Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, and Todd Helton were elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, and will join former manager Jim Leyland in Cooperstown as part of the Class of 2024.
Now that this class is complete, though, the question becomes who will join them next year.
Billy Wagner (73.8% of the vote), Andruw Jones (61.6%) and Carlos Beltrán (57.1%) are the top holdovers from this year's ballot. But beyond those names, and the others back for another year, a six-member screening committee will soon be charged with filling out the rest of the 2025 ballot by nominating first-time eligible players—those who have been retired for five years—for Hall of Fame candidacy.
Two first-timers, Beltré and Mauer, made the cut this year. Who may follow suit in 2025? Here's a look at the biggest names likely to be on next year's ballot.
Ichiro Suzuki, OF
About a year from now, Suzuki will be getting a call to the Hall.
The longtime Seattle Mariners outfielder is about as close as a player can be to a Hall of Fame lock, and like Beltré this year will be the one sure thing on the 2025 ballot. The 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner and 2001 American League MVP racked up 3,089 hits stateside after already compiling 1,278 in Japan. Plus there's the two batting titles and seven times leading the league in hits.
Suzuki posted a career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 60.0 and a JAWS (which combines a player's career WAR with their peak metrics) of 51.9, despite not making his MLB debut until he was 27. The list of accolades goes on. So perhaps this baseball icon can achieve the unanimous status achieved by his former teammate Mariano Rivera in 2019.
C.C. Sabathia, LHP
Aside from Suzuki, Sabathia may have the best chance of any newly eligible player to reach the 75 percent voting threshold on the first ballot.
The big left-hander finished his nearly 2-decade-long MLB career with 251 wins, a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts (18th all-time) over more than 3,500 innings pitched. Sabathia, a six-time All-Star, won a Cy Young Award in 2007 and ALCS MVP in 2009 en route to the New York Yankees' most recent World Series title.
Sabathia will undoubtedly be compared to Mark Buehrle and Andy Pettitte, two other decorated starting pitchers who have yet to even come close to being enshrined, when 2025 voting begins. Writers can vote for at most 10 players on a ballot that will likely hover around 25. Sabathia has a similar ERA+ (116, while Pettitte and Buehrle are at 117) and ERA (the three of them range from 3.74 to 3.85) as both players, though a substantial edge in strikeouts.
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Félix Hernández, RHP
There's another Cy Young winner who will certainly be making a ballot debut next year.
Hernández won the honor in 2010, plus finished runner-up twice and was in the top 10 on three other occasions. "King Felix" finished his career with a 3.42 ERA (117 ERA+) and 2,524 strikeouts across nearly 2,800 innings. The six-time All-Star last pitched in a regular-season game in 2019 at the age of 33, and was never his typical ace self after 30.
Still, time will tell if the first decade or so of Hernández's Major League career was good enough for voters to save him a spot in Cooperstown.
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Pedroia earned four All-Star nods, won three World Series rings and four Gold Gloves, and was both a Rookie of the Year and MVP over his 14 years with the Boston Red Sox. Will "Hall of Famer" be added to that already impressive set of accomplishments?
The fan-favorite second baseman slashed .299/.365/.439 (113 OPS+) during his Major League career—which was ended prematurely by a knee injury—while also posting 1,805 hits, 394 doubles and 140 home runs.
A name to keep in mind when considering Pedroia's case? Chase Utley. The former Phillies second baseman will be back for his second year on the ballot in 2025 after receiving 28.8% of the vote in his first year of eligibility. Utley and Pedroia were two of the best of their era at their position. Do voters believe Pedroia is better than Utley? That could determine if one of, neither, or both of them get a plaque in Cooperstown.
Oh, and there is one other second baseman to consider.
Ian Kinsler, 2B
"Hall of Fame" may not immediately jump to mind when thinking of Kinsler, but the 14-year big-leaguer at the very least has a case. The four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner earned a World Series ring with the 2018 Red Sox while filling in for an injured Pedroia.
Kinsler slashed .269/.337/.440 (107 OPS+) while hitting 257 career home runs (just two shy of Utley) and stealing 243 bases (far more than either Utley or Pedroia). The longtime Texas Ranger also tallied 416 career doubles and fell a single hit shy of 2,000.
Kinsler is 20th all-time among second baseman in JAWS and WAR, according to Baseball Reference, hovering around Pedroia's area and just below Utley. So if Utley and/or Pedroia get strong Hall of Fame consideration on the 2025 ballot, Kinsler could as well.
Other notable first-time eligible players: Curtis Granderson, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Zobrist, Russell Martin, Hanley Ramirez, Adam Jones, Fernando Rodney and Brian McCann.
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