More Questions Than Answers in Hall Vote
PLUS: TAMPA BAY RAYS RETURN TO THE TROP
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Reader Reacts to Push for Pedroia
“Stop the analytics. Dustin Pedroia was pretty good but not a Hall of Famer. He didn’t dominate.
He’d be the first non-pitcher, modern-era player to in the Hall without ever getting more than 750 RBIs in a career and never more than 100 in a season.
He ranks tied for 647th in career RBIs and his 1805 career hits are tied for 403rd lifetime. Yes to MVP, Rookie of the Year, rings, and Gold Gloves but unless you put Daniel Murphy and Keith Hernandez in — and neither is getting in — Pedroia will be looking in from outside.”
— Brian Feinblum, New Rochelle, NY
Pregame Pepper: Deals & Decisions
The baseball world got tabloid headlines on consecutive winter days with the trades of Freddy Peralta from Milwaukee to the Mets and MacKenzie Gore from the Nationals to the Rangers . . .
Could a Tarik Skubal swap materialize before spring training starts? . . .
Now that the White Sox have Luisangel Acuna, acquired from the Mets in the Luis Robert, Jr. trade, will they flip him to Atlanta for a long-overdue reunion with brother Ronald Acuna, Jr.? . . .
Mazel tov to 48-year-old Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, born one day apart and separated by one home run in their baseball careers (Beltrán 435, Jones 434) . . .
If the Mets start Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco at third and first base, respectively, on Opening Day, they will become just the second team in the last 100 years to start two non-rookie infielders on Opening Day with no more than one prior MLB game at that positions, according to the Elias Sports Bureau . . .
Since Polanco has considerable experience at third, however, it might make more sense to deploy Bichette as a first baseman or designated hitter . . .
Less than 24 hours after losing shortstop Ha-seong Kim to an off-season thumb injury that required surgical repair, the Braves signed jack-of-all-trades Jorge Mateo, who once led the American League in stolen bases . . .
Star Cincinnati shortstop Elly de la Cruz, under club control for four more seasons before he becomes a free agent at age 28, took the advice of agent Scott Boras to rejected a club-record offer of $225 million, spread over 10 years . . .
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, a notoriously weak hitter, struck out in all of his first 12 major-league at-bats . . .
Leading Off
It’s One Battle After Another For Hall Of Fame As Class Of 2026 Brings More Questions Than Answers
By Sean Millerick
Let there be no doubt: Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones had Hall of Fame worthy careers.
Of course, in the case of Jones, that’s hardly a shock to IBWAA members; we voted Jones into the Hall last year.
In the case of Beltran, though? He still hasn’t been voted in by our body, and considering his nearly 8 point WAR edge over Jones (70 to 62.7), it stands to reason that the concern about his candidacy probably doesn’t have much to do with anything that shows up on his Baseball Reference page. Yet despite that concern, and we’ll get to it shortly, Beltran made it into the Hall anyway on Tuesday.
So here we are, with nothing but absolute clarity on who should and who shouldn’t merit entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ah, if only that were true.
It all comes back to that one little concern, the one where Beltran was a key player in the 2017 Houston Astros cheating scandal. Which means that a player for whom there is clear and indisputable evidence of cheating was just admitted into a Hall of Fame that has taken a pretty firm line on cheaters.
Manny Ramirez just fell off the ballot. Alex Rodriguez failed to get in again. Cheating equals No Hall. It’s been fairly straightforward to this point. Unless you’re Carlos Beltran?
Now, do I think Beltran should be in the Hall? Yes. But does this have to be viewed as at least a teensy bit hypocritical of the voters, and does Beltran’s election do nothing to silence grumbling and debate about what constitutes a Hall of Famer? I’m afraid that’s a yes as well, making it just One Battle After Another for sports’ most famous museum.
Sorry, couldn’t resist the movie reference with Academy Award nominations having just come out yesterday. The One Battle phrasing had been on my mind for awhile, but in a rough look for the Hall, it’s far from the only play on a movie title this year’s Best Picture crop offers.
Ever since the first steroid rumor surfaced, Sinners have been at the heart of any debate about who belongs in Cooperstown, with Sentimental Value being weighed against evidence that players might have turned themselves into Frankenstein in the pursuit of greater glory and padded paychecks.
