Monday marked the release of the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. The biggest new name on the ballot is that of Ichiro Suzuki, who could become the second unanimous Hall of Famer after Mariano Rivera in 2019. But there are two newcomers and one holdover who have a history with the Brewers, one of whom figures to feature prominently in Hall of Fame discussions this winter.
That player is, of course, CC Sabathia, who is on his first ballot, along with another first-time nominee and Brewer trade-deadline pickup, Curtis Granderson. The two of them are joined by one holdover with Brewer ties, reliever Francisco Rodríguez. The range of opinions on Sabathia is wide, and I’d like to take a minute to break down his career.
It is universally accepted that Sabathia is a guy with a real case, but there are some who think he’s just outside the Hall standard, while others think he’s a no-doubt, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Sabathia was just 20 when he debuted in Cleveland in 2001, but he won 17 games and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. But despite that good start, he was just a little better than average through his first five seasons—a perfectly fine starter who even made a couple of All-Star teams, but a guy who had just a 107 ERA+ over those five years, which covered nearly 1,000 innings.
His first really good season came in 2006, his sixth season, when he led the league in complete games and shutouts and had a 139 ERA+. The following year, Sabathia turned in a workhorse season and led the league in starts, innings, and K:BB while posting a 141 ERA+. It was a close race, but Sabathia edged out Boston’s Josh Beckett for the American League Cy Young Award.
In 2008, Sabathia was off to a decent start, but he was in a contract year and Cleveland was hovering around . 500. The Brewers, desperate for their first playoff berth in almost three decades, traded for him at the deadline, shipping out a handful of players headlined by top-30 prospect Matt LaPorta and player-to-be-named-later Michael Brantley (who, of course, went on to a very good career).
What Sabathia did from the trade in early July until the end of the season was the stuff of legend. He made 17 starts between July 8th and the end of the season and went 11-2 with a 1. 65 ERA (255 ERA+), completing seven of those starts and throwing three shutouts.
He ended up leading the majors in complete games, innings, and shutouts, and he was by far the biggest reason why the Brewers were able to hold on to their playoff spot. He even hit . 229 with a homer and six RBI after the trade.
He earned 5. 2 bWAR with the Brewers in just under three months; since the first half of his season in Cleveland had been merely decent (and was in the other league), he did not get serious Cy Young consideration, but he finished sixth in NL MVP voting that year, higher than any other pitcher. After the 2008 season Sabathia signed a massive contract with the Yankees that immediately slotted him at the top of their rotation.
He turned out to be the missing piece, as he was clearly their best starter and helped them to a World Series victory in 2009. He won the ALCS MVP when he was 2-0 and allowed just two runs in 16 innings. Over his first three years in New York, Sabathia was basically pitching at the level he’d been at when he won the Cy Young in 2007: he had a 138 ERA+ and averaged a 20-8 season with 235 innings, 208 strikeouts, and 5.
8 WAR. He was an All-Star again in 2012, but he struggled in 2013, and in 2014 injuries derailed his career; he didn’t reach 180 innings in any of his last six seasons. Sabathia retired in 2019 with 251 wins, 3,093 strikeouts, and a 116 ERA+.
He earned 62. 3 WAR, he won a Cy Young, and he had five top-five Cy Young finishes. He was a pitcher of tremendous volume, both in his 6-6, 300-pound frame and in the amount of innings he threw, which made him a bit of a throwback.
From 2007-13, he pitched 230 innings per season and led the league twice, and from 2001-2013 he never once threw fewer than 180 innings. (This of course probably led to the injury issues that plagued him in his 30s, but it was impressive nonetheless. )The general consensus seems to be that Sabathia should be in the Hall of Fame, and should get there without much trouble, maybe even on his first ballot.
While I wouldn’t call his case “polarizing,” there are those who think Sabathia comes up short: his low-60s WAR total is right around where the cutoff point is for most starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame. His 251 wins are not traditionally a number that wows Hall voters, though I think the electorate is wiser to the lack of value in that statistic (and the changing landscape for starting pitchers). The other thing in Sabathia’s column are the strikeouts: the only players with over 3,000 strikeouts who aren’t in the Hall of Fame are either still active (Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander) or aren’t in the Hall because of extenuating circumstances (Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling).
Sabathia was also a big star who has also prominent in his retirement, which won’t hurt. A quick word on the other two former Brewers. Francisco Rodríguez played for the Brewers longer than either of these other guys, though Sabathia’s short tenure is masked by the enormous impact he made in that short time.
Rodríguez pitched quite well in Milwaukee in two separate stints: he was acquired at the trade deadline in 2011 from the New York Mets and excelled in a setup role down the stretch, but then had a rough year in 2012. He got off to an excellent start in 2013 and Milwaukee traded him to Baltimore, then resigned him as a free agent after the season; in two years back with the Brewers in 2014 and 2015, Rodríguez made back-to-back All-Star games and saved 82 games. For his career, Rodríguez saved 437 games (sixth all time), and he holds the single-season saves record with 62 in 2008 when he was a member of the Angels.
Rodríguez finished top-four in Cy Young voting three times—a pretty remarkable feat for a 21st-century reliever—and by the numbers I’d say he’s in the top 15 relievers of all time. But he had his own off-the-field trouble, and I’d also say that being a top-15-or-so reliever shouldn’t really get you in the Hall of Fame. If Billy Wagner—who was a far better player—is having trouble getting in, Rodríguez certainly should not.
He’s on his third ballot and got 7. 8% of the vote last year; he is in danger of falling below five percent and thus dropping from the ballot. The other Brewer was Curtis Granderson, who did not have a particularly memorable stint in Milwaukee.
The Brewers acquired him at the trade deadline in 2018, when he was 37, and while he played pretty well as a Brewer he appeared in just 19 regular season games and seven postseason games (all as a pinch hitter) for the club. Granderson had a great career, though: he had a top-five MVP finish as a Yankee in 2011 and had 7. 6 WAR as a Tiger in 2007, he led the league in triples twice and RBI once, he hit 41 and 43 homers in 2011 and 2012.
For his career he had 1,800 hits, 344 homers, 153 stolen bases, and 95 triples, which is in the top 20 among players who have debuted in the last 50 years. Neither Granderson nor Rodríguez will make it; Granderson might get a couple of votes but I’d be quite surprised if he got the requisite 5% necessary for him to make it to a second ballot. Sabathia, though, I expect will make it by, at minimum, next year.
If I had to guess, I’d say that he gets about 80% of the vote and, along with Ichiro and Billy Wagner (who is on his last ballot), makes a three-person class. But voters have done weirder things in the past, and I’d say that Ichiro is the only sure thing (though I’d be shocked if Wagner falls short of the handful of votes he needs over last year’s total, as players tend to get a bump in their final attempt). Either way, Brewer fans will smile if and when Sabathia’s name is announced as a Hall of Famer.
I struggle to think of any player from the history of baseball who made more of an impact and has more ardent fan support in a shorter amount of time than Sabathia in Milwaukee, and those fans will certainly be hoping to hear his name when the results are announced in January. This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
