Looking ahead to 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot: CC Sabathia to make debut
NEW YORK – Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia are up next.
Looking ahead to the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot, Ichiro and Sabathia – teammates on the 2012-14 Yankees – will be joined by other big-name, first-time eligibles Felix Hernandez and Dustin Pedroia.
Ichiro would appear to have a slam-dunk candidacy, with 10 All-Star appearances, 10 Gold Gloves as the Seattle Mariners right fielder, a .311 career batting average and 509 stolen bases.
At age 27 when he arrived in the majors from Japan and won the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards, the iconic Ichiro still compiled over 3,000 hits and tied an MLB record with 10 seasons of at least 200 hits.
A key member of the 2009 world champion Yankees after signing a seven-year, $161 million free agent contract – the largest sum for a pitcher at the time – Sabathia is one of just five pitchers to compile 250 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and a .600 winning percentage.
As a left-handed pitcher, Sabathia ranks third on the all-time strikeout list (18th overall) behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton.
Sabathia made three of his six All-Star teams with Cleveland, where he won a Cy Young Award in 2007, and he was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA after being traded to Milwaukee in 2008, carrying the Brewers to postseason.
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His contemporary, “King Felix’’ Hernandez also made six All-Star teams and won a Cy Young Award with the Seattle Mariners, twice leading the league in ERA and striking out at least 200 batters in six straight seasons.
A three-time world champion second baseman with the Boston Red Sox, Pedroia batted .299 for his career, captured four Gold Glove Awards and claimed the 2008 AL MVP.
Notable among next year’s ballot first-timers will be some familiar New York names in outfielders Curtis Granderson, Melky Cabrera and Carlos Gomez, and catchers Brian McCann and Russell Martin, along with Troy Tulowitzki, Hanley Ramirez, Adam Jones and Fernando Rodney.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot: CC Sabathia to make debut
