Former Astros Star Tracking Well For HOF

Former Houston Astros reliever Billy Wagner appears to have a legitimate chance of being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2024, if current ballot tracking is any indication.

Ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame were due on Dec. 31. For the past month, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America have been casting their ballots. Some have posted their ballots to social media with explanations of their selections. An independent group of writers has been tracking and cataloging those votes.

On New Year’s Eve, the 100th member of the BBWAA to vote and make their ballot public brought Wagner’s percentage of the vote to 79%.

That’s important because it puts Wagner over the 75% needed for election. With an estimated 384 ballots to be cast, Wagner would need approximately 288 votes for induction.

This would appear to give him a good head start for election.

After 100 public ballots, three other players had more than 75% of the vote — Adrián Beltré (98.0%), Joe Mauer (83.0%) and Todd Helton (82.0%).

Last year Wagner received 68.1% of the vote, which was second-most among players that didn’t get the 75% needed for induction. He is in his ninth year on the ballot, and players are only allowed to remain on the ballot up to 10 years.

Gary Sheffield is the only player on the ballot that on his final year of eligibility.

Wagner is trying to become the rare closer that gets into the Hall of Fame. He’s already in the Astros Hall of Fame and spent the first nine years of his career with the Astros.

With Houston, he had 225 and went 26-29, earning three All-Star Game berths and the 1999 Rolaids Relief Man of the Year award. That season he had 39 saves, went 4-1 and finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting.

Among left-handed relievers, Wagner’s 422 career saves is second-highest and he is sixth all-time among all closers. His career 2.31 ERA is the lowest among retired left-handed pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched. His 14.95 single-season-strikeout-per-nine innings was the highest among relievers at the time of his retirement.

Wagner also played for Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta and the New York Mets and was a seven-time All-Star.

The results will be revealed on Jan. 23. The induction ceremony is set for July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Whichever players are selected will join former manager Jim Leyland, who was voted in on the Contemporary Baseball Era Managers/Executives/Umpires ballot at the Winter Meetings.