It’s Hall of Fame voting season once again and fans eagerly peruse X and Bluesky waiting for the small drip of public ballots to see the players that writers from the Baseball Writers Association of America think are worthy of enshrinement in Cooperstown. The BBWAA is the official voter for the Hall of Fame (something I hope to be part of someday) but I’m a member of the Internet Baseball Writers’ Association of America, an organization meant to celebrate and promote content creators for blogs and other platforms that aren’t part of the major landscape of baseball media.

Each year the IBWAA holds its own Hall of Fame voting for members before a January 1 deadline. The voting rules for the IBWAA are generally the same as the BBWAA with the added caveat that voters can choose up to 12 players as opposed to 10. In 2024 the IBWAA voters inducted Adrian Beltre and Todd Helton to mirror the BBWAA voting, however Joe Mauer failed to receive the necessary votes and is still on their ballot. After careful consideration and preparation for my second year of voting here are my selections for the 2025 IBWAA Hall of Fame. I don’t subscribe to the belief in a small hall and aimed to use all 12 votes, with a heavy emphasis on my first 10 selections, followed by the two IBWAA extra votes. I voted for Joe Mauer once again as I had in 2024 so he won’t be highlighted here. Some reasonings will be repeated from last year’s article.

Bobby Abreu

In the history of baseball, only 48 players have gotten on base more times than Bobby Abreu, 38 of whom are already in the Hall of Fame. Abreu may not have the accolades and notable MVP finishes for his resume, but the subjective opinions of fans and writers of his era shouldn’t negate what he did on the field, something he could control. He was an on-base machine. Abreu led the majors with 1,396 walks from 1998-2011 and ranks 20th on the all-time list. He recorded at least 100 walks or a .400-plus on-base percentage eight times over a nine-season span from 1998-2006. He never put of huge home run numbers, but he was an extra-base machine and danger on the basepaths. He had nine seasons with at least 60 extra-base hits and 20 stolen bases, which eventually equaled out to 921 extra-base hits and 400 steals to go along with 288 career home runs. A .291/.395/.475 career slash, 60.2 rWAR and over 2,400 hits tells me that he was a Hall of Fame caliber players.

Carlos Beltran

Carlos Beltrán is another player with a wrinkle on his resume due to his involvement with the Houston Astros cheating scandal of 2017. At age 40, he put up one of his worst seasons and was believed to be one of the masterminds behind the implementation of the trash can system. It may come as a double standard to withhold votes for PED users while voting for Beltrán but his entire career before 2017 helps his case. He goes down in history as one of the best offensive center fielders to ever play the game and had a 70.1 WAR. Still, there are compelling arguments not to vote for him, but it’s well-known that sign stealing was more rampant around that time in baseball, driven by teams and not so many players. Beltrán may have just been sharing strategies and info that he learned elsewhere. His career numbers speak for themselves, however, and he has more than paid his price of being withheld and prevented from having a larger role in MLB compared to other players and managers currently in baseball.

Félix Hernández

When it comes ot the Hall of fame, it’s a difficult question to determine whether how much impact the entirety a players career should have on their candidacy, especially when it comes to pitchers that were elite for a good stretch of time but began to fall off due to overuse and age. That seems to be the case for Félix Hernández. He will be the first to tell you that he likely didn’t win enough games and throw enough innings, but his peak years weren’t quite good, even if he fell off once he turned 30 years old. Hernández was the 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner, a six-time All-Star, the AL’s starting pitcher for the 2014 All-Star Game and a two-time winner of the AL ERA title. He also finished runner-up for the Cy twice, in 2009 and 2014, as part of six top 10 finishes. He spun the game’s 23rd perfect game in 2012. From 2006-15, Hernández led MLB in wins above replacement per FanGraphs (50.1), strikeouts (2,065), innings (2,178) and quality starts (218), while ranking fifth in ERA (3.13). In that stretch, he had 16 consecutive starts of seven innings and two runs or fewer allowed (May 18 through Aug. 11, 2014), the most in MLB history. However, for reasons not entirely known, he limped to a 5.42 ERA in his final couple of seasons, never throwing a big league pitch again after an emotional farewell in 2019. Still, is a 10-year peak as one of the game’s best pitchers enough to sway voters in this modern era of analytics and deeper looks into statistics? It was enough for me to vote for him.

