NEW YORK — Billy Wagner may have been an Astro and a Phillie at least as much as he was a Met, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he was, indeed, a Met. Wagner was an important one, too, spending three-plus years as the closer in Queens following stints in Houston and Philadelphia.
So make no mistake: Wagner’s election into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday marked a victory for the franchise.
“Congratulations to Billy Wagner on baseball’s highest honor,” Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement. “He was a two-time All-Star during his four seasons in Queens and earned his 300th career save in a Mets uniform. Billy was one of the game’s [most dominant] closers and will now be forever enshrined in the Hall of Fame.”
Wagner wasn’t the only Met to achieve some measure of success on Tuesday’s ballot reveal. Carlos Beltrán crept closer to the Hall in his third year on the ballot, while David Wright garnered enough support to stay on it. Here’s a deeper look at the cases of those three and others:
Wagner
Considering Wagner fell just five votes shy of induction in his ninth year on the ballot last January, his election this time around seemed mostly assured … to perhaps everyone other than Wagner himself, who has taken nothing for granted during this process. Multiple times, Wagner has said he’s never regretted retiring after an age-38 season that saw him produce a 1.43 ERA, even while acknowledging that a few more saves, a few more strikeouts, might have made him a shoo-in Hall of Famer.
He seemed at peace with the idea of missing out.
He seemed at peace with the idea of missing out.
But he didn’t, thanks to the voting bump that typically accompanies a player’s final year on the ballot. Needing five more votes, Wagner gained 41 of them to become the eighth player to earn induction in his final year of eligibility, and he responded with a genuine show of emotion.
It’s happened three times over the last decade, with Tim Raines, Edgar Martínez and Larry Walker all earning induction in Year 10
Beltrán
If not for his role in the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, Beltrán probably would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. His numbers suggest he is one. On paper, there’s not much of a counterargument.
And while no modern precedent exists for this situation, polling trends suggest Beltrán will almost certainly enter the Hall next year. He received 70.3 percent of the vote this time around, up from 46.5 percent in 2023 and 57.1 percent last year. There will always be a block of voters unwilling to support him because of the sign-stealing affair, but it doesn’t appear that that’s ultimately going to keep him out of Cooperstown.
Wright
When Wright first became eligible for the ballot last year, he was at risk of being a one-and-done candidate. Players need to receive 5 percent of the vote to stay on, and Wright — due in part to a crowded ballot, and in part to the back, neck and shoulder injuries that ended his career — cleared that bar by only four votes.
One year later, his case is gaining some slight momentum, thanks largely to an analytical argument that focuses on his peak — specifically a three-year run from 2006-08 that saw him hit 89 homers, steal 69 bases, produce a .933 OPS, accumulate 19.3 WAR, make three All-Star teams, win two Gold Gloves and a pair of Silver Sluggers, and finish in the Top 10 in National League MVP voting all three of those seasons. Over that stretch, plus at various points throughout a wider window from 2004-13, Wright was clearly one of the game’s best players.
That he appeared in merely 1,585 career games is a problem, though not an insurmountable one; a handful of Hall of Fame hitters have fewer. Going forward, Wright’s case will hinge upon whether voters reward him for his peak and ignore his lack of longevity — something the BBWAA electorate never did for another notable New York star, Don Mattingly. Wright remains a long shot to make the Hall, but lines of thinking have changed in the decade since Mattingly fell off the ballot. For Wright, there is at least a glimmer of hope.
Others
Bobby Abreu, who finished his 18-year career with the Mets, continued receiving modest but consistent support in his sixth year on the ballot, earning 19.5 percent of the vote. … Francisco Rodríguez, the former Mets closer, earned 10.2 percent of votes to remain on the ballot. … Off the ballot, however, is Curtis Granderson, who garnered just three total votes in his first year of eligibility.
