A-Rod¡¯s HOF support below 35 percent
SEATTLE -- Former Mariners great Alex Rodriguez will not go into the Hall of Fame in 2022.
A-Rod received 34.3% of the vote from the Baseball Writers¡¯ Association of America, the results of which were revealed Tuesday on MLB Network.
Players must receive at least 75% to be elected, and votes were due by Dec. 31. This is the first year that Rodriguez was eligible for voting by the BBWAA, and he¡¯ll remain on the ballot for each of the next nine years, so long as he continues to clear the 5% mark.
Red Sox icon David Ortiz, who like Rodriguez was on the ballot for the first time, was the only player elected by the writers in 2022, with 77.9% of the vote. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on July 24 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Tuesday¡¯s results for A-Rod weren¡¯t necessarily shocking given his complex legacy. His career statistics are among the game¡¯s all-time greatest, but his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs after his time with the Mariners cast a cloud over his candidacy.
Rodriguez was a three-time MVP, 14-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and he ranks fourth all time in homers (696), third in RBIs (2,086), seventh in total bases (5,813), seventh in extra-base hits (1,275) and eighth in runs scored (2,021). He admitted to PED use during his time with the Rangers from 2001-03, and he was suspended while playing for the Yankees for the entire ¡¯14 season, which at the time was MLB¡¯s longest PED-related sanction.
¡°Legacy is not for me to determine,¡± Rodriguez said in 2016, just after playing his final Major League game. ¡°I know that I¡¯m someone who loves the game tremendously. I¡¯ve made some tremendous mistakes, and I¡¯ve also worked extremely hard in trying to come back and do things the right way.¡±
That controversy came after he left Seattle, which, of course, is where he began his career and quickly ascended as one of his generation¡¯s best.
The Mariners selected a 17-year-old Rodriguez with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1993 Draft out of Westminster Christian School in Miami. And, after signing a then-record $1.3 million contract and a $1 million signing bonus, Rodriguez debuted with enormous hype just 13 months later.
Rodriguez went on to spend his first seven big league seasons with the Mariners, earning four All-Star selections (1996-98, 2000) and four Silver Sluggers. In 790 games with Seattle, Rodriguez had a slash line of .309/.374/.561 and a 138 OPS+, 189 home runs and 595 RBIs. He won the American League batting title in ¡¯96 with a .358 average in his age-20 season, becoming the third-youngest champion in AL/NL history, behind only Al Kaline and Ty Cobb. He was runner-up in the AL MVP Award voting that year.
Despite a shorter stint than other Mariners icons, Rodriguez ranks among the franchise¡¯s leaders in many statistical categories, including OPS (.934, first), homers (fifth), runs scored (627, sixth) RBIs (eighth) and hits (966, 10th). His 38.1 wins above replacement, per Baseball-Reference, are fourth-most in team history.