Six former Mets are on the ballot.
The 2025 Hall of Fame ballot was released today, and six former Mets are on the ballot, headlined by first time nominee Curtis Granderson, who played three and a half season with the Mets from 2014-2017 ad was part of their most recent National League championship season.
Former Mets closer Billy Wagner, part of their 2006 National League Division title team, is on his tenth and final ballot, having just missed election in 2024, garnering 73.8% of the vote.
The other former Mets returning on the ballot are Carlos Beltrán (57.1% in 2024, third ballot), David Wright (6.2% in 2024, second ballot), Francisco “K-Rod” Rodríguez (7.8% in 2024, third ballot), and Bobby Abreu (14.8% in 2024, sixth ballot).
The ballot is highlighted by the inclusion of Ichiro Suzuki who many predict will be the second unanimously elected player, following Mariano Rivera.
Granderson put up 10.9 bWAR in his Mets’ tenure, highlighted by his truly excellent 2015 season, where he hit .259/.364/.457 with 26 home runs, good for 5.1 bWAR and some down ballot MVP votes. Remembered for his ‘real New Yorkers are Mets fans’ and ‘yummy salmon’ comments during his introductory press conference, Granderson is widely considered one of the best people to suit up as a professional ballplayer during his era. He likely won’t last long on the ballot, but was a very productive and fun player to root for when he was a Met.
Wagner didn’t have his best seasons as. Met, but did have three seasons of an ERA+ of over 160 as a Met, which is impressive. Wagner is eighth on the all-time saves list with 422 saves, but was dominant in ways that some of his contemporaries on that list, like former Met John Franco (424 career saves) never were. Only two active players, Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel, have more saves than Wagner, and Wagner joins just Franco and the aforementioned Francisco Rodríguez as players with more than 400 saves not in the Hall. Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe wrote an excellent piece on Wagner ahead of last year’s election that makes the case that Wagner is a borderline Hall of Famer unless you rely heavily on rate stats, which puts him firmly in the ‘belongs’ category.
Aside from Wagner, Beltrán seems like the most likely ex-Met to get in, and one likely to go in as a Met as well, though probably not this year. While still likely being ‘punished’ by voters for his participation in the 2017 Astros trash can scandal, Beltran is about as slam dunk of a Hall of Famer as exists of the returning players, putting up 70.1 bWAR over the course of his career, playing elite defense, hitting 435 home runs and stealing 312 bases.
The full ballot is listed below. Votes (from the eligible members of the BBWAA) are due on December 31st, and the results will be announced on January 21st. Let’s go (former) Mets!
First year eligible:
Carlos González
Curtis Granderson
Félix Hernández
Adam Jones
Ian Kinsler
Russell Martin
Brian McCann
Dustin Pedroia
Hanley Ramirez
Fernando Rodney
CC Sabathia
Ichiro Suzuki
Troy Tulowitzski
Ben Zobrist
Returning players:
Bobby Abreu
Carlos Beltrán
Mark Buehrle
Torii Hunter
Andruw Jones
Andy Pettitte
Manny Ramirez
Alex Rodriguez
Francisco Rodríguez
Jimmy Rollins
Omar Vizquel
Billy Wagner
David Wright