ORLANDO, Fla. — Whether or not he needs it, Chase Utley’s Hall of Fame bid just got a boost.
Pete Rose’s? Forget about it.
Those were the Phillies-centric takeaways Sunday night from the voting results of the Hall’s Contemporary Era Committee. A 16-person panel of Hall of Fame players, major league owners and executives, media members, and historians elected Jeff Kent — and only Jeff Kent — from a field of eight candidates that included Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Kent, a former MVP and five-time All-Star, is only the 22nd second baseman to gain election after topping out at 46.5% on the writers’ ballot in 2023. Utley is already marching toward becoming the 23rd. His name was checked on nearly 40% of the writers’ ballots last year, only his second cycle of eligibility (75% is needed for election).
Without a strong first-time candidate this year, Utley is expected to make another jump.
But the iconic former Phillies second baseman has an even gustier tailwind now. Because although Kent is the only player to appear in at least 75% of his games at second base and total at least 350 homers, 550 doubles, 1,500 RBIs, 1,300 runs, and 800 walks, Utley was considered a better all-around second baseman. The overall numbers:
- Kent: 56.0 WAR (Fangraphs); .290/.356/.500; 123 OPS-plus; 2,461 hits; 377 homers; 1,518 RBIs in 2,298 games over 17 seasons.
- Utley: 61.5 WAR (Fangraphs); .275/.358/.465, 117 OPS-plus; 1,885 hits; 259 homers; 1,025 RBIs in 1,937 games over 16 seasons.
Kent received 14 votes from the committee, a resounding correction of the writers’ 10-year oversight that historically extends to other second basemen. Neither Lou Whitaker nor Bobby Grich lasted long on the ballot despite multiple Gold Gloves and All-Star appearances and copious WAR totals.
None of the other candidates came close to the 12 votes that were needed for election. The Hall doesn’t disclose the vote total for players who receive less than 25% of support from the committee. But Bonds, Clemens, and Gary Sheffield, who all played under the cloud of suspicion of performance-enhancing drug use, received fewer than five votes.
It was a repeat of 2022, when Bonds and Clemens got fewer than four votes apiece from a committee that didn’t include anyone on this year’s panel. And it reaffirmed that the committee process is even less forgiving than an electorate of nearly 400 writers, even for the all-time home-run leader and a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, because Hall of Famers tend to be ultraprotective of the doors to Cooperstown.
Bonds and Clemens made incremental progress in 10 years on the writers’ ballot, eventually reaching 66% and 65.2%, respectively. If the Hall of Fame hadn’t reduced the term of eligibility to 10 years from 15, they might have eventually gotten to 75%.
The writers never got an opportunity to vote for Rose because the Hall of Fame didn’t put him on the ballot after he was banned from baseball for gambling on games. And although he was posthumously reinstated earlier this year by commissioner Rob Manfred, the Hall’s voting rules stipulate that players who are retired for more than 15 years may be considered only by the era committees.
Rose is eligible to come before the Classic Era committee in 2027.
Even Mike Schmidt, who supported Rose’s reinstatement and previously backed him for the Hall of Fame despite what he describes as a “tumultuous life,” has his doubts about how it would go.
“I don’t know that it’s any more than 50%,” Schmidt told The Inquirer’s Phillies Extra podcast in September when asked if fellow Hall of Famers would open the door to Rose. “There are as many detractors as supporters in Pete’s case. However, [Hall of Fame chairman of the board] Jane Clark forms the committee that will determine Pete’s fate. And even if they put 16 ex-players, members of the Hall of Fame on it, I still think it would be 50/50.”
The latest overwhelming repudiation of Bonds and Clemens by a committee of their peers suggests that 50% for Rose would be generous.
