OPINION: Phillies' Chase Utley Should Be Voted into MLB Hall of Fame in 2024

Philadelphia Phillies five-time All-Star second baseman Chase Utley will be up for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum by the BBWAA in 2024. Here's why Utley belongs in Cooperstown.

Voting has concluded for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum class of 2023. Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen each will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer.

Though this year's voting has come to a close, conversation around the candidacies of those joining the ballot in 2024 is just beginning. Among those joining the ballot are All-Stars Joe Mauer, Adrian Beltre, Matt Holliday and Chase Utley.

Utley will join former teammate Jimmy Rollins on the ballot. The two manned the middle infield during the Philadelphia Phillies' heyday in the late 2000s, when they won five straight National League East division titles from 2007 through 2011. Rollins received 12.9% of the vote earlier this week, which means he will remain on the ballot for year two of his candidacy in 2024.

Utley is a surefire Hall of Famer, in my book. During his five-year peak from 2005 through 2009, he batted .301, with a .388 On Base Percentage, .922 OPS and 135 OPS+. He averaged 29 home runs and 101 RBI over those five seasons. No, those were not the numbers he averaged per 162 games. He put up those numbers, while averaging 151 games per season.

Utley's production eventually dipped, but he did put together a slash line of .275/.358/.823 over his 16-year career, playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers after 12 and a half years with the Phillies.

Utley was a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger. He finished top-8 in National League MVP voting three different times.

In 2009, Utley tied a World Series record, when he hit his second home run of Game 5 against the New York Yankees. Utley tied Reggie Jackson's record for home runs in a single World Series, with five.

Like Jeff Kent, who did not make into the Hall via the writer's ballot, Utley is one of the best hitting second baseman in baseball history, and belongs in the Hall of Fame. Hopefully Utley meets a different fate.

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