NEW YORKIChiro Suzuki, along with Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia, was elected Tuesday, just one vote short of being the first Japanese player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Suzuki was chosen by the Baseball Writers Association of America with 393 out of 394 votes. Wagner and Sabathia received 325 and 342 ballots, respectively, 29 more than the 296 required for the necessary 75%.
Together with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, who were elected last month by the committee for the classic era, the three will be inducted into the Hall at Cooperstown on July 27.
Mariano Rivera, who was listed on all 425 ballots in 2019, was the only player to receive a perfect score from the BBWAA. In 2020, Derek Jeter was selected on 395 of 396.
With 277 votes, Carlos Beltrán was 19 votes away from winning the election, and Andruw Jones came in second with 261.
Suzuki, who joined Fred Lynn in 1975 as the only players to win AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year in the same season, arrived in Major League Baseball from Japan in 2001 at the age of 27. He hit.311 with 117 home runs, 780 RBIs, and 509 stolen bases while playing for the Seattle Mariners (2001–12, 2018–19), the New York Yankees (2012–14), and Miami (2015–17). He was a two-time AL batting champion and a ten-time All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder.
With 1,278 hits in Nippon Professional Baseball and 3,089 in Major League Baseball, including a season-high 262 in 2004, he is arguably the greatest contact hitter of all time. Pete Rose’s MLB record of 4,256 is surpassed by his total of 4,367.
Sabathia earned the 2007 AL Cy Young Award, was selected to the All-Star team six times, and won the 2009 World Series. He spent 19 seasons with Cleveland (2001–08), Milwaukee (2008), and the New York Yankees (2009–19), going 251–161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts, ranking third among left-handers behind Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.
In the 2024 election, Wagner was five votes short of being elected along with first baseman Todd Helton, catcher/first baseman Joe Mauer, and third baseman Adrian Beltr, with 284 votes and 73.8% of the vote. In 2016, Wagner made his first appearance on the ballot, receiving 10.5% of the vote for the tenth and final time.
After Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, and Rivera, Wagner was the ninth pitcher in the Hall of Fame to be predominantly a reliever.
Wagner, a seven-time All-Star, pitched 47-40 with a 2.31 ERA with 422 saves for the New York Mets (2006-09), Boston (2009), Atlanta (2010), Houston (1995-2003), and Philadelphia (2004-05). Among pitchers with at least 900 innings, he has the highest strikeout rate (11.9 per nine innings).
When he first appeared on the ballot in 2023, Beltr received 46.5%, and last year, he received 57.1%. He was a nine-time All-Star who played for the Kansas City (1998–2004), Houston (2004, 17), Mets (2005–11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012–13), Yankees (2014–16), and Texas (2016). He also had a.279 batting average, 435 home runs, 1,587 RBIs, and 312 stolen bases.
Three days after he was the only Astros player named in an MLB report about the team’s illegal use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series championship, he was fired as manager of the Mets on January 16, 2019, without having managed a game.
Jones rose from 7.3% when he first showed up in 2018 to 61.6% last year.
Due to their suspensions for using performance-enhancing drugs, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramrez have fallen behind in the voting. Last year, Ram rez received 32.5% in his tenth appearance, while Rodriguez received 34.8% in his third.
Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun, and Matt Kemp are among the players who will be on the ballot in 2026.
— AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum
