3 new players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
The Baseball Hall of Fame will officially welcome three new members in 2025, with Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner all voted in by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Ichiro (99.7 percent), Sabathia (86.8 percent), and Wagner (82.5 percent) all recorded at least 80 percent of the votes, making the 2025 class the first since 2019 to have at least three members of the class picking up at least 80 percent of the votes (from the BBWAA). In 2019, that class featured Yankees closer Mariano Rivera (100 percent), Blue Jays and Phillies icon Roy Halladay (85.41 percent), and Mariners legend Edgar Martinez (85.41 percent) as its over-80 percenters.
Ichiro Suzuki

Perhaps baseball’s best pure hitter since Tony Gwynn, 2025 was Ichiro’s first and final year on the ballot, as he will enter the Hall of Fame just one vote shy of being unanimous selection. (Sidenote: You gotta be a real, attention-starved dummy — a bozo, even! — to not include Ichiro on your ballot.)
One of just seven players in MLB history to have at least 3,000 career hits and 500 stolen bases, Ichiro was a 10-time All Star, 10-time Gold Glover winner, three-time Silver Slugger, and two-time batter champion. Coming over to America as a 27-year-old stud, Ichiro welcomed himself to the Majors with a 2001 campaign that saw him lead the league with a .350 batting average, as well as a league-leading 242 hits and 56 stolen bases, on the way to Rookie of the Year and American League MVP honors.
Ichiro is also the first Japanese-born player to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.
CC Sabathia

A veteran of 19 MLB seasons between Cleveland, Milwaukee, and New York, Sabathia will also be a one-and-done on the ballot, as this was his first year on the ballot.
Sabathia’s call to The Hall comes following a career that featured 251 wins, which is tied for the 47th-most in MLB history. The powerful lefty won at least 17 games in a season on six separate occasions, including his rookie 2001 season with the Guardians (then known as the Indians) and again in 2007 en route to his first and only career Cy Young win and a 14th-place finish in the MVP voting.
A six-time All Star, Sabathia was no stranger to the Red Sox due to his tenure with Cleveland and the Yankees, and won a World Series in 2009, which was his first of 11 seasons with the Yankees.
Billy Wagner

The 10th and final trip to the ballot came with a nod for Billy Wagner, meanwhile, as Wagner will become the first closer inducted into the Hall of Fame since Rivera (and Lee Smith via the veterans committee) in 2019. Wagner, who was active from 1995 to 2010, retired with 422 saves, which at the time was good for the fifth-most in MLB history. Wagner currently sits at 8th on the MLB’s all-time saves list, having since been passed by Francisco Rodriguez, Craig Kimbrel, and Kenley Jansen.
One of the most dominant lefty relievers of the modern era, Wagner was a seven-time All Star in his MLB career, and had nine seasons of at least 30 saves. Wagner also had multiple top-10 finishes in the Cy Young race, including a fourth-place finish in 1999 and sixth-place finish in 2006.
Wagner finished his career with a bang, too, with 37 saves and a 1.43 ERA as a 38-year-old with the Braves in 2010.
And of the three newest members of the Hall of Fame, Wagner is the only one with a Boston connection, as Wagner made 15 appearances and posted a 1.98 ERA for the Red Sox in 2009.
Elsewhere on the ballot…

On the ballot for the first time since injuries forced him into an early retirement at 35 years old, former Red Sox captain Dustin Pedroia was featured on 11.9 percent of ballots submitted.
That was not close enough to make you think that Pedroia’s move to Cooperstown is around the corner (or even happening at all), of course, but it’s also enough to extend his time on the ballot itself, as any player who is on at least five percent of the ballots will remain on the ballot for 10 years.
Pedroia, who spent his entire MLB career with the Red Sox from 2006 to 2019, has no shortage of career accolades to hang his hat on beyond his two World Series rings, as Pedroia was a Rookie of the Year in 2007, MVP in 2008, and four-time Gold Glove winner and four-time All Star.

In his ninth year on the ballot, Manny Ramirez continued to inch up the ballot leaderboard, with the eighth-highest percentage, appearing on 34.3 percent of ballots. This is progress both on the overall percentage and the leaderboard itself after Ramirez finished 9th in 2023 and 2024, and just under 34 percent in both years. But Ramirez, who is linked to the Steroid Era and has had that held against him throughout his candidacy, and is entering his final year on the ballot next year.
Barring a substantial and at this point downright unlikely jump, Ramirez is unlikely to have enough of an upswing to get into the Hall of Fame by way of the BBWAA vote.
But Manny has a yet. The same cannot be said for Hanley Ramirez, though, as Ramirez picked up zero votes as a first-year nominee, meaning that he will no longer be listed on the ballot.