CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner Elected to Hall of Fame by BBWAA

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Ichiro Suzuki, a veritable hits machine on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, became the first Japanese player to gain entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame when he was elected Tuesday to the Class of 2025 alongside pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and tabulated by Ernst & Young.

Players are elected to the Hall provided they are named on at least 75 percent of ballots cast by eligible voting members of the BBWAA. With 394 ballots submitted in the 2025 election, candidates needed to receive 296 votes to be elected.

Ichiro, who was on the ballot for the first time, came within one vote of being a unanimous selection, a feat achieved by only one player, relief pitcher Mariano Rivera in 2019, in 81 years of voting by the BBWAA. Ichiro, a multiple Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder, received 393 votes, which accounted for 99.746 percent of the electorate, second only to shortstop Derek Jeter’s 99.748-percent showing (396 of 397 ballots cast) in 2020 as the highest plurality for a position player in Hall of Fame voting.

Sabathia, another first-time honoree, received 342 votes (86.8 percent), and Wagner, who was on the BBWAA ballot for the 10th-and-final time, got 325 (82.5).

They will be honored during Induction Weekend 2025 July 25-28 in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the July 27 Induction Ceremony on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center along with Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen, who were elected by the Classic Baseball Era Committee last month in Dallas.

Also honored that weekend will be the Ford C. Frick Award winner for baseball broadcasting, Tom Hamilton, and the BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner for baseball writing, Thomas Boswell, July 26 at the Awards Presentation.

Ichiro, 51, burst onto the major league scene in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners as the first position player from Japan and went on to win both the American League MVP and Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards in the same season, a feat accomplished by only one other player, Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox in 1975. Over a 19-season career that included time with the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins, Ichiro knocked out 3,089 hits in becoming the first player with 10 consecutive seasons of 200-plus hits, including a record 262 in 2004, a year in which he won his second batting title at .372. His first came in his rookie year when he hit .350 with 242 hits and 56 of his career 509 stolen bases.

Among other hardware Ichiro collected were 10 straight Gold Glove Awards for fielding, three Silver Slugger Awards for batting and 10 All-Star Game selections, including nine starts. He was the All-Star Game MVP in 2007 at San Francisco. Ichiro led the AL in games played four times, at-bats eight times, hits seven times, singles 10 times and intentional walks three times. Defensively, he led AL right fielders in putouts seven times, fielding percentage four times and once as a center fielder and assists twice as a right fielder. Including his totals with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan’s Pacific League, Ichiro amassed 4,367 career hits over 28 seasons.

Sabathia, 44, began his 19-season career in Cleveland as the runner-up to Ichiro for the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2001 and went on to post a 251-161 record with a 3.74 earned run average and 3,093 strikeouts – 18th all-time and third among left-handers behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton. Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007. A year later, a mid-season trade to Milwaukee resulted in his finishing sixth in National League MVP voting after going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA and seven complete games, including three shutouts, in 17 starts for the Brewers. The next year, he anchored the Yankees’ staff enroute to a World Series title and was the 2009 AL Championship Series MVP (2-0, 1.13 ERA). Sabathia is one of only six pitchers in history with at least 250 victories, a .600 winning percentage and 3,000 strikeouts.

Over 16 seasons with the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, Wagner, 53, had a 47-40 record with 422 saves, the eighth-highest career total in history and the second highest among left-handers, just two saves behind John Franco. Wagner’s 2.31 career ERA is the lowest among retired left-handed pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched in the live-ball era (post 1920). His career walks-plus-hits-per-innings-pitched ratio (WHIP) of 0.998 is lowest among all retired relievers with at least 700 innings pitched.

The only other players to gain mention on more than half the ballots were outfielders Carlos Beltrán with 277 votes (70.3) and Andruw Jones with 261 (66.2).

Candidates may remain on the BBWAA ballot for up to 10 years provided they are listed on at least five percent of ballots cast. There are 15 players from this year’s ballot who will be eligible again for 2025, including two of the 14 first-year candidates: pitcher Félix Hernández with 81 votes (20.6) and second baseman Dustin Pedroia with 47 (11.9).

The Hall of Fame has 351 elected members, including 278 players, of whom 142 have come through the BBWAA ballot. The elections of Ichiro and Sabathia bring to 62 the total of players elected in their first year of eligibility by the BBWAA. This year marked the 11th time the BBWAA honored three players in an election and the second year in a row.

The average ballot in the 2025 election contained 6.77 names, down from 7.00 last year, with 24.9 percent of the voters using all 10 slots, up from 24.4 a year ago. The total of ballots cast marked a 98.5-percent return rate of the 400 ballots mailed to voters. There were no blank ballots submitted.

The vote: Ichiro Suzuki 393 (99.7%), CC Sabathia 342 (86.8), Billy Wagner 325 (82.5), Carlos Beltrán 277 (70.3), Andruw Jones 261 (66.2), Chase Utley 157 (39.8), Álex Rodríguez 146 (37.1), Manny Ramírez 135 (34.3), Andy Pettitte 110 (27.9), Félix Hernández 81 (20.6), Bobby Abreu 77 (19.5), Jimmy Rollins 71 (18.0), Omar Vizquel 70 (17.8), Dustin Pedroia 47 (11.9), Mark Buehrle 45 (11.4), Francisco Rodríguez 40 (10.2), David Wright 32 (8.1), Torii Hunter 20 (5.1), Ian Kinsler 10 (2.5), Russell Martin 9 (2.3), Brian McCann 7 (1.8), Troy Tulowitzki 4 (1.0), Curtis Granderson 3 (0.8), Adam Jones 3 (0.8), Carlos González 2 (0.5), Hanley Ramírez 0, Fernando Rodney 0, Ben Zobrist 0.