Billy Wagner, the electric former closer who racked up 422 career saves and turned heads with his power arsenal, will finally be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. After 10 years on the ballot, Wagner received 82.5% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to earn election in his final chance from the writers, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Tuesday.
Wagner was elected along with former superstar outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and ace starting pitcher CC Sabathia, who were both elected on their first ballot. The trio of BBWAA electees join Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen, who were voted into the Hall of Fame by the Classic Baseball Era Committee, to form the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, which will be formally inducted on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
One of the most dominant relief pitchers to ever step foot on a mound, Wagner pitched 16 seasons in the major leagues with the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves from 1995 to 2010. He separated himself from the competition with his power arsenal and ability to miss bats, unleashing a high-90s mph fastball and a wipeout slider before that was commonplace in the bullpen.
Wagner threw 903 career innings in 853 appearances with a 2.31 ERA, a 187 ERA+ and 1,196 strikeouts. His 422 saves rank eighth in big-league history, and he holds the best marks of all-time for any pitcher with at least 900 career innings in strikeouts per nine innings (11.9) and strikeout percentage (33.2%).
Opening his career with the Astros in 1995, Wagner pitched nine years with the Astros and established himself as one of baseball’s elite talents with the team. He won the National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in 1999, appeared in a combined no-hitter in 2003 and remains the franchise saves leader (225) in Houston.
Wagner was traded to Philadelphia ahead of the 2004 season. He was solid in a limited first year with his new club, then posted one of the best individual seasons by a Phillies reliever in 2005 when he had a 1.51 ERA in 77 2/3 innings in 75 games while posting a career-high 293 ERA+ and leading the majors with 70 games finished.
After that dazzling season with the Phillies, Wagner signed with the Mets for four years. He was largely as good as advertised, but he required Tommy John surgery in late 2008. He returned in August 2009 and was then traded to the Red Sox to finish out the season. Wagner then signed with the Braves for 2010, retiring at the end of the year despite posting a 1.43 ERA in 71 games in his age-38 season.
Wagner first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2016, receiving 10.5% of the vote. He gained significant traction over the years, falling only five votes short last year when he received 73.8%. His long path to Cooperstown was likely a result of his lack of certain counting stats; he wasn’t Mariano Rivera or Trevor Hoffman accumulating over 600 saves, and he didn’t pitch over 1,000 innings.
But Wagner was a special and unique pitcher, and he was productive as any of his contemporaries on an inning-by-inning basis. Now, he’ll get a plaque in Cooperstown to reflect that.
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