Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were the three players selected Tuesday to complete the 2025 class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Suzuki and Sabathia received the call from the Hall during their first year of eligibility and Wagner during his tenth and final, so naturally the next question is who can expect their phone to ring next year?
In addition to those three players, Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones were the other two to receive more than 50 percent of the vote at 70.3% and 66.2% respectively, falling short of the 75% threshold necessary for enshrinement.
There are multiple reasons for optimism that next year will be the year for those two standout center fielders. Both Beltrán and Jones have seen their voting totals rise steadily every year, with Beltrán first on the ballot in 2023 and Jones in 2018. The incoming class will also be a comparatively weaker one, giving them an advantage, especially when it comes to “big hall” voters.
The first-time eligible players for the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot include Ryan Braun, Hunter Pence, Nick Markakis, Edwin Encarnación and former Met Daniel Murphy. Perhaps the most likely first-ballot inductee would be Cole Hamels, but with just 163 wins, a career ERA of 3.43, only four All-Star appearances and zero top-four Cy Young finishes, he boasts neither the peak nor longevity of a typical HOF starting pitcher.
Does that mean next year’s class will include just two? Will it be the first ballot since 2021 to see no player reach the 75 percent mark, and what will it mean for players who failed to make Cooperstown this year but reached the five percent necessary to stay on the ballot?
Those players include Chase Utley, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and of course, David Wright, who saw his percentage go from 6.2% last year to 8.1%. While that seems low now, Jones started off his first year on the ballot with just 7.3%.
Perhaps the most interesting question next year for Mets fans is not one that will be answered in January by the HOF announcement but by the Mets franchise shortly thereafter. If Beltrán were to make it to the Hall of Fame, would he go in as a Met, and would the Mets retire his number 15?
There have been just two players that went into Cooperstown with a Met hat, Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza, and for most of the franchise’s history, that was the standard for number retirement. Will Beltrán become the third player to be given both distinctions? Well, considering Tyrone Taylor is currently on the team wearing 15, it doesn’t seem as if the Mets are preparing for that just yet. Just like voting totals though, player legacies and baseball fans’ arguments on who is or isn’t a Hall-of-Famer, can change from year to year.
