Baseball Hall of Fame: Manny Ramírez rides out 10th (and last) chance on the ballot
Manny Ramírez is on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2026 class. Again. This is his 10th time, which means it’s his last chance. Spoiler ahead: he won’t make it.
Ramírez made his debut on the ballot for the 2017 Hall of Fame class and received 23.8% of the vote. He stagnated for three years before climbing into the 28% range for three years before seeing another jump to about a third of the vote. It reached a new high last year, but that was only 34.3%.
Players can usually see a bump over the past year, but not like this. The greatest player in recent memory to enter the Hall of Fame was Larry Walker, who saw a 22-point surge that saw him enter the Hall on his 10th and final try. Barry Bonds’ increase last year only took him from 61.8% to 66%.
Bonds was a better all-around player – by a decent margin – and, despite being linked to PEDs, he was never suspended by the league. Now consider that Ramírez was nailed by MLB twice and hit with PED-related suspensions. In light of this, I am extremely confident that Manny will not see the 40 point jump to reach the 75% required for Hall of Fame induction.
This means we say goodbye to its presence on the ballot.
Over 19 seasons, Ramírez hit .312/.411/.585 (154 OPS+) with 2,574 hits, 547 doubles, 20 triples, 555 home runs, 1,831 RBIs, 1,544 runs and 69.3 WAR. His issues on the bases and in the field have lowered his overall WAR, but his offensive WAR is 34th in MLB history. He also ranks 90th in average, 36th in on-base percentage, 12th in slugging, 12th in OPS, 31st in OPS+, 91st in hits, 34th in doubles, 15th in home runs, 20th in RBI, 61st in runs, 30th in total bases, 42nd in walks, 48th in time on base and 18th in extra base hits.
Aside: He also had the funniest cutoff in baseball history.
This is the record of one of the greatest hitters the game has ever seen. The eye exam matched. He was feared and for those who weren’t alive or didn’t remember him, he was a big problem. Huge.
Additionally, Ramírez won two World Series with the Red Sox, including the 2004 title, one of the most famous in MLB history. He hit .285 with a .937 OPS in the postseason and still holds the record with 29 postseason home runs.
Even with the deficit in defense and baserunning, Manny ranks eighth among left fielders all-time in WAR, behind Bonds, Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose, Ed Delahanty and Tim Raines. He is above Hall of Famers Al Simmons, Fred Clarke, Goose Goslin, Billy Williams, Willie Stargell, Joe Medwick and many others.
It’s the statistical resume of a Hall of Famer. And yet, we say goodbye to Ramírez without him ever coming close to being enthroned. On May 7, 2009, he was suspended for 50 games for violating the joint drug agreement. Ramírez said at the time that he had accidentally taken a banned drug. The drug used is believed to be hCG, a female fertility drug typically used by steroid users to boost testosterone consumption after a steroid cycle. On April 8, 2011, Ramírez was arrested by the league again. Rather than serve his 100-game suspension, he retired.
All of this was enough to scare off well over 60% of BBWAA voters, including yours truly. He didn’t get my vote this year either, and this will be the last time we see his name on the ballot. Maybe Ramírez will fare better with an era committee in the future, but I wouldn’t expect that to happen anytime soon. The best bet is that if Manny Ramírez ever gets into the Hall of Fame, it will be decades from now.
Happy trails, Manny.
