New School vs. Old School: Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame Case Fits Both Voting Styles

Voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame is not an exact science. It's rarely treated as a science at all, by those who participate in it. Some voters take an old-school approach and value traditional statistics, like batting average, All-Star appearances, MVPs, and so on. Other voters take a more new-school approach, and consider items like JAWS, WAR, and other 21st-century metrics. There is no perfect answer for who should or shouldn’t be elected; that’s why there can be debate among fans and writers.

In order to be elected, players need 75 percent of eligible BBWAA writers to check their name on the ballot. Joe Mauer has garnered more than enough support to be elected on the ballots that have been revealed so far, but that doesn’t mean he will stay above the threshold. Some candidates see their percentage drop when non-public ballots are counted, so Mauer needs to build up a cushion before ballots are due at the end of the year. 

Mauer’s greatness has been debated among Twins fans for various reasons. On a national level, many view Mauer as a surefire Hall of Famer, even if he doesn’t get elected on the first ballot. His résumé includes old- and new-school traits that will appeal to all voters.

Old-School Résumé
1. Batting Titles: Old-school voters love nothing more than a good ol’ batting champ. Batting average is an easy statistic to understand, and the prestige of the batting crown stretches back well over 100 years. Mauer won three batting titles, and did so in record-breaking fashion. He won three batting titles and hit .306/.388/.439 for his career. Mauer was the first AL catcher to win a batting title. Three NL catchers have won batting titles, but only Josh Gibson of the 1930s Negro National League matched Mauer’s trio. His second batting title in 2009 made him the first repeat batting champion in nearly a decade. From 2004-2013, he had baseball’s second-best batting average, behind Miguel Cabrera.

2. MVP season: Johnny Bench is the gold standard at catcher, and his 1972 season might be the best ever at the position. Mauer’s 2009 MVP is not far behind. In 138 games, he hit .365/.444/.587 with 30 doubles and 28 home runs. He set the MLB record for highest average by a catcher since World War II. Mauer fell one vote shy of being unanimous, so he got support from both sides of the aisle.

3. Other Hardware and Old-School Stats: Mauer’s résumé includes multiple other honors outside of his MVP. He was a six-time All-Star, winning three Gold Gloves and five Silver Sluggers. He finished in the top eight for MVP in four different seasons. Mauer was the 10th player in MLB history who started at least half of his games as a catcher to collect 2,000 hits. Only 14 players have more than Mauer’s three batting titles. Overall, he was a No. 1 pick in the draft who played his entire career for his hometown team, and that storyline should help his candidacy. 

New-School Résumé
1. JAWS: Jay Jaffe’s JAWS attempts to rank players based on their worthiness for the Hall of Fame. According to Baseball Reference, a player’s JAWS is their career WAR averaged with their seven-year peak WAR. Mauer has the seventh-highest JAWS among catchers, and is the only player in the top 11 who has yet to be enshrined in Cooperstown. His seven-year peak WAR ranks as the fifth-best in MLB history, ahead of current Hall of Famers like Yogi Berra and Carlton Fisk. Mauer is among the best catchers of all time, and it’s not particularly close. 

2. MVP Season: Mauer led the AL in multiple statistical areas that appeal to those with a primarily new-school thought process. Mauer finished first in Offensive WAR (7.7), OBP (.444), SLG (.587), OPS (1.031), Adjusted OPS+ (171), Runs Created (138), Adjusted Batting Runs (58), Adjusted Batting Wins (5.3), and Offensive Win % (.791). He was the first AL player to top the league in BA, OBP, and SLG (the rate stat Triple Crown) since George Brett in 1980. 

3. Other Numbers and New-School Stats: Only four catchers in MLB history had a higher WAR for their first ten seasons, including Bench, Mike Piazza, Gary Carter, and Mickey Cochrane. He was considered an above-average pitch framer, and had the seventh-best fielding percentage for all catchers. Among the 20 players who played at least 50 percent of their non-pinch-hitting games behind the plate and accumulated at least 7,000 PA in the AL and NL, Mauer ranks sixth with a 124 OPS+.

Jaffe wrote about Mauer’s candidacy at FanGraphs and included this fitting quote from one of baseball’s best broadcasters. Former White Sox’s play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti, offered these words on the occasion of Mauer's beautiful final appearance at catcher in 2018: “None of us gets to choose how we’re remembered on this planet. But in the game of baseball, every once in a while, a player so special to a town gets to choose how he walks off the field for a final time. If this is it for Joe Mauer, a fitting, touching, and warm send-off on a chilly day in the Twin Cities.”

Only two catchers were elected on the first ballot: Bench (1989) and Iván Rodríguez (2017). Will Mauer join them? Do you take a new- or old-school approach to looking at Mauer’s HOF candidacy? Will his candidacy be helped because of voters from both voting styles? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.