3 hours ago
1
Forget about the 75 percent Hall of Fame threshold.
At this rate, Alex Rodriguez may have a hard time getting on 40 percent of votes.
Rodriguez’s chances of landing in the Hall of Fame are starting to look rather slim — and that may be kind — based on four years of evidence that show little reason for optimism.
While Rodriguez did land on a personal-best 37.1 percent of ballots for the 2025 class, that is just 2.8 percent above his first-year mark of 34.1 percent.
Rodriguez’s four-year marks are, in order: 34.3, 35.7, 34.8, 37.1.
The former infielder still has six years left on the ballot and perhaps there could be a massive shift among the voters, but the signs are not encouraging.
Voters seemingly have made up their minds on Rodriguez and are saying they don’t believe he belongs in the Hall for violating baseball’s performance-enhancing drugs (PED) policy.
Rodriguez missed the entire 2014 season after receiving a 211-game suspension for his role in the Biogensis scandal that eventually would be reduced to 162 games.
His candidacy is clearly not one of on-field merit since his three MVPs, 696 homers, 3,115 hits and 14 All-Star Game appearances cemented him as one of the game’s greatest players.
But voters are coming down hard on Rodriguez and other PED users.
Former Red Sox star Manny Ramirez, who retired to avoid a second PED suspension, received just 35.3 percent of the votes in his ninth year on the ballot.
He has one more shot in 2026 before being removed. While Ramirez’s stats are not as strong as Rodriguez’s, they outshine other players who have been elected.
Rodriguez and Ramirez can still land in the Hall of Fame via the Era Committees, but that would require that group of voters being more lenient on his sullied past.
While his wait in Hall purgatory continues, Rodriguez offered kind words to the 2025 class on X, which included two former teammates in CC Sabathia and Ichiro Suzuki, along with Billy Wagner.
“Congratulations to Ichiro Suzuki on being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame!,” Rodriguez wrote. “Without a doubt one of the greatest pure hitters I’ve ever seen.”
Rodriguez added about Sabathia: “.@CC_Sabathia is one of the best teammates ever! We became a championship team when he joined our roster in 2009. Congratulations on being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame big guy! Well deserved.”
He also wished good luck to two former teammates who fell just short of the cutoff in Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran.
“Incredible to see the new class of legends inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame tonight,” Rodriguez wrote. “Looking forward to @andruwjones25 and @carlosbeltran15 getting in next year, so close.”
English (US)