, Pujols slashed .331/.426/.624 with a 169 wRC+ and a .435 wOBA. Thomas slashed .320/.439/.581 with a 165 wRC+ and a .434 wOBA.
Pjujols was obviously a great hitter. That said, the Big Hurt was objectively better.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Nick Nelson has signed with NPB’s Hanshin Tigers. The 29-year-old right-hander has appeared in 74 MLB games over the past five seasons, 47 of them with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022.
The Nippon-Ham Fighters have re-signed Drew VerHagen to a one year contract. The 34-year-old former Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals right-hander pitched for the NPB club in 2020-2021, and again this past season.
Makoto Kyomoto has a 2.06 ERA to go with 43 strikeouts and just four walks allowed over 35 innings with the Australian Baseball League’s Adelaide Giants. The 20-year-old right-hander pitched in four games for NPB’s Yomiuri Giants this year, and in 30 more for their top farm club.
Robbie Perkins is slashing .347/.430/.571 with six home runs in 114 plate appearances for the ABL’s Canberra Cavalry. The 30-year-old, Canberra-born catcher was in the Colorado Rockies system from 2013-2018.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
MLB history includes 30 players born in England, 13 of whom played exclusively prior to 1900. Of the seventeen to perform in the modern era, Dave Brain had one of the more-curious careers. A native of Hereford who saw action for six teams over a seven-year span, he had his best season in 1907, bashing a National League-leading 10 home runs while logging a 127 wRC+ with the Boston Doves. Just 28 years old at the time, he would never again go deep in a big-league uniform. Moreover, he would record just nine more hits. Brain reportedly requested an $800 raise in salary after his stellar campaign, but was instead sent a contract at a reduced salary. He held out, then was sold by the Doves to the Cincinnati Reds the following spring. Twenty-seven games and a .125 batting average later, Brain’s career was over.
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When Nick Yorke was featured here at FanGraphs back in November, the 22-year-old Pirates infielder explained how going back to his old approach helped propel him to Pittsburgh. Left on the cutting room floor from my end-of-the-season conversation with him was Yorke’s telling of the 412-foot blast he hit off of Cincinnati’s Fernando Cruz on September 22 for his first big-league home run.
“It was the first pitch of the [fifth] inning,” recalled Yorke, who’d made his MLB debut six days earlier. “He has a really good secondary — his splitter is one of the best in the league — so my plan going into the at-bat was to try to hit a heater early, and then if I miss it, just battle. He gave me a heater, I got a barrel to it, and it went. I knew that it was gone right away.”
His experience circling the bases was memorable.
“I had a little hesitation,” said Yorke. “We were [in Cincinnati] and our bullpen there was down the right field line. I looked toward the left field line to point at our guys in the bullpen, so I kind of had a little hiccup. But yeah, it was a super cool moment. There was [third base coach Mike] Rabelo’s big old smile when I’m coming toward third, and then there was everyone in the dugout. They were all pretty happy for me. The whole thing was a cool experience.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Mark Simon presented us with seven Sports Info Solutions 2024 year-end awards, including Contact Minimizer and Hall of Framer.
Baseball historian Adam Darowski wrote about how the Hall of Fame is still failing with Negro Leagues inductees.
The Athletic’s Eno Sarris wrote about how a healthy and skilled Corbin Burnes is a major coup for the Arizona Diamondbacks (subscription required).
Where did the bullpen phone come from? Michael Clair delved into that question at MLB.com.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
José Ramírez recorded 180 total bases with two strikes this past season, the most by any player over the past twenty seasons (per MLBNetwork).
Over the past five seasons, Cody Bellinger has played in 555 games, logged 499 hits, scored 309 runs, driven in 309 runs, and logged a 100 wRC+.
Brian McCann played in 1,755 games, had 1,590 hits, a .262 BA, and a 110 wRC+. Bill Freehan played in 1,774 games, had 1,591 hits, a .262 BA, and a 113 wRC+.
Chase Utley had 1,885 hits, 411 doubles, 58 triples, and 259 home runs.
Brian Giles had 1,897 hits, 411 doubles, 55 triples, and 287 home runs.
Dustin Pedroia had a .363/.411/.536 slash line in 325 career plate appearances versus the Minnesota Twins. He had a .243/.325/.345 slash line in 321 career plate appearances versus the Seattle Mariners.
On today’s date in 1999, the BBWAA elected George Brett, Nolan Ryan, and Robin Yount, all of whom were on the ballot for the first time, to the Hall of Fame. Carlton Fisk, who was also first-time eligible, fell short but was elected the following year.
Players born on today’s date include Ted Petoskey, an outfielder whose big-league career comprised 10 games — he went 2-for-12 at the plate — for the Cincinnati Reds between the 1934-1935 campaigns. A three-sport star at the University of Michigan, Petoskey would later coach baseball and basketball at the University of South Carolina, and scout for the New York Yankees.
Also born on today’s date was Zaza Harvey, a pitcher/outfielder who played for the Chicago Orphans, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Blues across the 1900-1902 seasons. Harvey batted .332 over 283 plate appearances, logged a 3.47 ERA over 96 innings, then saw his career come to an end at age 23 due to stomach issues.
The Only Nolan (his given name was Edward Sylvester) was a two-way player in five Major League seasons between 1878-1885. A native of Trenton, Ontario, Nolan also played in the Eastern League, going 19-5 with a 1.42 ERA for the Wilmington Quicksteps in 1884.