Torii Hunter

Torii Hunter is one of those players who had a sneakily good career and would earn a top 10 vote from me because of the defensive qualities he contributed to his game. A career 50.7 WAR player over 19 years, Hunter was one of the best center fielders of the 2000s as from 2001-2009 he won nine straight Gold Glove awards. Along with the defensive greatness, a longevity of steady production aids his case. Hunter is one of 15 players in MLB history to record at least 350 home runs, 150 stolen bases, 450 doubles and 2,400 hits. By modern standards and metrics he may not appear as favorably but when compared to his generation of players, Hunter did enough to earn my vote.

Andruw Jones

A good comp for Hunter is Andruw Jones who is one of, if not the best defensive center fielders in National League history. From 1997-2007 he led baseball with a 26.6 defensive bWAR and had the third-best bWAR in baseball from 1998-2007 behind Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. He won 10 Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, and was a five-time All-Star. He crushed 434 career home runs, including an MLB-leading 51 in 2005 and from 1998-2006, he hit 319 of those homers while slugging .513. During his peak, he was one of the best players in baseball but things did trail off offensively in his final five seasons. Gold Gloves are subjective awards, but they paint a picture of one of the best defensive gloves to grace the game and Jones did enough in his career on offense to garner my vote.

Dustin Pedroia (12th selection)

Injuries cut down what could have been one of the absolute better second baseman careers in baseball history. Dustin Pedroia was the cream of the crop during his peak career years in Boston as his seven best seasons included a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP Award, three Gold Gloves, three All-Star selections, a Silver Slugger and two of his three World Series rings. His 41.0 WAR7 puts him just behind Hall of Famer Craig Biggio while ranking him in front of other second basemen already enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Pedroia was always worth double-digit home runs, including a single 20-homer season in 2011, but he was a contact specialist with a career .299 AVG and .365 OBP. He put up 5.4 WAR in 2016 followed by a 2.6 WAR in 2017, his age-33 season. Unfortuantely the injuries became too much and Pedroia played in just nine MLB games before announcing his retirement in 2021. He was one of the best during his peak years, but the lost time through his career is likely to keep him out of the Hall but enough to earn my 12th selection as recognition.

CC Sabathia

I’ll be honest that I wasn’t entirely sure about CC Sabathia’s candidacy until I began researching his career. I always knew that he was a good pitcher but I didn’t realize how good. During his career, Sabathia became one of just five pitchers to compile 250 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and a .600 winning percentage  and among left-handed pitchers, Sabathia’s 3,093 strikeouts ranks third on the all-time strikeout list (18th overall) behind only Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton. He finshed second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2001 to the next name on this list, was a six-time All-Star, won the Cy Young Award in 2007, and helped lead the New York Yankees to a World Series title in 2009. 19 years as premium pitcher in baseball is no small feat and Sabathia did it all with durability and a 61.8 WAR. Sure a 3.74 ERA isn’t what you’d expect to see on a Hall of Fame plaque most of the time but that is mostly inflated a bit as he had an ERA over 5 just once in his career, the only season he had a negative WAR. He was a durable and reliable arm and pitched until his arm couldn’t go any more in 2019. His work off the field as an ambassador of the game also speaks to the respectable person he is and the quality of his character.

Ichiro Suzuki

If I was limited to a single vote for this ballot, it would have to go to the Japanese phenom that is Ichiro Suzuki. After a great career in Japan, Ichiro came over to MLB and immediately took the world by storm. In his rookie season in 2001, he was named an All-Star while also earning a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove while winning the Rookie of the Year Award and the MVP award. He was a two-time American League batting champion and 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, hitting .311 with 117 homers, 780 RBIs and 509 stolen bases with the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins. He also holds the single-season hits record of 262 hits set back in 2004 and also reached the coveted 3,000 hits thanks to achieving 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons, the longest streak by any player in history. There is no question of whether or not Ichiro will get into Cooperstown but more rather will he be just the second unanimous inductee in baseball history?

