Rolen elected to Hall of Fame
It took six tries and one harrowing result, but Scott Rolen is forever a Hall of Famer.
Rolen was named to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday, earning a vote on 76.3% of ballots – just five more than needed to vault the 75% required for induction. His election averts a Hall of Fame shutout for the second time in three years and the 10th time in nearly a century in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Rolen was named on 297 ballots, five more than the 292 required for election among the 389 submitted.
Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton wasn’t quite as fortunate: He was named on 281 ballots. His 72.3% vote total in his fifth year on the ballot all but cinches his eventual election, with five more shots at it to come.
Relief pitcher Billy Wagner garnered 265 votes (68.1%).
Rolen’s nod means slugger Fred McGriff will have company during the annual induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York, on July 23. McGriff, whose highest vote total on the writers’ ballot was 39.8%, was voted in by the Hall’s Contemporary Era Committee in December.
Rolen received just 10.2% of the vote in his first year on the ballot, but it doubled to 35.3% in his third year and reached 62% in 2022, all trends pointing toward his eventual induction.
Rolen had just one top-10 MVP finish, fourth in 2004, and was a seventime All-Star and eight-time Gold Glover for the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds. He was a World Series champion with the 2006 Cardinals.
Rolen’s 70.1 career Wins Above Replacement ranks tied for 69th and puts him ahead of several Hall of Famers, the high number a testament to modern metrics’ ability to better quantify Rolen’s all-around value to his teams.
Oddly enough, Rolen is tied in career WAR with Carlos Beltran, who made his ballot debut and received 46.5% of the votes, a somewhat discouraging but not crushing first effort. Beltran, a switch-hitting center fielder who hit 435 home runs, is one of just five players with at least 400 career homers and 300 steals. But his role as the ringleader in the 2017 Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal – Beltran’s final season – was expected to be at least a slight drag on his candidacy.
In his second year on the ballot, Alex Rodriguez received 139 votes (35.7%), four more than in 2022.