Alex Rodriguez has not garnered a lot momentum 4 years into his Corridor of Fame eligibility.
The previous Yankees slugger appeared on 37.1% of the 394 ballots submitted by the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation (BBWAA) this 12 months.
Whereas that’s the very best share A-Rod has acquired, it’s a marginal enhance from the 34.3% of votes he debuted with in 2022. He acquired 35.7% in 2023 and 34.8% in 2024.
Hanging over Rodriguez’s candidacy, in fact, is his violation of MLB’s performance-enhancing medicine coverage, which resulted in a season-long suspension in 2014 for his function in baseball’s Biogenesis scandal.
A candidate should obtain 75% of votes so as to be elected to the Corridor, and whereas Rodriguez has six years of eligibility remaining, he has appreciable floor to make up.
The stagnancy of Rodriguez’s percentages counsel many citizens have dug into their beliefs about his candidacy. However whereas the general voters leans decidedly towards including Rodriguez, the previous infielder has acquired a small surge of help from newer voters.
Among the many 16 first-time voters who made their 2025 ballots public, 9 voted for A-Rod to get in, in line with Ryan Thibodaux’s HOF vote tracker. That’s 56.3% — nonetheless effectively shy of 75%, however considerably greater than Rodriguez’s total vote share.
Amongst these to vote for Rodriguez was Stephen Nesbitt, a senior MLB author for The Athletic, who in the end determined that protecting him, and different all-time greats with steroid ties, out of Cooperstown could be a disservice to the Corridor.
“There’s so little we actually know about these people as people, and I felt that if banishment from Cooperstown was supposed to be tied together with having cheated and being punished for it, then that should be established by the league or by the Hall of Fame. I don’t believe you should place someone on the ballot who I’m not meant to vote for.”
Each Corridor of Fame voter involves their very own conclusions on who to vote for and strategy points similar to PEDs. However earlier years featured an identical pattern.
In 2022, eight of the 15 first-time voters with public ballots, or 53.3%, voted in favor of Rodriguez. In 2023, it was the very same quantity.
The outlier got here in 2024, when solely six of the 17 first-time voters with public ballots — or 35.3% — voted for A-Rod.
“Part of this is I never shared a clubhouse with these guys,” Nesbitt stated. “I was never in a huddle where they lied to me. I was never tracking a congressional hearing where they said something that wasn’t true. … The reader can decide for themselves: Is that good that I am now allowed an opportunity to vote when I was, during their playing career, watching them in a different context?”
Rodriguez’s stats alone are undeniably Corridor-worthy. He ranks fourth in MLB historical past with 2,086 RBI and fifth with 696 dwelling runs. He’s one among 33 gamers in baseball’s illustrious 3,000-hit membership.
However in 2009, Rodriguez admitted to utilizing a banned substance earlier in his profession as a member of the Texas Rangers. In 2014, he served what was then the longest PED suspension in MLB historical past. That got here after he sued MLB and its gamers union to problem the suspension, earlier than in the end dropping the lawsuit.
Equally prolific gamers similar to Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens weren’t voted into the Corridor as a result of steroid allegations. Neither served a suspension.
One first-time voter this 12 months who didn’t vote for Rodriguez was JJ Cooper, the editor and chief of Baseball America, who thought-about a number of components earlier than making his choice.
He voted for first-time candidates he thought-about worthy — Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia — however opted towards utilizing one among his 10 votes on a participant like Rodriguez or Manny Ramirez, whom he believed wouldn’t get elected nor fall off the poll this 12 months.
He additionally thought-about that Rodriguez and Ramirez served PED suspensions after MLB launched league-wide drug testing in 2003.
“So that was the other part of it, which is I didn’t vote for A-Rod, I didn’t vote for Manny Ramirez, both of whom were suspended after PED use was being tested for and was now clearly something that led to very significant suspensions.”
Cooper reserved his proper to vary his thoughts on Rodriguez in future years, however he acknowledged A-Rod would have a better path had Bonds made it earlier than him.
Bonds, a seven-time MVP who hit an MLB-record 762 dwelling runs, appeared on 66% of the ballots in his last 12 months of eligibility in 2022. Clemens, who gained 354 video games and 7 Cy Younger Awards, acquired 65.2% of votes in 2022 earlier than falling off the poll as effectively.
Suzuki, Sabathia and Billy Wagner had been the three electees to be voted in by the BBWAA in 2025, marking the second 12 months in a row through which three gamers appeared on not less than 75% of the ballots.
Future years could provide a extra fascinating case research for Rodriguez. There are not any slam-dunk additions becoming a member of the 2026 poll, neither is there anybody like Wagner, who had gotten near election earlier than lastly receiving sufficient votes in his last 12 months of eligibility.
However Nesbitt, Cooper and Madden agree there may be not a transparent path for Rodriguez to achieve entry.
“There’s no way he’s going in, even with more younger voters coming on every year,” Madden stated. “It will never be enough.”
Initially Printed: January 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM EST