Admittedly, in my heart of hearts, I think there is a difference between what Beltran did and say the nutritional choices of Mark McGwire or Rafael Palmeiro. Yet I’m not at all certain that there should be, and am frankly uncomfortable with the idea that there are now degrees of cheating, some of which are acceptable and some of which aren’t.
Going back to that One Battle reference, the first moment it occurred to me was following the most recent round of Eras Committee voting, when Miami Marlins legend Gary Sheffield found himself kicked off of the ballot along with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
The evidence against Bonds and Clemens? Pretty overwhelming. The evidence against Sheffield? It’s always been extremely thin.
If you’ll allow one more film plug, Sheffield’s claim about his PED use that It Was Just An Accident fell on deaf ears, while the incontrovertible proof that Beltran did cheat apparently only merited waiting a few years.
Obviously, the Sheffield case is a personal one given my Marlins fandom. Although I’d hope that whatever my baseball fan allegiance was, I’d find it ludicrous that a player who hit 509 home runs while walking more than he struck out didn’t deserve to be barred from the Hall Of Fame for putting the wrong lotion on his skin (okay, that’s the last film reference) once.
That situation just seems way less onerous than Beltran’s crime. The crimes of Bonds and Clemens, as well as Ramirez and Rodriguez, still feel worse but so too does the argument for not considering players painted with the steroid brush.
Ultimately, Beltran’s inclusion puts a bow on what has been a slow reversal of mine regarding those steroids-era names. Well, Beltran’s inclusion, and an article by a much more accomplished author than yours truly that I read in the week leading up to it. Therein, said author and BBWAA member essentially argued plenty of others cheated as Beltran and the Astros did, but that the only difference was that they were caught. Why should Beltran pay the price when no one else did?
It was an argument that sounded very familiar, as it was exactly the same lament made by plenty of steroids apologists over the years. That the Mitchell Report was not a list of all PED users, just the ones who were caught. A statement that is almost certainly accurate. Only then, it was a defense that failed to move the needle for Hall voters.
Now all of a sudden it does, just because the shape of the cheating is a touch more palatable? That’s problematic.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of a perfect solution to said problem, which puts me in some pretty good company with the rest of the baseball-loving populace. In the absence of a perfect solution, though, consistency would seem to be a reasonable standard.
But that just doesn’t feel consistent with past decisions.
Sean Millerick is a diehard Miami Marlins fan but still finds cause for hope every Spring Training. He currently writes for @MarlinManiac. You can find him on Twitter @miasportsminute.
Cleaning Up
Rays Rounding Third And Heading For Home
By Dan Schlossberg
After spending last season in the spring training ballpark usually occupied by the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays are going home. Reluctantly.
The Rays are returning to Tropicana Field, the much-maligned St. Petersburg ballpark imploded by Hurricane Milton in 2024.
They’ll play their first nine games of this season on the road, ostensibly to give workers a little more time to ready the albatross for action.
It’s probably kind to call The Trop an albatross. The domed ballpark has been fingered as the worst stadium in the majors for years.
Hard to reach, especially on a causeway clogged with rush-hour traffic, it has weird dimensions and odd ground-rules, with balls that hit the roof in fair territory still considered to be in play. Sight-lines for fans aren’t great either.
Even with new ownership, the budget-conscious Rays are stuck there through 2028. That’s when their current lease expires, leaving new owner Patrick Zalupski to find and fund a new ballpark either in the Tampa area (Ybor City is the front-runner) or in another city.
Since the owner hails from the Jacksonville area, he’s not anxious to uproot the team. But he is anxious to make a profit — and to produce a winning team in a tough division.
The Rays should have a packed house on April 6, when they open their Tropicana Field schedule against the Cubs. The roof panels are already in place, with attentio now centered on such interior improvements as upgrades to the clubhouses, seating areas, video board, and the artificial playing surface (the Rays are one of the last holdouts in the Astroturf world).
The City of St. Petersburg has shelled out some $60 million for the repairs to date. But the ballclub is pretty much on its own in the continuing search for a long-term ballpark.
