Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia among 14 newcomers on 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot
The Class of 2025 could include some big, big names
The Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is being mailed to 400 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America this week, and that ballot includes 14 candidates who are appearing for the very first time.
The Hall of Fame announced the names of those candidates Monday, and there are some truly exciting players that could lead to one of the most fun Hall of Fame classes in years.
Here are all 14 first-time candidates on the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
OF Carlos González
OF Curtis Granderson
SP Félix Hernández
OF Adam Jones
2B Ian Kinsler
C Russell Martin
C Brian McCann
2B Dustin Pedroia
SS Hanley Ramírez
RP Fernando Rodney
SP CC Sabathia
OF Ichiro Suzuki
SS Troy Tulowitzki
IF/OF Ben Zobrist
It's not hard to spot the big names on that list. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, a legendary MLB player and an icon in Japan, where he started his career, is a lock to be elected on his very first ballot. He debuted for the Orix Buffaloes in 1992 at age 18, and after experiencing incredible success there, made the jump to MLB as a 27-year-old rookie who had already played 951 professional major-level games before setting foot on an MLB field.
Ichiro's first MLB appearance for the Seattle Mariners in 2001 kicked off an 19-year career that included an MVP award, the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year award, 10 All-Star appearances, 10 Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers. He retired with a .311/.355/.402 triple slash and 3,089 hits after spending 14 seasons with the Mariners, three seasons with the Miami Marlins and three seasons with the New York Yankees.
CC Sabathia isn't the lock that Ichiro is, but he's got a decent shot at being elected this year (or if not this year than definitely in the future). He pitched for three teams over a 19-year career, starting as a 20-year-old with Cleveland, then spending half a season with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008, and finally signing with the New York Yankees for the final 11 years of his career. He retired with 251 wins, a 3.74 career ERA and 3,093 strikeouts over 561 games and 3,577 1/3 innings.
Sabathia, Ichiro and the 12 other new candidates will join a ballot with 14 holdovers: Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Francisco Rodríguez, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Omar Vizquel, Billy Wagner and David Wright.
Of those 14 holdovers, reliever Billy Wagner is the only one in his 10th and final year of eligibility. He's also the player who got closest to election last year without actually making it over the hump. He received 284 votes last year (73.8%), just five votes short of the 75% cutoff for election.
