Ichiro fell one vote short of being the second player elected unanimously.
Ichiro Suzuki failed to become the second player elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously, when the results of the 2025 Baseball Writers Association of America results were announced late Tuesday in a live broadcast on MLB Network.
There were 394 ballots received by the Hall of Fame and Ichiro was named on all but one of the ballots. Honestly, this is just ridiculous and I hope the single person who failed to vote for Ichiro is named publicly.
Also elected were lefthanded starter CC Sabathia and lefthanded closer Billy Wagner. Sabathia was named on 86.8 percent of ballots and Wagner got 82.5 percent.
Falling short was Carlos Beltrán, who missed the 75 percent required for induction by 19 votes at 70.3 percent. Here’s the entire ballot. There will be 15 holdovers for next year’s ballot.
Ichiro had 3,089 hits in a 19-year MLB career, in addition to the 1,278 he recorded in Japan’s NPB, for a total of 4,367 hits, more than anyone who’s ever played professional baseball. He also stole 509 bases and holds the single-season record for hits in a season, 262 in 2004. Many of you will remember the 2016 series when Ichiro came to Wrigley Field with the Marlins one hit short of 3,000 in MLB, and pinch-hit to a standing ovation in all three games, only to make outs in all of those at-bats and get his 3,000th hit in Coors Field.
Sabathia won 251 games in a 19-year career with Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Yankees. He recorded 3,093 strikeouts and won the Cy Young Award in 2007. He pitched in 10 postseasons and was the ALCS MVP in 2009. You might remember the final game of the 2008 regular season, which the Brewers needed to win to keep their playoff hopes alive, and Sabathia shut down a makeshift Cubs lineup to get Milwaukee in. (Still mad at Lou Piniella for that lineup; if the Cubs win that game the Brewers and Mets would have been tied and a tiebreaker game would have been needed. If the Mets had made the playoffs that year, the Cubs would have played them instead of the Dodgers.)
Wagner was an outstanding closer with the Astros, Phillies, Mets and Braves from 1995-2010, with nine seasons of 30+ saves and 422 total, which is eighth-most all time. He pitched in seven postseasons and had a 37-save season for Atlanta at age 38 in 2010.
Here he is recording his 400th save in 2010 [VIDEO].
Congratulations to the BBWAA electees, who will join Dave Parker and Dick Allen as inductees to the Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Cooperstown Sunday, July 27.