Ichiro, Sabathia, Wagner inducted to Baseball Hall of Fame

An all-time international baseball icon will get his day in the Cooperstown sun this July, alongside pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

Few Americans knew what to expect of Ichiro Suzuki when he first came to the United States in 2001. He had been an otherworldly hitter in Japan, tearing up the NPB with a .353/.421/.522 triple slash across nine seasons, winning seven consecutive batting titles and three Pacific League MVPs. He was a downright Ruthian celebrity in his home country. But while the likes of Hideo Nomo (and, much earlier, Masanori Murakami) had paved the way for Japanese pitchers to play in Major League Baseball, no everyday player had yet crossed over.

So even with that impressive résumé, the Mariners weren’t entirely sold on Ichiro as late as the very spring training he debuted. Manager Lou Piniella and his coaching staff wanted to know if he could “turn on the ball.” As Jake Kring-Schreifels recounted for The Ringer in 2021, the 27-year-old made his statement:

Later that day, in a 7-4 loss to the Athletics, Ichiro took his manager’s hint. After smacking two doubles to left field, he stepped to the plate in the seventh inning, surveyed the diamond with his right arm perpendicular to the ground, and whipped his hands through a low fastball to lift a home run into the bullpen beyond the right-field wall. “He comes back to the dugout, getting ready to walk down the steps to take his helmet off, and he says, ‘Is that turn on ball, Lou?’” [bench coach John] McLaren says. “He’s funny in that way.”

Ichiro would be much more than fine, en route to a stunningly good start to his MLB career that saw him win American League Rookie of the Year and MVP for a Mariners club that tied a league record with 116 victories. He led the majors in stolen bases and hits, won his first of two batting crowns by hitting .350, and after wowing in his first month on defense, won his first of 10 consecutive Gold Gloves (to go along with 10 consecutive All-Star and 200-hit seasons).

Once the dust had settled and the icon doffed his cap to the fans for final time in 2019, Ichiro had 3,089 hits and 4,367 combined with his NPB numbers, more than even Pete Rose. He broke Hall of Famer George Sisler’s 84-year-old record with 262 knocks in the 2004 campaign alone.

As the hits kept coming throughout the 2000s, it quickly became apparent that Ichiro was destined to become the first Japanese player to make the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

That day is today. On Tuesday night, the Hall of Fame announced the results of their latest election. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America has voted Ichiro, standout southpaw CC Sabathia, and fireballing closer Billy Wagner into the Hall of Fame. The trio cleared the necessary 75 percent of the vote for induction, with Ichiro falling one vote short of unanimity at 99.7 percent, Sabathia earning 86.6 percent, and Wagner tallying 82.5 percent.

Sabathia will join Ichiro as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner marched to Cooperstown by virtue of being one of modern baseball’s last true workhorses. During his 19-year career, he started 560 games, threw 3,577.1 innings and struck out 3,093, which ranks third in MLB history among all left-handed pitchers, trailing only Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton. He burst onto the scene as the Rookie of the Year runner-up to Ichiro in 2001, and after establishing himself as Cleveland’s ace, he helped Milwaukee end a 26-year playoff drought in 2008 by going on a remarkable run that saw him take the ball on short rest over and over again in September as the Brewers won the Wild Card.

The Yankees added Sabathia as part of their 2008-09 spending spree, and along with fellow newcomers Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett, and Nick Swisher, he won ALCS MVP while helping the Derek Jeter-led “Core Four” win its last championship in 2009. Sabathia made six All-Star teams before struggles on and off the field led to a mid-career decline. CC recovered, reinvented himself as a pitcher, and ultimately became a productive member of the rotation again in time for the late-2010s emergence of Aaron Judge in the Bronx. Don’t be deceived by his 3.74 career ERA; he pitched in a high-offense environment and that mark was 16-percent better than league average by ERA+. Add in the strikeouts, durability, and good-natured character, and you have a clear-cut Hall of Famer.

Ichiro and Sabathia got in on the first ballot, but Wagner had to wait until his 10th and final year of eligibility to join the Cooperstown elite. He debuted on a crowded ballot back in 2016, which has produced a dozen Hall of Famers already. BBWAA members are limited to a maximum of 10 voting spots, and it was easy for the former closer to get lost in the shuffle; indeed, it took until his fourth year on the ballot to even crack 12 percent of the vote. Wagner has gradually made gains since then though, and he missed induction by just five votes in 2024 before earning the nod this time around.

A relief pitcher making the Hall of Fame is sure to raise some eyebrows. Only a handful of closers have earned Cooperstown plaques and Wagner didn’t even reach 1,000 career innings. If some fans think that’s not enough, then that’s a respectable position.

That being said, Wagner was no ordinary closer. Despite his somewhat-diminutive size, this was a true fireballer and strikeout artist who was fanned batters at rates so far beyond the league average. Wagner’s K/9 weighted by the era actually ranks second to only Nolan Ryan in MLB history since integration. They pitched in far different roles, but that was how much Wagner dominated at the end of ballgames for the Astros, Mets, and more. FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe has more:

At the 900-inning level, Wagner’s .187 opponent batting average is the lowest in history, 17 points better than the next 20th- or 21st-century pitcher, Nolan Ryan, though if we lower the bar to 800 innings, Kimbrel (.169) and Jansen (.183) sneak past him. Again using the 900-inning cutoff, Rivera is the only post-1920 pitcher with a lower ERA (2.21) or higher ERA+ (205) than Wagner’s 2.31 and 187. His 2.73 FIP is the third-lowest in that span, behind only [Jacob] deGrom (2.59) and Sandy Koufax (2.69). Meanwhile, his 0.998 WHIP is the third-lowest all-time behind dead-ball era hurler Addie Joss (0.968) and deGrom (0.994).

Wagner racked up 422 career saves, and even more to his credit, he stepped away from the game while still excelling. He made his seventh and final All-Star team with Atlanta in 2010, recording a minuscule 1.43 ERA and 0.865 WHIP while notching 104 strikeouts in 69.1 innings with 37 saves. Nonetheless, he chose to retire at age 38, leaving open the possibility that there was more room on the table to accrue traditional counting stats.

In addition to Ichiro, Sabathia, and Wagner, both Dick Allen and Dave Parker will be enshrined in the 2025 Hall of Fame class. The two ‘70s sluggers were voted in by the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December. Allen passed away in 2020, but his family will attend the induction ceremonies in July along with the other four new Hall of Famers. Guardians announcer Tom Hamilton and retired Washington Post scribe Thomas Boswell will be honored with the Ford C. Frick Award and the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, respectively.

The “wait ‘til next year” crowd will be highlighted by Carlos Beltrán, who was over the 75-percent threshold on Ryan Thibodaux’s public ballot tracker before falling below when the totals from private ballots were included. He finished at 70.3 percent. Andruw Jones is not terribly far off either at 66.2 percent, and with 39.8 percent, Chase Utley made great gains from his 28.8 percent debut on the ballot last year. Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez remain stuck in sub-40-percent purgatory, as their incredible careers were mired by PED suspensions.

First-year nominees Félix Hernández and Dustin Pedroia earned the necessary five percent to remain on the ballot next year alongside Beltrán, Jones, Utley, A-Rod, Ramirez, Bobby Abreu, Omar Vizquel, Jimmy Rollins, Andy Pettitte, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodriguez, Torii Hunter, and David Wright. Catchers Russell Martin and Brian McCann were among the players earning under five percent, and who will not be included on the 2026 ballot.

The full voting totals can be found below. Congratulations to the newest Hall of Famers!