Former Dodgers Adrian Beltre, Chase Utley, and Adrian Gonzalez will join the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time next year.
Scott Rolen was the only new inductee to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in the results announced on Tuesday. Rolen joins former Dodgers first baseman Fred McGriff, who was elected by the veterans committee last month, as the Hall’s class of 2023.
Two players with LA ties got zero votes and will drop off the ballot, Andre Ethier and Jayson Werth. Another, Jeff Kent, fell short in his 10th and final time on the ballot and will also drop off. Five others who played for Los Angeles — Andruw Jones, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Bobby Abreu, and Jimmy Rollins — will carry over to next year’s ballot. It will be Sheffield’s 10th and final year on the ballot, and he’s topped out at 55 percent so far, so he’s likely to fall short again and drop off.
The five returning Dodgers will be joined on the ballot by three newcomers with LA ties: Adrian Beltre, Chase Utley, and Adrian Gonzalez.
Beltre won’t stick around on the ballot for long, as he’s a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. Beltre is one of just seven players in MLB history with at least 475 home runs and 3,100 hits, and you might have heard of the others: Hank Aaron, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, and Stan Musial. He also has the second-highest Defensive WAR of any third baseman in history, behind only Brooks Robinson. Easy choice for the Hall of Fame.
Utley’s case will be more interesting. He doesn’t stack up well in the traditional counting stats because his career was relatively short and he had some injuries, playing 140 games or more in a season only five times. But the only second baseman with more Defensive WAR and a better career OPS+ than Utley was Joe Gordon, and he’s in the Hall of Fame despite having an even shorter career. Utley is right in the territory of Bobby Grich and Lou Whitaker, a slightly better fielder and comparable hitter. Considering that Grich and Whitaker both should definitely be in the Hall of Fame, Utley should be, too, but it might take a few years for the writers to figure it out.
Gonzalez could be one-and-done like Ethier was. He was definitely a better player than Ethier, but his numbers just don’t stack up to the bar set for a first baseman to get into the Hall of Fame. Mark Grace and Carlos Delgado are two comparable players who lasted just one year on the ballot. On the other hand, Don Mattingly lasted 15 years, so Gonzalez could have his boosters who keep him on the ballot for a while.
It could be an interesting year for arguing about the Hall of Fame, especially when it comes to Utley and Joe Mauer.
