Which Former Yankees Will Be Elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017?

Seven former New York Yankees are among the 34 players on the 2017 ballot for induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America released the official ballot for the 2017 Hall of Fame voting on Monday. 19 new players are eligible for induction this year, including two notable former Yankees, while 15 holdovers from last year’s ballot are up for consideration once again.

Probably the biggest news for Yankees fans is the first member of the beloved Core Four, catcher Jorge Posada, is eligible for the Hall. The other ex-Yankee who is new to the ballot is also one of the greatest catchers of his generation, Ivan Rodriguez. It’s easy to forget Pudge’s brief half-season stint in pinstripes in 2008, as he hit just .219/.257/.323 in 101 plate appearances as a 36-year-old before moving on.

Five more players who suited up for the Bombers in their career received enough support in 2016 to remain on the ballot: Tim Raines, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith, and Gary Sheffield. A player needs to garner at least 5% of the vote to hang on each year and 75% to be inducted.

The only player from this group who came close to the 75% mark in the last round of voting was Raines, but he’s in his last year of eligibility in 2017, so this is make or break for him. Jeff Bagwell and Trevor Hoffman also came within 10% points of being elected last year, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see all three of those guys get in.

The most notable non-Yankees to join the ballot in 2017 are Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, and Edgar Renteria. Ramirez would be a lock if it weren’t for his two PED suspensions, Guerrero is a borderline case, and Renteria, while underrated, probably won’t last long on the ballot.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the Hall cases of the eligible former Yankees and assess their chances of making it in over the next few years.

Tim Raines

With 69.8% of the vote in 2016, Raines came tantalizingly close to being elected in his penultimate year of eligibility. I may be biased as Raines was one of my favorite players growing up watching the late-90’s dynasty teams, but it seems ridiculous to me that a man who is arguably the second-best leadoff hitter in the history of baseball has been denied entry into the Hall of Fame nine years running.

If he hadn’t spent the majority of his career toiling in obscurity for some pretty forgettable Expos teams, Raines probably would have been elected long ago. His 808 stolen bases are the fifth-most in baseball history and his 84.7% success rate ranks 13th. He accumulated a solid 69.1 wins above replacement over the course of his career and was one of the most electric players in baseball during his peak from 1981-1989, making seven All-Star squads and receiving MVP votes in seven seasons during that span.

Raines slowed down considerably towards the end of his career, which might impact the image many voters have of him as a player. Even in his twilight years, however, he was a key contributor to the 1996 and 1998 Yankees World Series championship teams, hitting .299/.395/.429 in 940 plate appearances during his three years in pinstripes despite being in his late-30’s.

Because of how close he came to induction last year, Rock seems like the ex-Yankee with the best chance of making it into the 2017 Hall of Fame class. Yankees fans should be extra vocal with their support this year to raise awareness of his case and ensure he gets in.

Mike Mussina

The main case against Mussina is that he is considered a compiler rather than one of the truly dominant pitchers of his era. His Baseball-Reference page is largely free of black ink (which denotes when a player led the league in a certain category), and his career 3.68 ERA/3.57 FIP are good, but certainly not elite.

However, by many metrics, Mussina’s Hall case looks air-tight. The Jaffe WAR Score system (JAWS), which was designed to balance a HoF candidate’s career performance with their seven-year peak, considers Moose a sure-fire Hall of Famer. His 63.8 JAWS would rank him 28th out of the 62 pitchers currently in the Hall, and above the 62.1 JAWS mark of the average HoF pitcher.

Bill James’ Hall of Fame Monitor also thinks Mussina has an above-average chance of induction with a score of 121. With this stat, a score of 100 or more means the player has a good chance to get in, while 130 or more indicates they are more or less certain. Mussina isn’t quite a lock according to James’ measure, but it does look promising.

In his third year on the ballot in 2016, Mussina received a healthy 43% of the vote and became one of the pet causes of the sabermetric crowd. Despite five All-Star appearances, seven Gold Glove awards, and nine finishes in the top-six of the AL CYA, the excellence of his career is overlooked by the majority of fans.

2017 is not going to be the year that Moose gets in, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see his support once again increase considerably. A few more years of nerds getting the word out about Mussina, and he should make it.

Roger Clemens

At some point Hall voters are going to need to stop the witch hunt and acknowledge they have no idea who did and did not use performance-enhancing drugs during the so-called “Steroid Era” and stop arbitrarily punishing guys for unsubstantiated rumors. Clemens never officially failed a test or received a suspension for PEDs. He was never found guilty of any offense anywhere but the court of public opinion.

To me, Roger Clemens seems like kind of a jerk. I never really liked him when he was with the Yankees for a number of reasons. At the same time, he was easily the best pitcher of his generation and has a strong argument for being the greatest pitcher ever.

With 139.4 rWAR, he is the third most valuable pitcher in history according to Baseball-Reference. He ranks third all-time in strikeouts, ninth in wins, seventh in walks per nine, seventh in games started, second in home runs allowed per nine, and seventh in complete games. By most measures, he is at least one of the ten best starting pitchers to ever play the game. Unless someone wants to prosecute him for some crime, I don’t see how he’s not in the Hall.

Although he didn’t join the Yankees until age 36, he pitched six seasons in pinstripes, won one of his seven Cy Young awards, and was the ace of two of the World Series champions of the dynasty years. He’s not one of the most beloved Bombers in history, but his accomplishments are undeniable.