Who Would You Elect to the MLB Hall of Fame Class of 2025?

[Teflon]

Below is the list of this year's candidates with links to their Baseball Reference pages. You can choose up to 10 players. A player must be included on 75% of ballots to be elected. Players are removed from future ballots if selected on fewer than 5% of ballots or if they have appeared on the ballot 10 times without election. (This is the last year for Billy Wagner) This list doesn't include players on the Classic Baseball Era Committee Ballot.

There are two former Twins on the ballot and one potential Timberwolves owner. Gary Sheffield was removed from the ballot this year after having failed to be elected in his 10th year of eligibility last year. (63.9%)

 

Player	Year on Ballot	% of Ballots
Billy Wagner	10th	73.80%
Andruw Jones	8th	61.60%
Carlos Beltrán	3rd	57.10%
Alex Rodriguez	4th	34.80%
Manny Ramirez	9th	32.50%
Chase Utley	2nd	28.80%
Omar Vizquel	8th	17.70%
Bobby Abreu	6th	14.80%
Jimmy Rollins	4th	14.80%
Andy Pettitte	7th	13.50%
Mark Buehrle	5th	8.30%
Francisco Rodríguez	3rd	7.80%
Torii Hunter	5th	7.30%
David Wright	2nd	6.20%
Ichiro Suzuki	1st
CC Sabathia	1st
Dustin Pedroia	1st
Ian Kinsler	1st
Félix Hernández	1st
Troy Tulowitzki	1st
Ben Zobrist	1st
Curtis Granderson	1st
Hanley Ramírez	1st
Russell Martin	1st
Adam Jones	1st
Brian McCann	1st
Carlos González	1st
Fernando Rodney	1st

[Teflon]

My 2025 ballot:

• Billy Wagner
• Ichiro Suzuki
• Alex Rodriguez

Ichiro is as sure a first-ballot Hall of Famer as there is. It would be cruel and unusual punishment for Wagner to get as high as 73.8 % and not make it in his final year. I think it's time to get over the A-Rod blacklist ban. He was clearly among the greatest to ever play shortstop.

[dex8425]

I just voted on the athletic poll. 2025 ballot:

Ichiro (should be unanimous)

CC Sabathia (3k strikeouts, he's a shoo-in)

Billy Wagner

Andruw Jones

Carlos Beltran (the players weren't punished for the Houston sign stealing scandal, and he was a HOF'er before that anyway)

 

A-rod should never get in as long as there's a character clause. He literally got suspended for breaking the rules-twice-and served a suspension put in place by MLB. Same deal with Manny Ramirez. Their cases are even worse than players who never served suspensions like Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Gary Sheffield and even Barry Bonds.  I personally wish they would just get rid of the character clause altogether-Ortiz got in with the same PED tag as Sosa because....writers liked him. It's not fair to have that double standard or have writers subjectively applying some undefined standard. 

[Parfigliano]

Ichiro

CC

Beltran

[The Great Hambino]

I'm a big hall guy.  To me, there is no small hall/big hall debate.  That debate ended in the 70s when they allowed Frankie Frisch to put all his buddies in.   Relative to other eras (especially the 20s and 30s), ballplayers from 1970 on are very underrepresented in the hall.  So to me, I was a little surprised to struggle coming up with 10 yes votes from the ballot.  I feel like most years I'm trying to decide who to leave off to keep it at 10.  I guess the steroid backlog has mostly cleared out by now. 

I also draw my arbitrary line in the sand on steroids at the Mitchell Report.  There is a fair argument to be made that, before then, steroid use wasn't technically cheating (can you break a rule that doesn't exist?) and was even embraced by MLB (chicks do, in fact, dig the long ball).  So instead of saying Barry Bonds (for example) doesn't deserve to be in the hall, I say baseball deserves to have Barry Bonds in its hall.  It's how I justify supporting Bonds and Clemens and not A-Rod and Manny.

Anyway, off my soapbox and on to my list of 8:

Ichiro (should be unanimous, but so should like 50+ other guys over the years)

Sabathia

Wagner

Andruw Jones

Utley

Beltran

Buehrle (the goalposts for starting pitchers are going to have to move along with starting pitcher usage)

Pettitte (I've really waffled on him over time)

Tough omissions:  Bobby Abreu (truly borderline for me), Felix Hernandez (lacking the volume of Buehrle/Pettite)

 

Bonus round (veterans/old timers/eras/whatever they call it now):

Honestly, all but Garvey and Tommy John.  But especially Tiant and Dick Allen.  I hope the two Negro Leagues nominees get a fair examination - I know nothing about them, but the career summaries I've read sound really impressive.

[nicksaviking]

23 hours ago, Teflon said:

My 2025 ballot:

• Billy Wagner
• Ichiro Suzuki
• Alex Rodriguez

Ichiro is as sure a first-ballot Hall of Famer as there is. It would be cruel and unusual punishment for Wagner to get as high as 73.8 % and not make it in his final year. I think it's time to get over the A-Rod blacklist ban. He was clearly among the greatest to ever play shortstop.

I'm not sure why someone would put A-Rod in but not Manny Ramirez then.

I don't care that they're not in, they knew this would very likely be a consequence for juicing and they did it anyway. But as the years pass, I care less and less. It's just a bust and a plaque, and I have no strong feelings either way.

Still, the rest of the players busted during that era didn't get in so staying the course seems like the best option. I think you let the last couple remaining age off the ballots, and then some time in the future, everyone can revisit that group of players and decide if they want to amend the situation.

[Trov]

Ichiro is a lock.  I think Wagner will as well. There are a lot of do we look at whole career or peak?  Andruw Jones peak is HOF, but he fell off cliff at 31. CC peak is HOF but similar starting early 30's he became average pitcher.  King Felix was HOF bound but injuries full derailed him as well. To me if Santana is not in they should not be either. 

I think Beltran should get in. The rest should not get in.