Former Astros Star Gets First Hall of Fame Vote for 2024
Former Houston Astros reliever Billy Wagner has his first vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame and its Class of 2024 balloting.
Wagner received 68.1 percent of the vote last year, which was second-most among players that didn’t get the 75 percent needed for induction. Wagner is entering his ninth year on the ballot. A player cannot remain on the ballot for more than 10 years.
With the Astros, he went 26-29 and had 225 saves, as he made it to the All-Star Game three times. He was also named the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year in 1999 with Houston, a year in which he had 39 saves, went 4-1 and finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting.
Wagner also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets, but he is most closely associated with the Astros, where he played the first nine years of his career.
By the end of his career he was a seven-time All-Star and pitched part of a combined no-hitter on June 11, 2003, with Houston. He is also a member of the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.
His 422 career saves is second-highest among left-handed relievers and sixth overall. His career 2.31 ERA is the lowest among retired left-handed pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched in the live ball era. At the time of his retirement, his 14.95 single-season-strikeout-per-nine innings was the highest among relievers.
The first vote was cast by Adam Rubin, who covered the Mets for ESPN and is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. His ballot was released by the BBWAA’s Hall of Fame ballot tracker.
The rest of his votes went to Carlos Beltrán, Adrian Beltré, Todd Helton, Andruw Jones, Álex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez, Gary Sheffield, Chase Utley and David Wright.
The remaining candidates on the ballot include holdovers Omar Vizquel, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodríguez and Torii Hunter, along with first-year candidates Joe Mauer, José Bautista, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, Matt Holliday, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes and James Shields.
The complete class will be announced on Jan. 23, with voting to be completed by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America by Dec. 31.
In December, a select panel will determine, if any, finalists on the Contemporary Baseball Era Managers/Executives/Umpires ballot advance to next year’s ceremony, which is set for July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
