Baseball Hall of Fame 2025: Why Ichiro, Sabathia, Wagner got in - ESPN

Editor's note: This story originally ran on Jan. 22, 2025. The Class of 2025 is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27, 2025.

Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. It's a remarkable achievement to survive the gauntlet of baseball writers to get elected to Cooperstown: After all, the Baseball Hall of Fame remains the toughest to gain entry to, especially via the BBWAA path of election.

This trio stands out for their disparate backgrounds. Suzuki — let's just call him Ichiro — grew up in Japan, of course, and was a star in the Japan Pacific League at 20 years old before becoming the first Japanese position player to play in the majors when he signed with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 at 27. A California native, Sabathia was a high school baseball and basketball star in the Bay Area, growing to a towering 6-foot-6 and throwing 95 mph. Cleveland drafted him in the first round, and he was in the majors at 20 years old. Wagner grew up in rural Virginia and played at Division III Ferrum College. He wasn't big, but his fastball was. The Houston Astros drafted Wagner in the first round, and he debuted at age 24 before turning into one of the most dominant relief pitchers of all time.

All three are now Hall of Famers. Let's look at three reasons each player got there.

Ichiro was just one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection (Mariano Rivera did it in 2019). In one sense, maybe it's a little surprising he had that many votes — you could argue Ichiro is perhaps a little overrated. After all, he had 60.0 career WAR in the majors; Bobby Abreu, by comparison, was on this ballot with 60.2 career WAR and received just 26% of the vote. Ichiro's career 107 OPS+ is now the