THE results of BBWAA portion of voting for Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 revealed Tuesday evening. Here at CBS Sports, we’ve spent more than two months breaking it down, so let’s welcome the 2025 ballot and look forward to what the results will mean for 2026 and beyond.
1. Ichiro, CC, Wagner enter!
Before we dive into the rest, the most important thing tonight is to give the new inductees their due.
CC Sabathia was an all-time workhorse and finished third in his career among lefties. I was worried it would take several votes to get there, but that worry proved to be in vain. Sabathia easily made it to the Hall of Fame in the first round with 86.8% of the vote.
It took Billy Wagner 10 tries, but one of the greatest finalists in baseball history is now a Hall of Famer. After missing out on a small handful of votes last cycle, there was no doubt left this time around with Wagner getting 82.5%.
And Ichiro, of course, was a global sensation who collected more than 3,000 hits in Major League Baseball, even though he didn’t debut here until he was 27. I have no idea how you could ever get a Hall of Fame ballot and not vote for Ichiro, but I don’t think we need to. focus on the fact that someone did this. The story is Ichiro, not the one who didn’t vote. With 99.7%, he ties Derek Jeter for the second highest percentage ever after Mariano Rivera’s 100%.
Appreciating the singular Ichiro Suzuki, who lost a single vote before being unanimously inducted into the Hall of Fame
Dayn Perry
2. Beltrán and Jones get closer
Carlos Beltrán would already be in the Hall of Fame if not for his involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017, but it appears he’s on his way. It’s just a question of whether his vote percentage plateaus before it hits 75%. It is entirely possible that this will happen, although its significant rise indicates that this is unlikely.
We now see its percentage increase from 46.5 to 57.1 then to 70.3 in three years of voting. I think that means he’ll get in next year.
Andruw Jones appears to be experiencing a similar progression, although there is more urgency here and the increase in vote share has been a little less encouraging. This was his eighth election year and although there were double-digit percentage increases in 2020 and 2021 before a nearly 8-point increase in 2022 and then another monstrous increase in 2023, the momentum has slowed down. Here are the last three years:
2023: 58.1%
2024: 61.6%
2025: 66.2%
Can he continue to win or will he stagnate? And if there are gains, will he get more than 75% before his time is up? As a reminder, this was Jones’ eighth year and he’s only allowed 10. He’s gained 8.1 percentage points in two years. If he gains another 8.1 points over the next two years, that will bring him down to 74.3%, which won’t be enough.
3. Utley makes a modest gain
Chase Utley debuted on the ballot last year with 28.8%, firmly in “could go either way” territory. We’ve seen players debut at a lower Hall of Fame percentage and players debut in a similar field only to find themselves on the outside looking in. You would like to see big gains in his second year to be happy with his chances. for induction, generally speaking.
It was a decent jump, but not enough to make me feel like he’s definitely in good shape. He got 39.8%. It’s certainly not discouraging at all, right?
I believe next year will be a huge year for Utley, probably the biggest on the ballot. Three spots were cleared without any obvious Hall of Famers joining the ballot next year (we’ll get to that). The two players above Utley among the returnees have strikes against them (the Beltrán scandal and a domestic violence arrest for Jones). These are the kinds of circumstances that could create a wave of new support for Utley. We’ll know in about a year.
4. A certain launch momentum?
We discussed in these parts several times that perhaps the existing standard for Hall of Famers among starting pitchers should be relaxed – in terms of counting statistics such as wins, innings pitched, WAR, etc. – in light of how throws are handled differently these days. GOOD…
Sabathia registered easily on his first try.
Andy Pettitte made a nice jump from 13.5% to 27.9%. This is his seventh election year, so I’m not sure he has a realistic chance of making it, but the progress here remains notable.
Mark Buehrle’s jump was much smaller, from 8.3% to 11.4%, but, again, it’s more about the change as we move forward.
In this area, Félix Hernández made his debut with 20.6% of the votes.
