Now it's CC Sabathia's turn.
The former Yankees left-hander is among a group of players scheduled to participate in the next Baseball Hall of Fame voting later this year, along with near locks Ichiro Suzuki, Felix Hernandez and Dustin Pedroia, among others.
Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, won the Cy Young Award in 2007, and finally settled down after a 19-year career that included 3,093 strikeouts, 251 wins, and a 3.74 ERA. He is seen as having a solid outlook.
After spending 11 of those seasons in the Bronx, eight in Cleveland, and half a season in Milwaukee, Sabathia recently talked about what being inducted into the Hall of Fame meant after visiting Milwaukee with his son a few years ago. He said he started thinking about whether to do so.
“That was the first time I really, really thought about it,” Sabathia said at last month's winter meetings. “I thought, 'Damn, I really want to be in the Hall of Fame.' When I was playing, I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame. But when I got there, I was like, 'Oh, this is cool.' It feels like it. ”
David Wright will remain on the ballot for at least another year.
The former Mets captain received 24 votes in his first year as a candidate, or 6.2% of the vote, exceeding the 5% threshold needed to remain on the ballot the following year.
Carlos Beltrán, also a former member of the Metropolitan University, received 57.1% of the votes in his second year, up from 46.5% last year.
Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, the two players on the ballot most associated with the steroid era, both saw their votes decline. Rodriguez (in his third year elected) rose from 35.7% last year to 34.8% this year, and Ramirez (in his eighth year) rose from 33.2% to 32.5%.
Count Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo was among those excited to see Todd Helton, who grew up a Rockies fan in Wyoming, inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“I think that makes sense,” Nimmo told the Post's Mike Puma. “He was one of the best hitters of this generation and someone I looked up to and tried to emulate growing up. I'm biased, having grown up in Wyoming, but he was one of the best hitters in the game. When you talk about left-handed hitters…Helton was always in the conversation, and now that he's playing in the MLB, whether he's playing at Coors or not, for the numbers he's put up. I started to appreciate it even more. [Field] 81 of those games were like that every year. ”
The following players will not be on next year's ballot because they received less than 5 percent of the votes: Jose Bautista (6 votes, 1.6 percent), Victor Martinez (6 votes, 1.6), Bartolo Colon (5 votes) Votes, 1.3), Matt Holliday (4 votes, 1.0), Adrian Gonzalez (3, 0.8), Brandon Phillips (1, 0.3), Jose Reyes (0), James Shields (0).