At least a return to The Trop gives the Rays a chance to finish the season with a decent attendance. Steinbrenner Field has a capacity of only 11,000, making it the smallest in the major leagues (Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park holds 14,014). The Trop can hold twice as many, with capacity of 25,000 after the closing of the upper deck.
A 1998 expansion team, the Rays have always been plagued by attendance woes. They even played some regular-season games at Disney World, where the Braves used to train, in an effort to establish themselves as a regional entity.
Despite persistent budget constraints, the Rays have won two pennants but have yet to win a World Series.
Tropicana Field has never won anything. Built at a cost of $138 million — a cost that now might bring a star free agent on a multi-year contract — it opened on March 3, 1990 and was briefly called the ThunderDome when it housed hockey’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 43 baseball books, including Hank Aaron biographies written 50 years apart. He covers the game for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: More Fallout From Hall of Fame
“He was special from the first day I saw him, when he was 17 years old.”
— Former Braves manager Brian Snitker on Andruw Jones
With Carlos Beltrán (Puerto Rico) and Andruw Jones (Curacao) elected, this year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will have a decidedly Latino flavor, with flags waving and bells ringing by enthusiastic fans of both . . .
This year’s ballot had 27 names, most of them holdovers from last year . . .
No blank ballots were returned last year but 11 did show up this time . . .
No Hall of Famer lived to age 100, though Bobby Doerr came close at 99 years, 220 days old when he died in 2017 . . .
The writers failed to elect anyone nine different times, most recently in 2021 . . .
Five players were picked in 1936, in the first election for the Hall, and four were chosen four times, including 2019 . . .
Fifty-eight Hall of Famers played for just one team, 62 were chosen on the first ballot, and 37 received at least 90 per cent of the vote . . .
Four players (Keeler, Simmons, Kiner, Jenkins) won election by a single vote and three (Biggio, Fox, Traynor) missed election by two votes but were elected later.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
As it relates to the Hall of Fame, there is no hard line against cheating. There is a hard line against people who cheated and were not liked by baseball writers. Elsewise, why are admitted PED users Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell, drug test failure (albeit a dubious test) David Ortiz, and Ivan Rodriguez (who came into the testing era looking like a different person) in the Hall?
The arguments of Piazza and Bagwell and Rodriguez are that the substances they were using were not illegal at the time they were using them, which is true, but I beg you, exactly how does that differ from Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield, Palmeiro, etc.? I suppose the answer is degrees of cheating again. All these guys have admitted to using PEDs that weren't steroids, but if we're going that far, how do we feel about notorious cocaine abuser Tim Raines? Does cocaine on the field during a game count as a PED? I would say so, but the writers apparently wouldn't.
You see the problem here?
It's awfully convenient that we take a hardline stance against precisely what Bonds, and Clemens, and guys we don't like did, meanwhile admitted PED (albeit not steroid) users Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell are in the Hall of Fame, plus David Ortiz, who like most of the guys in that New York Times leak debacle, I feel comfortable convicting of PED use, but not steroid use. All these guys are in the same boat, PED but not steroid users, and all are in the Hall of Fame. Add onto this the skyrocketing vote totals of Mr 'I did it and I'm sorry,' Andy Pettitte, and it's clear that this museum will permit PED users, just only the right ones.
However, when we change the name to Sammy Sosa, who I would lump into this same group, all of a sudden it's an unforgivable offence. Why? Because the writers wanted those other guys in the Hall of Fame, but they didn't want Sammy Sosa, for some reason.
As it relates to Carlos Beltran, if we're going to keep every player who took advantage of a home field illegality out of the Hall of Fame, we're going to have to evict 75 percent of them, and we won't be able to elect Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Aaron Judge, or anybody that was on the trio of AL cheaters in 2017 (Astros, Red Sox, Yankees), so I'm not too worried about that. Cheating is part of the game, in some ways, but this PED thing just irks me, particularly in the case of Sammy Sosa.
Well done today Sean. The degrees of cheating reference is spot-on. I rarely see HOF Gaylord Perry mentioned in the same breath as Beltran, and PED folks. A guy that wrote a book called 'Me and the Spitter'. And it's not that Gaylord Perry shouldn't be in the HOF! But could you imagine a book entitled 'Me and PEDs?' by one of the accused?