Troy Tulowitzki (11th selection)

Much like Pedroia and other candidates on the ballot in generals, injuries took a toll on what could have been a surefire Hall of Fame career. Since his debut in 2006 and second-place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2007, Troy Tulowitzki seemed destined for greatness. He is one of six shortstops who had four seasons with at least 6.0 WAR by the end of his age-26 campaign joining Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra as the only other shortstops to do that in the Integration Era (since 1947). By the time he turned 30, Tulowitzki had 37.8 WAR which was more than Barry Larkin, Pee Wee Reese and Ozzie Smith at that age. During his 10 years in Colorado, Tulo slashed .299/.371/.513 with 188 homers in 1,048 games while receiving five All-Star selections, two Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves. His 5.6 rWAR average certainly sits higher than the average Hall of Fame shortstop (4.9) and while his 42.2 JAWS places him 28th among all-time shortstops and below the 55.5 average of 23 Hall of Fame shortstops, it is still better than six other Hall of Famers. Additionally, his 40.7 rWAR during his seven best seasons is nearly on par with the average for a Hall of Fame shortstop (43.2), placing him 21st overall. His career .985 fielding percentage is tied with Omar Visquel for the best in baseball history at shortstop (minimum 10,000 innings) while his 94 defensive runs saved are the second-most by a shortstop. His 41.4 ultimate zone rating places him fifth all-time behind speedy shortstops like Jimmy Rollins and Andrelton Simmons. Unfortunately, injuries robbed him of more time as he missed at least 30 games in 10 of his 13 seasons, surpassing 150 games just twice in his career. He’s not likely to get into the Hall of Fame, but as a kid who grew up in Colorado and understood how he revolutionized the shortstop position, he earns one of my extra votes.

Chase Utley

In terms of all-time second baseman in MLB Chase Utley managed to carve a place for himself as one of the best to play the position. His 65.4 WAR places him 10th between Craig Biggio and Jackie Robinson while his career OPS (.823) would place him eighth and his 259 homers would rank fifth. Much of the heavy lifting for Utley is done thanks to his opportunities to play for the Phillies and later the Dodgers, giving him ample time to play in the postseason. While the numbers are fairly lackluster in the postseason, he was still a grinder in the league that played hard. He never really lit up the box score, but he was a six-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger with a World Series ring. It was a good career, but he and fellow Phillie candidate Jimmy Rollins fall into the same category for me. They were pretty good middle infielders, but not sure they are exactly Hall of Fame-worthy.

Billy Wagner

Rounding out my ballot is Billy Wagner, one of the most dominant closers in baseball who enters his final year of eligibility on the ballot. The fireball left-hander notched 422 saves in his 16-year career with the Astros, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves. He totaled 1,196 strikeouts and had a 2.31 ERA while also being a seven-time All-Star and the NL Reliever of the Year in 1999, and he helped lead his teams to the postseason seven times. In terms of career ERA and ERA+, only one reliever was better than Wagner and that was Mariano Rivera. He was a prolific strikeout pitcher, the exact type of guy you want closing out games, which helped him record at least 30 saves in nine seasons. He also had a rare four seasons with 100+ strikeouts. The BBWAA voters are coming around on him, and he deserves a spot on the ballot.

Just Missed: Francisco Rodriguez

Due to the nature of the ballot and the inclusion of Mauer of the IBWAA ballot and my desire to recognize other players I feel are worth of it, Francisco Rodriguez fell off my ballot this year. Still, I would be open to voting for him again next year if it fits. Despite being fourth on the all-time saves list with 437 and holding the single-season saves record (62), Rodriguez is still trying to garner support for the Hall of Fame. He had six seasons of at least 40 saves, placing him behind Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, both of whom are in the Hall of Fame. 16 years in the big leagues as one of the best closers with a 2.86 ERA helped his case along with a 10.5 K/9. He did face some legal troubles off the field in the later part of his career that should rightfully be scrutinized when evaluating his career.

Closing Thoughts

And there you have it, my 12-vote ballot for the IBWAA Hall of Fame. I know it’s not a perfect ballot and there is a lot of nuances and subjective opinion that goes into the voting process. There are cases to be made for and against every player on the ballot and that’s a good aspect of the voting process. The only thing I can hope for is that fellow voters put a lot of consideration into their ballots as they make their selections because it’s not an easy process.