Evaluating 5 former New York Yankees up for 2022 Hall of Fame election

The National Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced the names of former MLB players on the official 2022 ballot.

Nominees include prominent holdovers and well-known names who are up for consideration for the first time. The final results of the voting will be released on Jan. 25, 2022.

If an eligible player does not receive 5% of the BBWAA’s votes in any year over 10 years, then that player will be excluded from future consideration. Candidates who receive 75% of the vote at any point are elected to the Hall.

In some years, the BBWAA has voted no one into the Hall (like last year). The Golden Days Era Committee can select a rejected candidate for inclusion in the HOF in future years.

For this year’s ballot, former Yanks Bobby Abreu and Andruw Jones are two returnees, but they are not discussed here. Abreu played for the club his last two years in the league, and Jones did for three years close to the end of his career. Last year (his second time on the ballot), Abreu received only 8.7% of the writers’ votes. Jones (his fourth time on the ballot) was only able to garner 33.9% of voters’ support. These players are unlikely to gain entry into the HOF in 2022 or beyond.

But here are five Yankees that have a legitimate chance, even if it’s looking grim for most of them.

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5. Roger Clemens

Clemens is one of the top pitchers of his era and of all time. During the 13 seasons he played for the Boston Red Sox (1984-96), the right-hander received the 1986 AL MVP and three AL Cy Young Awards. The Rocket signed with the Toronto Blue Jays after the 1996 season as a free agent. He won the Cy Young Award in 1997 and 1998 with them before he was traded to the Yanks and helped New York win World Series titles in 1999 and 2000. He won his sixth career Cy Young in 2001. He played for the Yanks for another two years after that.

Clemens won an astonishing seventh Cy Young in 2004 with the Houston Astros. During 2005, his age-42 campaign, he earned a career-best 1.87 ERA in 32 starts with the ‘Stros.

He finished his career after re-signing with the Bombers in 2007, his final MLB season. Clemens call it quits with an eye-popping 139.2 WAR, a 65.9 WAR7, and a 102.6 JAWS.

The Rocket’s achievements on the mound should have made him a shoo-in for selection to the HoF. However, his strength coach, Brian McNamee, testified in court that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs multiple times from 1998-2001. His close friend Andy Pettitte reported that Clemens told him that he was using PEDs, too.

Consequently, like Barry Bonds, Clemens has been denied entrance into the Hall for nine years. The Rocket received 61.6% of the vote last year. Yankee fans can expect him to fall short of the 75% threshold his final year of eligibility. Disappointing.

3. Gary Sheffield

Sheffield was an accomplished batter and outfielder during his long 22-year career. He played for the Yanks for three of those seasons from 2004-2006.

Sheff played well his first two years with the Bombers. However, he was injured in 2006 and had a limited number of plate appearances that year. Following the 2006 season, he was dealt to the Detroit Tigers. He also played for Milwaukee Braves, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, and New York Mets.

The slugger was known to have an ideal mix of excellent bat speed and pinpoint control of his swing. Unlike other home run hitters, he rarely whiffed; he exceeded 80 strikeouts only twice in 22 seasons. He’s among MLB’s all-time walks leaders.

Even more notable, however, he hit 509 home runs during his long career, drove in 1,676 RBI, and registered 2,689 hits. He raked a respectable .292/.393/.514 and retired in 2009 with an impressive 140 OPS+. Typically, these numbers would make anyone a serious candidate for inclusion in the HoF. However, his WAR, WAR7, and JAWS are modest (60.5, 38.0, and 49.3, respectively).

Unfortunately, Sheff was mentioned in the Mitchell Report and admitted in 2004 to using a testosterone-based steroid given to him by BALCO after Barry Bonds (of all people) connected him to the operation. He maintained that he didn’t know that he was using a banned drug.

Only 40.6% of the writers supported Sheff last year, his eighth year on the ballot. While he produced good numbers as a player, his prior drug use will likely keep him out of the Hall in 2022 and possibly in future years.

2. Mark Teixeira

Teixeira played first base for 14 years in the MLB, including a stint with the Bombers from 2009-2016. During his career, Teixeira slashed .268/.360/.509 with a 127 wRC+. He had great power and finished with 409 home runs. He’s only one of five switch-hitters to reach the 400-homer plateau.

Tex compiled only a modest 50.6 WAR/38.0 WAR7/44.3 JAWS during his career. He also ranks 31st all-time among first basemen by JAWS, which is not great. Still, he’s one of the greatest defensive first basemen, with 104 DRS at the position.

Although Tex was considered a good hitter, his wRC+ ranks only 47th all-time among first basemen with at least 5,000 PA. There are 20 players at his position whose career wRC+ is equal to or superior to Tex’s seven-year peak average of 141. Yet, his .997 fielding percentage on defense is off the charts.

Usually, first base is where managers put big bats because their weak fielding skills will do the least harm. If one compares and contrasts the top first basemen of all-time by JAWS, one will find a number of poor defenders (Jim Thome, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, and Willie McCovey, to name a few).

Finally, Tex does not compare well to other first basemen in the HOF in terms of WAR; he’s well under the Hall average for career and peak. First basemen have provided many all-time great bats that raised the bar too high for Tex’s excellent defense to overcome. Overall, Tex doesn’t meet the HoF standards at his position in terms of hitting.

1. Alex Rodriguez

In Rodriguez’s first full season (1996), the shortstop finished second in voting for the American League MVP Award after producing an impressive slash line of .358/.414/.631 with an absurd 54 doubles in addition to his 36 home runs.

A-Rod posted a .933 OPS with 148 homers and 111 steals over the next four years with the Seattle Mariners before joining the Texas Rangers. He bashed 156 home runs over the next three seasons while producing a 1.011 OPS and grabbing the AL MVP Award in 2003.

The Rangers then traded A-Rod to Yankees, for whom he played the remaining 12 years of his career.

Rodriguez went on to win two more AL MVP Awards and, between 2004 and 2010, he hit 268 home runs and maintained a .952 OPS for the Yanks. His outstanding hitting helped New York win its 27th World Series in 2009.

A-Rod finished his playing days with 696 home runs, presently fourth all-time. His WAR, WAR7, and JAWS statistics are excellent (117.5, 64.3, and 90.9, respectively).

In 2009, Rodriguez admitted using PEDs from 2001-2003 after adamantly denying taking them. He sued the league and players association and attempted to obstruct the investigation. His subsequent public apology to the baseball universe seemed disingenuous to many. He was then caught again for PED use in 2013 and was suspended for an MLB-record 211 games as a result.

A-Rod may never be inducted into the HoF unless writers radically change their feelings about his use of PEDs.

Readers should not be surprised if no one at all is voted into the Hall in 2022 for the second straight year. Former Yankees Jim Kaat and Roger Maris are on the 2022 Golden Days Era Committee Ballot and can be selected for admission, which might be the organization’s best shot here.

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