Baseball Hall of Fame Announces BBWAA Class of 2025

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced the members of the Class of 2025 voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

The results of the 81st Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame election were revealed this evening live from the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery in Cooperstown. Baseball Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch made the announcement alongside MLB Network’s Brian Kenny.

This year’s class includes Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner.

Ichiro, who was on the ballot for the first time, came within one vote of being a unanimous selection, a feat achieved by only one player, relief pitcher Mariano Rivera in 2019, in 81 years of voting by the BBWAA. The multiple Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder received 393 votes, which accounted for 99.746 percent of the electorate, second only to shortstop Derek Jeter’s 99.748-percent showing (396 of 397 ballots cast) in 2020 as the highest plurality for a position player in Hall of Fame voting.

Sabathia, another first-time honoree, received 342 votes (86.8 percent), and Wagner, who was on the BBWAA ballot for the 10th-and-final time, got 325 (82.5). Wagner missed out on the Class of 2024 by five votes. The only other players receive more than 50% were outfielders
Carlos Beltrán with 277 votes (70.3) and Andruw Jones with 261 (66.2).

How the vote turned out:

  • Ichiro Suzuki 393 (99.7%)
  • CC Sabathia 342 (86.8)
  • Billy Wagner 325 (82.5)
  • Carlos Beltrán 277 (70.3)
  • Andruw Jones 261 (66.2)
  • Chase Utley 157 (39.8)
  • Álex Rodríguez 146 (37.1)
  • Manny Ramírez 135 (34.3)
  • Andy Pettitte 110 (27.9)
  • Félix Hernández 81 (20.6)
  • Bobby Abreu 77 (19.5)
  • Jimmy Rollins 71 (18.0)
  • Omar Vizquel 70 (17.8)
  • Dustin Pedroia 47 (11.9)
  • Mark Buehrle 45 (11.4)
  • Francisco Rodríguez 40 (10.2)
  • David Wright 32 (8.1)
  • Torii Hunter 20 (5.1)
  • Ian Kinsler 10 (2.5)
  • Russell Martin 9 (2.3)
  • Brian McCann 7 (1.8)
  • Troy Tulowitzki 4 (1.0)
  • Curtis Granderson 3 (0.8)
  • Adam Jones 3 (0.8)
  • Carlos González 2 (0.5)
  • Hanley Ramírez 0
  • Fernando Rodney 0
  • Ben Zobrist 0

This year’s ballot consisted of 28 players–14 new and 14 returning. Per the rules, only candidates receiving at least 75% of the vote are elected to Cooperstown. This year’s class required 296 votes on 394 ballots. Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen were elected by the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December and will join the BBWAA electees at Induction Weekend, July 25-28 in Cooperstown.

The Hall of Fame has 351 elected members, including 278 players, of whom 142 have come through the BBWAA ballot. The elections of Ichiro and Sabathia bring to 62 the total of players elected in their first year of eligibility by the BBWAA. This year marked the 11th time the BBWAA honored three players in an election and the second year in a row.

Going into tonight’s announcement the Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker was pointing towards a class of three or four players with Beltrán over the 80% mark. But as we all know, many writers do not make their ballots public. In fact, only 216 ballots were made public prior to the announcement with Tom Verducci being among the final writers going public with a ballot.


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Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.

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