Billy Wagner
A year ago, Billy Wagner was this close to baseball immortality. Five votes. That’s all that separated the former Phillies closer from his ticket to Cooperstown.

Wagner’s name appeared on 73.8% of ballots for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024, agonizingly short of the 75% threshold. The math was brutal: 284 votes when 289 were needed.

For Wagner, it was a particularly gut-wrenching outcome. Last year marked his ninth trip through this gauntlet known as Hall of Fame voting. Players only get ten cracks at the ballot. And that's what makes Tuesday night’s Class of 2025 announcement the ultimate high-stakes moment — Wagner’s last shot at baseball’s most exclusive club through the writers’ vote.

As of Monday afternoon, the early returns were promising. Wagner appeared on 84.2% of the 172 ballots made public via Ryan Thibodaux’s indispensable Hall of Fame vote tracker. Encouraging, sure, but it left him needing to appear on 67.0% of the remaining 220 ballots to finally claim his plaque.

Let’s talk about Wagner the pitcher. Over 16 big-league seasons, he was electric. A 2.31 ERA. A 0.998 WHIP. A jaw-dropping 1,196 strikeouts in 903.0 innings. The man was a strikeout artist, wielding a fastball that once touched 103.1 mph. He collected 422 saves, eighth-most in MLB history and second all-time among lefties.

And here’s the kicker: Wagner was naturally right-handed. He only became a lefty after breaking his right arm — twice — as a kid.

It’s been a long road for relievers in Hall of Fame history. Only eight pure relievers have made it to Cooperstown, and even those journeys were arduous. Hoyt Wilhelm needed eight tries. Bruce Sutter, 13. Dennis Eckersley? Sure, he’s in, but he started 361 games. And Lee Smith, third on the all-time saves list, didn’t get the call from the BBWAA. He had to wait for the Today’s Game Era Committee in 2019.

But even by Hall of Fame standards, Wagner’s numbers sparkle.

Among pitchers with at least 900 innings since 1920, only Mariano Rivera boasts a lower ERA than Wagner’s 2.31. Wagner’s strikeout rate of 11.92 per nine innings ranks 13th in MLB history. His 24.0 career WAR stacks up almost identically to Trevor Hoffman’s 25.9 — and Hoffman sailed in on his third ballot in 2018.

For Phillies fans, Wagner’s time in red pinstripes was short but memorable. Acquired in a 2003 trade with Houston, Wagner spent two seasons in Philadelphia, earning an All-Star nod in 2005. In his two years with the Phillies, he racked up 59 saves and posted a minuscule 1.86 ERA before leaving in free agency after the ’05 season.

But here we are, nine years into Wagner’s Hall of Fame saga, with the end in sight. If Tuesday doesn’t bring the good news he’s waited for, his case will fall to the Hall’s eras committees, like it did for Dick Allen and Dave Parker last December.

And while Wagner’s numbers seem undeniable, it’s been a long, emotional journey. At long last, the waiting ends Tuesday. Cooperstown or not, Billy Wagner’s Hall of Fame odyssey will finally have its conclusion.

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post
Philadelphia Baseball Review - Phillies News, Rumors and Analysis