Billy Wagner received 82.5 percent of the tally from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, after he missed by just five votes last year.
In his 10th and last bid on the ballot, the former Mets closer earned what might as well have been his 423rd save, clearing the 75 percent threshold to join Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia as entrants into Cooperstown.“I felt like the clock stopped,” Wagner said about receiving the phone call that he waited a decade for.
Wagner needed a steady climb to get over the hump. He began his eligibility with just 10.5 percent of the vote in 2016. He started to rise in his fifth year and had increasingly jumped in each year since, reaching 73.8 percent in 2024.ESPN reporter paints different picture of Notre Dame after claim of 'bizarre scenes' in locker room“It’s not been an easy 10 years,” Wagner said in a virtual news conference. “The only thing I thought I did well was I didn’t blow a save for 10 years.
The southpaw will be immortalized after a career that finished with 422 saves , a 187 ERA+ that underscored his excellence and 1,196 strikeouts in 903 innings, an 11.9 Ks-per-nine-innings mark that is the highest for any pitcher who logged 900 innings. His 2.31 career ERA is the lowest among retired southpaws with at least 500 innings pitched since 1920. He held opposing batters to a .187 average and simply was one of the most difficult pitchers to hit ever.
Steve and Alex Cohen congratulated Wagner, a native of small-town Virginia who acknowledged Queens was an adjustment but one that he is happy he made.“I joined the Mets because I knew that going to New York would be one way to try to get to the Hall of Fame,” Wagner said. “And it wasn’t going to be easy when you got the greatest reliever, closer across town.
But his link to the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal from 2017 might have postponed his induction by a year or two . Beltran is now a special assistant to David Stearns in the Mets front office.Mets reliever Billy Wagner reacts after getting the third out against theAstros' Billy Wagner reacts after the final out against the San Francisco Giants
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