Ichiro Suzuki missed unanimous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame by one vote Tuesday night, when he headlined a three-player class selected by the 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Suzuki, the first Japanese-born inductee, will be joined by longtime ace left-hander CC Sabathia and hard-throwing closer Billy Wagner, each of whom cruised past the 75 percent of the vote necessary for election. Outfielders Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen, who were elected by the 16-member Classic Baseball Era Committee on Dec. 8, will also be enshrined with the class July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The results of the BBWAA balloting were announced by Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch at the plaque gallery inside the museum in Cooperstown.
Sabathia (86.8 percent of the vote) and Wagner (82.5 percent) made the Hall in their first and last years of eligibility, respectively. This marks the second straight year the BBWAA has elected three players. Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer were all inducted last July.
Suzuki’s close call means New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera remains the only unanimous electee. Rivera received all 425 votes in 2019. Another longtime Yankees icon, Derek Jeter, came within one vote of unanimous election in 2020. Suzuki, Rivera and Jeter were teammates with New York from 2012-13.
Suzuki, who will almost surely become the third player to wear a Seattle Mariners hat on his plaque, hit .311 with 3,089 hits, 509 stolen bases and 10 Gold Gloves despite debuting at age 27 in 2001, when he won the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards for the Mariners.
“I don’t think anybody in this whole world thought that I would be a Hall of Famer,” Suzuki said via an interpreter on a Zoom call.
After 11-plus years with Seattle, Suzuki was traded to the Yankees in 2012 and played three years with the Miami Marlins from 2015-17 before ending his career with cameos the next two seasons for his original club.
Suzuki and Sabathia increase the number of first-ballot inductees to 62. Beltre and Mauer were also elected on their first try last year, which makes the 2023-24 cycle the first with multiple first-ballot inductees in consecutive years since 2014-15.
“It means everything to me — just to go into the Hall of Fame in general is a big honor, but to go in the first ballot, I know what that means as a baseball player and it’s super exciting,” Sabathia said on MLB Network.
Sabathia will wear a Yankees hat on his plaque after playing his final 11 seasons in New York. The left-hander, who spent the first seven-plus seasons of his career with Cleveland and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007 and helped the Milwaukee Brewers clinch a playoff berth following his midseason trade in 2008, finished 251-161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts.
The ERA is the second-highest for any player elected by the writers, ahead of Red Ruffing (3.80), but every Hall-eligible player with at least 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts is enshrined except the steroid-tainted Roger Clemens.
Wagner is the fourth candidate elected in his final year on the ballot since the maximum eligibility was reduced from 15 to 10 years in advance of the 2015 election. Tim Raines was inducted in 2017, followed by Edgar Martinez (2019) and Larry Walker (2020).
“The game has given me so much, you know?” Wagner said through tears on MLB Network. “It’s given me everything that I could possibly ask. So, I mean, I’m very grateful.”
Wagner, whose 422 saves are eighth-most all-time, opened his career by spending nine seasons with the Houston Astros before splitting his final eight years with the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves. The diminutive hard-throwing southpaw posted a 2.31 ERA while averaging 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings, each of which are tops amongst pitchers who have thrown at least 900 innings.
Carlos Beltran, in his third year on the ballot, fell 19 votes shy by receiving 70.3 percent of the vote — an increase of more than 13 percent from 2024. Fellow outfielder Andruw Jones, in his eighth year of eligibility, finished fifth with 66.2 percent of the vote, a gain of almost five percent from last January.
Second baseman Chase Utley, in his second year on the ballot, jumped from 28.8 percent to 39.8 percent. Andy Pettitte gained more than 14 percent, from 13.5 percent to 27.9 percent. The steroid-tainted Alex Rodriguez (37.1 percent) and Manny Ramirez (34.3 percent) finished in between Utley and Pettitte during their fourth and ninth years of eligibility, respectively.
Newcomers Felix Hernandez (20.6 percent) and Dustin Pedroia (11.9 percent) will remain on the ballot after exceeding the 5 percent minimum to stay eligible.
–Field Level Media
