The 2024 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame class ballot has been released. The new players on the ballot for the first year of eligibility are Adrian Beltre, Chase Utley, Joe Mauer, David Wright, Bartolo Colon, Matt Holliday, Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista, Victor Martinez, James Shields, and Brandon Phillips. Beltre should get in; Mauer is the other who has a shot in the first year of eligibility. Some names returning to the ballot are Todd Helton, Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Beltran, Jeff Kent, and Manny Ramirez. Of the listed ones, Helton was the closest, finishing with 72.2% of the possible 75% to get elected. Ramiez is in his eighth year of eligibility and finished last season with 33.2% of the vote, which is a 4.3% increase from 2022 and a 5% increase from 2021; he still finished 41.8% away from being elected, but should Manny Ramirez be considered more for a Hall of Fame election?
Manny Ramirez Career By The Numbers
The Cleveland Indians selected Ramirez with the 13th overall pick in the 1991 MLB June Amateur Draft out of George Washington High School in New York; he would make his big league debut on September 2, 1993, going 0-4. Ramirez would play for Cleveland for eight seasons, slashing .313/.407/.592 with a .998 OPS; he had 237 doubles, 11 triples, 236 home runs, 804 RBI, 665 runs scored, 28 stolen bases, and 541 walks.
Following the 2000 season, he became a free agent and signed with the Boston Red Sox, where he spent the next eight seasons slashing .312/.411/.588 with a .999 OPS; he had 256 doubles, seven triples, 274 home runs, 868 RBI, 743 runs scored, seven stolen bases, and 636 walks. During the 2008 season, at the trade deadline, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he would spend three seasons slashing .322/.433/.580 with a 1.012 OPS; he had 53 doubles, two triples, 44 home runs, 156 RBI, 130 runs scored, three stolen bases, and 138 walks. In 2010, at the trade deadline, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox, where he spent the rest of that season playing in 24 games with a slash line of .261/.420/.319 with a .739 OPS; he had one double, one home run, two RBI, six runs scored, and 14 walks. In 2011, he played in five games for the Tampa Bay Rays, only recording one hit in 17 plate appearances, and he drove in a run.
Ramirez finished his career with a slash line of .312/.411/.585 with a .996 OPS; he had 547 doubles, 20 triples, 555 home runs, 1,831 RBI, 1,544 runs scored, 38 stolen bases, and 1,329 walks. He was a 69.3 WAR for his career, was a 12-time All-Star, won nine Silver Sluggers, and finished in the top five of the MVP voting four times. In the postseason, Ramirez turned it on, hitting 29 home runs in his 111-game postseason career, drove in 78 runs, and would win two World Series titles, both with the Boston Red Sox; he was also World Series MVP for the 2004 championship.
The one thing going against Ramirez in his case for the Hall of Fame is what part of the PED issue has kept the names of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro out of the Hall of Fame; I for one think they should all be in especially Bonds and Clemens as they were dominant. Bonds were one of the best hitters even before he took Performance Enhancing Drugs. They just ended up helping him hit more home runs. You can say what you want about Ramirez, but he was one of the best hitters of his time in the MLB, and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame much like Bonds and Clemens do.
Manny Ramirez All-Time Ranks
AVG: .312 – Tied for 88th
OBP: .411 – 36th
SLG: .585 – 12th
OPS: .996 – 11th
H: 2,574 – Tied for 91st
2B – 547 – 34th
HR – 555 – 15th
RBI – 1,831 – 20th
Grand Slams – 21 – 3rd
WAR – 69.3 – 108th
Postseason home runs – 29 – 1st
