Here is my Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and the reasons for how I voted

Voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame is a piece of cake.

Well, that’s what I mistakenly thought before I became a voter. This is the second year I’ve cast a ballot and it’s far more stressful than I imagined. Voting is an honor and there’s a great deal of responsibility that goes with it, in my opinion.

I dug into the research, spoke with people and read all I could about the candidates. Jay Jaffe’s work at FanGraphs was an indispensable resource as were stories by voters who have written about their ballots in the past.

The Hall of Fame results will be revealed Tuesday, and ahead of that announcement I wanted to share how I came to select the seven players on my ballot.

Carlos Beltrán

Beltrán was drafted by the Royals in 1995 and won the AL Rookie of the Year award four years later. He is one of just six players to reach 2,500 hits, 300 homers and 300 stolen bases in a career. Beltrán impacted games with his glove, too. He won three Gold Glove awards, and the metrics show his defense in center field was elite.

The Astros’ sign-stealing scandal is a black mark on Beltrán’s career, for sure, but I don’t believe he acted alone. Plus, his body of work before that second stint with the Astros was enough to make him a Hall of Famer.

I don’t ding players for not making the playoffs, but Beltrán gets credit for what he did in the postseason. His 2004 postseason with the Astros is one of the best I’ve seen as he terrorized Atlanta and St. Louis (.435 average, eight home runs, three doubles, nine walks, 21 runs scored, 14 RBIs and six stolen bases in 12 games).

Adrián Beltré

There’s no need to spend much time on Beltré, who should be a lock for the Hall of Fame based simply on this: among players who appeared in at least 50 percent of their games at third base, Beltré is the only player in MLB history with at least 3,000 hits and 450 home runs. He had 3,166 and 477, respectively.

I’ll add this story. Not long after I began covering baseball a decade ago, the Rangers came to Kauffman Stadium in a forgettable game, except for one moment. Lorenzo Cain hit a shot down the third-base line and Beltré picked it and threw to first with such ease that I must have gasped, because my colleague said, “And that’s why he’s won so many Gold Gloves.”

Beltré won five Gold Glove awards and two Platinum Gloves.

Todd Helton

For some voters, where Helton played his career is nearly an automatic disqualification. But before you throw out his 2,519 hits, 592 doubles, 369 home runs and .953 OPS, I’m going to quote a Royals official.

Before Sam Mellinger became the Royals’ Vice President of Communications, he worked at The Star and voted for Helton.

This is from a 2020 column: “The more you look at the numbers, the more the Coors Field stuff chips away. Helton’s career OPS+ — a number that is adjusted for factors like ballpark and era — is higher than Tony Gwynn, Dave Winfield, Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks, Eddie Murray and many other Hall of Famers. His career road OPS is within .005 of Ken Griffey Jr.

“Helton defined the Rockies for a generation. He was a first-round pick in 1995, and played all 17 years in Denver. He walked 160 more times than he struck out. He won three Gold Gloves, and was considered among the best defensive first basemen his entire career.”

Sure, Coors Field likely helped Helton, but his career numbers at his home park were on another level. As MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa noted, Helton had 4,841 home plate appearances and slashed .345/.441/.607 with 227 home runs.

Andruw Jones

From 1997 to 2007, Jones had 363 home runs, 323 doubles, a .343 on-base percentage and 10 Gold Glove awards while playing in at least 153 games each season in center field.

As USA Today’s Jesse Yomtov noted, Jones is one of only four players in MLB history to have won 10 Gold Gloves with 400 career home runs (Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt and Ken Griffey Jr.).

“The center fielder’s 24.2 defensive WAR from 1998-2007 was the best in the game with future Hall of Famer Scott Rolen’s 15.1 a not-so-close second,” Yomtov wrote.

Jones’ performance dropped off considerably when he left the Braves after the 2007 season, but the decade before that, he was the best center fielder in baseball.

Joe Mauer

Injuries caused Mauer to move to first base, which seems to be an issue with some people.

But in his nine full seasons as a catcher (2005-13), including games as a DH, Mauer slashed .323/.406/.466 with a 135 OPS+, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci noted. During that span, Miguel Cabrera is the only player who had a higher batting average.

This is an excerpt of what FanGraphs’ Jaffe wrote about Mauer: “Among the 68 players who played at least 50% of their non-pinch-hitting games behind the plate and accumulated at least 5,000 PA in the AL, NL and 19th-century leagues, Mauer ranks 11th with a 124 OPS+. Raise the bar to 6,000 PA, and he’s eighth of 36; raise it to 7,000, and he’s sixth of 20. Let that sink in: only 20 players who have spent a majority of their careers behind the plate in those leagues have even reached 7,000 PA. ... Ten of the 20 are in the Hall, including nine of the top 11 in OPS+, with Mauer and Jorge Posada (121 OPS+) the exceptions.”

Oh, and Mauer won three batting titles, the only catcher in MLB history to accomplish that feat.

Gary Sheffield

A question I was asked when sharing my ballot on X was why I voted for Sheffield but not Alex Rodriguez or Manny Ramirez.

Sheffield admitted to using steroids in 2002 in a Sports Illustrated story but said he didn’t realize it at the time. Was he lying? Possibly. But Sheffield pushed for wanting players to be tested for steroid use.

Ramirez and Rodriguez were two-time offenders and both received suspensions after MLB instituted PED testing. This line from Sam in 2020 about Ramirez has stayed with me: “That level of arrogance, disrespect and desperation is a separator.”

As for what Sheffield did on the field: he won five Silver Slugger Awards and was in the top 10 of MVP voting six times. From 1992 to 2005, Sheffield had a 153 OPS+. He had the 21st most walks in MLB history (1,475), the 27th most home runs (509) and is 35th in total bases (4,737).

Sheffield’s fielding left much to be desired but what he did at the plate more than made up for that.

Billy Wagner

Like the players who are known to have taken PEDs, you can agree to disagree with me on relief pitchers. For better or worse, closers have become an integral part of the game, and those who dominated should be recognized.

Wagner has the sixth-most saves in MLB history (422). From 1996-2008 with the Astros, Phillies and Mets, Wagner had an ERA+ of 181 with a 1.009 WHIP and 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings.

Jaffe, the FanGraphs writer, noted that “among pitchers with at least 900 innings, his strikeout rate, whether expressed as 11.92 per nine or as 33.2% of all batters faced, is the best in history. ... At the 900-inning level, Wagner’s .187 opponent batting average is the lowest in history, 17 points better than the next 20th- or 21st-century pitcher, Nolan Ryan.”