Billy Wagner’s on the Hall of Fame ballot for the tenth and last time. He was on 73.8% of the ballots last year, following just short of entry to the Hall (five votes short). In 2023, he was on 68.1% of the ballots. Billy started at 10.5%.
He pitched for five teams in his 16-year career, spending most of it with the Houston Astros.
Wagner sits sixth on the all-time saves list. He made seven All-Star teams, won one Reliever of the Year award, and got MVP votes twice, and Cy Young votes twice.
He pitched in 853 games and had a 2.31 ERA (a terrific career number) and 422 saves. He also averaged 11.9 strikeouts per 9 innings (another excellent career number).
Billy pitched in the playoffs seven times but never made it to the World Series. He had terrible numbers in 14 playoff games, a 10.03 ERA, and allowed 21 hits in 11.2 innings.
Comparing him to Trevor Hoffman, who is in the Hall, Wagner has about 150 fewer innings, almost half a run-better ERA, and he has about 60 more strikeouts (in the 150 fewer innings) with 7 fewer walks (in 150 fewer innings). Hoffman’s argument over Wagner is all the save count (601 for Hoffman, 422 for Wagner) unless you think games pitched is an essential stat for relievers who want to make the Hall of Fame. Wagner had 69 blown saves for an 86% save percentage. Hoffman 76 for an 89% save percentage. So the difference in the Writers’ vote is all the save total.
More comparisons:
Wagner: Batters hit .187/.262/.296, with a 33.2% strikeout rate and an 8.3% walk rate.
Hoffman: Batters hit .211/.267/.342 with a 25.8% strikeout rate and a 7.0% walks rate.
If Hoffman deserves to be in, Wagner does. But then, if we go by that sort of scale, Harold Baines would be the gateway drug to dozens of undeserving Hall of Famers.
You can see Wagner’s career number here.