5 Red Sox players who should be in HOF

The tradition-rich Red Sox have been defined by their many superstar players through the decades. Thirty-seven of those players have received the ultimate recognition for their greatness with a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Yet there are still some other former Boston greats who should be there and likely will be at some point. In that spirit, MLB.com has asked each beat reporter to rank the top five players from the team they cover who are not in the Hall of Fame.

A couple of rules: The player must be retired. And the player must have played a significant portion of his career with that team.

For example, Adrian Beltre won’t be in Boston’s top five, because he played just one season for the Red Sox.

Here is my ranking of the top five Red Sox players who aren't in the Hall of Fame.

1) Roger Clemens, 1984-2007
Spent first 13 seasons with the Red Sox
Clemens got his best support yet on the BBWAA ballot in 2022, when he received 65.2% of the vote. A candidate needs 75% for election. Unfortunately for the Rocket, it was his 10th and final year on the ballot. His candidacy will now move to the era committees.

Clemens won a record-setting seven Cy Young Awards, the first three of which came when he was with the Red Sox. He also became the first pitcher in history to strike out 20 in a game and then he tied his own record 10 years later. The Rocket had 354 wins -- including 192 with the Red Sox, tying Cy Young for the club’s all-time record. Clemens led the Majors in ERA+ eight times. His 4,672 strikeouts rank third in history behind Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.

How much did performance-enhancing drugs help Clemens reach some of those gaudy numbers, particularly during the latter half of his career? Clemens never failed a PED test, but he was cited numerous times in the 2007 Mitchell Report.

Clemens, according to many who played with him, had a tireless work ethic. He also studied his craft like few others, even having a book on the strike zone for all the umpires. If you go by the statistics, Clemens is the best pitcher currently not in the Hall of Fame. The only pitchers in history with a better career WAR than the 138.7 for Clemens as calculated by Baseball-Reference? Cy Young and Walter Johnson.

2) Curt Schilling, 1988-2007
Spent his final four seasons with the Red Sox
Schilling seemed to be trending toward Cooperstown in 2020 and ’21, when he received 70% and 71.1% of votes on the BBWAA ballot. No candidate with time left on the ballot had ever gotten to that high of a percentage without eventually getting voted in. But then came the letter Schilling posted on social media after the ’21 results were announced, in which he asked the Hall of Fame to remove him from the ballot and said he had no interest in being elected by writers.

The Hall of Fame denied Schilling’s request, but many voters respected Schilling’s wishes, as his voting percentage plummeted to 58.6 in his final year on the BBWAA ballot. Now it is onto the era committees for Schilling.

Perhaps the most clutch starting pitcher of his era, Schilling participated in the World Series four times for three franchises (Phillies, D-backs and Red Sox) and was on the winning side three times, twice with Boston.

While Schilling’s regular-season accomplishments were impressive enough (216-146, 3.46 ERA and 3,116 strikeouts), it was his utter brilliance in the postseason that truly sets him apart. In that ultra-pressurized environment of the playoffs, Schilling made 19 starts, going 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP.

3) Dwight Evans, 1972-91
Spent all but the last season of his career with the Red Sox
While it is often said that a player can’t get any better after he retires, Evans is unique in that his offensive strength (getting on base at a high volume) is something that is weighted far more in player evaluations today than when he had his short run on the writers' ballot from 1997-99. The only player who walked more than Evans in the '80s? Rickey Henderson.

But Evans didn’t just walk. He also mashed. Evans led MLB with 605 extra-base hits in the 1980s. The only players with more homers in that decade than Evans? Mike Schmidt, Dale Murphy and Eddie Murray.

Oh, we haven’t talked about his defense yet. Evans won eight Gold Glove Awards for his excellence in the outfield. One year ago, Evans was one of 10 candidates on the Modern Era ballot and received votes from eight of the 16 members on the committee, leaving him four votes shy of election.

Evans played alongside Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Dennis Eckersley and Wade Boggs and hoped to one day join them with a plaque of his own.

4) Manny Ramirez, 1993-2011
Spent eight seasons with the Red Sox
If it was just about numbers, Ramirez would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. His consistent excellence ranks him with Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera as the best pure right-handed hitters of this generation. But there’s a problem. Ramirez wasn’t merely associated with performance-enhancing drugs, he was suspended twice for failing tests. That is something that can’t be said of Clemens, Barry Bonds and some others who haven’t been voted into the Hall of Fame due to their association with PEDs.

In Ramirez’s sixth year on the BBWAA ballot, he had a slight increase to 28.2% of the vote. He will have four more chances.

Ramirez was an entertaining, enigmatic hitting machine during his career. The outfielder with a sweet and fluid swing crushed the ball to all fields for many years with Cleveland and Boston. He also stood out during his brief stint with the Dodgers. Ramirez had a career slash line of .312/.411/.585 while belting 555 homers to go with 1,831 RBIs. A big-game player, Ramirez played on two AL pennant-winners with Cleveland and two World Series championship teams with the Red Sox.

The shame about Ramirez’s choice to use PEDs is that it overshadows his legendary work ethic and obsession with his craft. Ramirez would often get to the ballpark at 10 a.m. on the day of a night game to study video, take extra swings and lift weights.

5) Luis Tiant, 1964-82
Spent eight seasons with the Red Sox
El Tiante built a strong résumé as a big-game pitcher but struck out in 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, topping out at 30.9% in his first year of eligibility in 1988.

A great case can be made for Tiant, especially when you compare his career stats to Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, who gained entry into the Hall of Fame on his third year on the BBWAA ballot. In 500 games and 476 starts, Hunter was 224-166 with a 3.26 ERA, 3,449 1/3 innings and 2,012 strikeouts. In 573 games and 484 starts, Tiant was 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA, 3,486 1/3 innings 2,416 strikeouts. Hunter’s ERA+ was 104, Tiant’s 114.

Both pitchers were strong in their postseason opportunities, though Hunter played for five World Series champions and Tiant never won it all.

When Tiant was at his best, he was a force. In 1968, he won 21 games and had a 1.60 ERA for Cleveland. Tiant had three 20-win seasons in Boston. The Veterans Committee, which has been restructured as the eras committees, viewed his candidacy several times, and Tiant still didn’t warrant enough support. He deserves more consideration.