Billy Wagner Elected to Hall of Fame, Chase Utley Continues Upward in 2nd Year on Ballot

Former Phillies closer Billy Wagner, who fell five votes shy in 2024, has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, named on 82.3% of ballots in this year’s voting. Here are the 3 players added to the class of 2025:

• Ichiro Suzuki: 99.7%
• C.C Sabathia 86.8%
• Bill Wagner 82.5%

Billy the Kid is in! pic.twitter.com/KzUEGlaet9

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) January 21, 2025

Wagner played two seasons in Philadelphia (2004 and 2005), tallying 126 total innings and 59 saves. He logged a 1.86 ERA, 146 Ks, and a 240 ERA+ in his time in Philadelphia. The closer holds a career 2.31 ERA and 1,196 strikeouts across 16 seasons with the Astros,  Mets, Phillies, Braves, and Red Sox.

The biggest winner, besides these three players enshrined into Cooperstown, and maybe Carlos Beltran, is Chase Utley. Utley finished his second year on the ballot tallying 39.8% of the votes, an 11% increase from his first year. Utley was 6th on the ballot in most votes received this season. This is a fantastic sign for Utley’s chances to eventually join the Hall.

Jimmy Rollins saw just a 3.6% increase from last year, totaling 18% this year. Bobby Abreu finishes this year of voting at 19.5%, increasing 4.7% from last year’s voting.

Not the best results turnout for Rollins, but things can always change. This was the former Phillies shortstop’s 4th year on the ballot. All three of Utley, Rollins, and Abreu will return to the ballot next year.

I’d love to know who the one person was who didn’t vote for Ichiro, the guy who tallied 3,000 hits while not starting his Major League Baseball career until he was 27 years old.

Here are the final results:

The Hall of Fame voting results. #collect pic.twitter.com/O0qXeL5gX9

— BlowoutBuzz.com (@BlowoutBuzz) January 21, 2025

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