I think this was a good sign for Félix himself, but also for the pitchers who will soon join the ballot and who could fall somewhere in the category of Pettitte, Buehrle and/or King Félix, like Cole Hamels, Jon Lester, Adam Wainwright, Corey Kluber. and Madison Bumgarner.
5. This doesn’t happen for A-Rod, Manny, Vizquel
Ties to PEDs through the suspension of Alex Rodríguez and Manny Ramírez continue to hamper them while the case of Omar Vizquel, in part, has been irreparably damaged by allegations a few years ago.
A-Rod went from 34.8% to 37.1% here in his fourth year and that’s not enough of a gain to be optimistic about his chances.
Manny continues to flounder, getting 34.3%, which is a high mark for him, although barely a percentage point above his previous high.
Vizquel rose to 52.6% before the allegations arose. He fell to 17.7% of the vote last year and got 17.8% this year, equivalent to stagnation in his eighth election year.
We’re playing rope with Manny and Vizquel and it looks like A-Rod is in a similar boat.
6. Does the inclusion of Wagner boost K-Rod?
It took Wagner 10 years to get into the Hall of Fame because the standard for relievers is much higher than for any other position (one could argue that it’s not even a separate position from starting pitcher, but I digress). No reliever had previously entered with fewer than 1,000 innings pitched. Wagner threw 903 throughout his career.
With the arrival of Wagner, it is worth asking whether this will impact Francisco Rodríguez’s vote in the future. He had a higher career workload than Wagner with 976 saves and saved more games with 437 (Wagner made 422 saves). There’s a lot more to it than that, obviously, but it’s worth mentioning.
K-Rod’s vote percentages so far in three years: 10.8%, 7.8%, 10.2%.
7. No obvious momentum toward induction
Rapid fire time!
- Bobby Abreu received 19.5% of the vote in his sixth year running. This is its highest figure, reaching 15.4% in 2023 and 14.8% last year. However, falling short by 20% in his sixth year is nothing to celebrate. It’s incredibly difficult do a Larry Walker.
- Jimmy Rollins was on the ballot for the fourth time this year and received 18% of the vote. This is up from 14.8% last year. He’s making progress, but it’s minimal.
- Dustin Pedroia debuted with 11.9% of the vote this year. Hey, double digits isn’t bad, but he’s clearly behind Utley in voters’ minds.
- David Wright started at 6.2% last year and has reached 8.1% this year. Again, getting up is fine, it’s just so far away and it’s such a small increase.
- Torii Hunter is on his fifth ballot and has fallen from 7.3% to 5.1%. He survived the reduction of one voice.
8. Happy trails
Each returnee survived until the next election.
Among starters, the following players received some support, but not enough to remain on the ballot: Ian Kinsler (2.5%), Russell Martin (2.3), Brian McCann (1.8), Troy Tulowitzki (1), Curtis Granderson (0.8). ), Adam Jones (0.8) and Carlos González (0.5).
The following players received no votes, although it should be noted that simply being enshrined in the Hall of Fame is an accomplishment in itself: Hanley Ramírez, Fernando Rodney and Ben Zobrist.
9. Next year’s new arrivals
Cole Hamels is the big name who will be on the ballot for the first time next year, which means there will most likely be no first-ballot Hall of Famers like CC and Ichiro this this time. I broke the possible beginners elsewherebut the biggest takeaway with such a relatively lackluster group is the added opportunity for survivors.
Remember that each voter is only allowed 10 places and some of them would like to have more. Removing three players from the ballot and adding uncertain items means extra spots for some of the other holdovers. Additionally, whether you think rightly or wrongly, some voters artificially limit themselves to five or even three votes. Again, eliminating the obvious Hall of Famers and not adding any means more room for leftovers.
In theory, this should increase the chances in the coming years for players like Beltrán, Jones, Utley, Abreu and the starting pitchers, notably Félix Hernández with his strong debut. I didn’t include A-Rod or Manny because it seems obvious that their problem has nothing to do with open ballots.
