We did better by Suzuki than the BBWAA
SnakePit Hall of Fame Inductees
- 2015 – Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez
- 2016 – Ken Griffey Jr.
- 2017 – Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz
- 2018 – Chipper Jones, Ivan Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez
- 2019 – Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Jim Thome
- 2020 – Roy Halladay, Derek Jeter
- 2021 – None
- 2022 – None
- 2023 – David Ortiz
- 2024 – Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer
- 2025 – Ichiro Suzuki
2025 voting
The roles were reversed in the SnakePit Hall of Fame, with Ichiro managing to do what Mariano Rivera did not – be elected unanimously. [Rivera fell one vote short in the 2019 balloting] You won’t be surprised to hear that the only other player I’ve found who was named on every ballot was Randy Johnson on the 2015 ballot [disclaimer: the spreadsheets back in those days kinda sucked, and were not easy to check!] But it’s testament to what an impact Ichiro had. I mean, he won Rookie of the Year and MVP in his first season. He was an All-Star and a Gold Glover each of his first ten years in the majors, and got MVP votes all but one of those seasons.
Even allowing for the fact he didn’t debut here until he was 27, that’s impressive. It’s likely why his total WAR is lower than you’d expect for a unanimous choice – it’s over forty wins (an impressive career in itself!) less than Randy Johnson. Ichiro’s career also had a very long tail. It continued until he was 45, but his final nine seasons, covering almost 3,400 PAs, were worth a total of only 5.2 bWAR. But before that point? Ten consecutive seasons of at least 200 hits. Across all of baseball, there have only been seven such campaigns since the end of 2017. He struck out in only about 10% of his plate appearances, which is almost unheard of these days.
Elsewhere on the ballot, no joy here for C.C. Sabathia or Billy Wagner. Both will be in Cooperstown, but fell comfortably short here, barely getting a majority of votes. That’s Wagner’s last chance, so he, along with Gary Sheffield, will have to wait for the SnakePit Veterans Committee to make a decision. Just as soon as we establish one. Closer to election were Todd Helton and Andruw Jones, both of whom fell one vote short of getting in. Both improved from a 65% figure last year, so perhaps 2026 might be their year? Scott Rolen made some gains, improving his figure from 50% to 65%, and Carlos Beltran also joined the 50% club, in his third time on the ballot.
Down towards the bottom, Bartolo Colon continues to hang around, well after Cooperstown has turned off the lights and started stacking chairs on table for his candidacy. Former D-backs closer Fernando Rodney also got enough votes to keep him around on the 2026 ballot, when none of the BBWAA voters saw fit to mention him. We dig agree with them on the topics of Ben Zobrist and Hanley Ramirez: they were the other two people to receive no votes for Cooperstown, and also were blanked by the SnakePit. Nobody to receive zero voters here is staying on the BBWAA, though Mark Buerhle and David Wright will be gone for us in 2026, but still on the mainstream ballot.
Thanks to all who took part. As usual, feel free to reveal your ballot in the comments, if you wish to do so (no obligation, of course). We’ll be back late in the year with the 2026 ballot, though on first glance, I’ve a suspicion we could be looking at a very small induction class. As in, it might just be me and the vol-au-vents, unless some of the returning names make a push. It will also be Manny Ramirez’s last chance, and it’s not looking good for the man who was once among our biggest enemies. We shall see what happens!