Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton on track for Hall of Fame election; Billy Wagner close
NEW YORK — Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton appeared on track to gain entry to baseball’s Hall of Fame when results are announced Tuesday, while Billy Wagner was likely to be right around the needed 75% threshold and Gary Sheffield was projected to fall short.
Just 270 players are in the Hall, 1.3% of the approximately 20,500 who have appeared in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There are another 40 executives/pioneers, 23 managers and 10 umpires enshrined, raising the membership total to 343.
“These votes are literally life-changing,” said The Athletic’s Jayson Stark, who has cast ballots for three decades. “I try never to forget that. That’s why it’s a huge responsibility.”
Big Hall or small? Baseball’s most divisive debate is whether a player warrants inclusion in Cooperstown.
Stark used all 10 of his available slots on this year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy checked just two, for Beltré and Mauer.
“I’m looking for someone who’s dominant at the position they played in the era in which they played,” said Shaughnessy, like Stark a winner of the Hall’s BBWAA Career Excellence Award.
Beltré was the leading vote-getter at 99% in his first try, according to Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker. Mauer, also on the his initial ballot, was second at 83%, and Helton was next at 82.5% in his sixth appearance.
Wagner, on for the ninth time, was at 78.4% and Sheffield, making his 10th and final appearance, was at 74.7%, followed by Andruw Jones at 70.6%. A player’s percentage usually declines among the final total of the approximately 400 ballots.
Helton was at 79.8% on the tracker ahead of last year’s announcement and fell 11 votes short at 72.2%. Scott Rolen was the only player elected.
Four players could be elected for the fourth time in 10 years — the only year with five was the first election in 1936.
Anyone elected will be inducted into the Hall on July 21 along with manager Jim Leyland.
“I don’t think there’s any clear dividing line anymore,” said Bob Costas, winner of the Hall’s Frick Award for broadcasters but not a voter. “I think the modern analytics have been informative, and they’ve revealed a valid case for some people who previously had been overlooked. But you’ve got so many overlapping circumstances.
“It’s a mishmash. There’s so many different ways to come at it,” added Costas, saying debate often comes down to: “Well, if this guy is in it, why isn’t that guy in?”
