Former Blue Jays on the 2022 Hall of Fame Ballot and where they stand

The Baseball Hall of Fame announcement is scheduled to be released on January 25th, with any players reaching the required 75% of votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America getting elected into Cooperstown. Roy Halladay is the most recent Blue Jays affiliated player to get voted into the Hall of Fame back in 2019, with his family deciding that he would go in without a dedicated team after he passed away in 2017. Roberto Alomar is currently the only player to don a Blue Jays cap in the Hall of Fame while former players/managers like Bobby Cox, Jack Morris, and Rickey Henderson all donned the Jays uniform at one point in their careers. It should be noted that Pat Gillick is in the Hall of Fame and the Blue Jays are recognized as his primary team.

There are a few players that are currently on the 2022 ballot who played for the Blue Jays during their careers at one point or another. While they most likely won’t be wearing the Jays cap on their HOF plaque (if elected), it is an honour to see any player who suited up for the club at one time in their career be acknowledged for the contributions on and off the field.

While the final results won’t be announced for at least another week, Ryan Thibodaux and his BBHOF tracking site have made it easy to see how many votes players have gotten from ballots made public and makes forecasts of which players are most likely going to be elected this year based on various trends. This is interesting data to see and analyze, especially since a number of the current players on the ballot are tied to performance-enhancing drugs, which has divided the voting committee for a number of years when it comes to eligible players and those who “cheated” during their careers. As of right now, 170 votes are currently known to Thibodaux and his team, which amounts to 43.4% of the overall votes from those eligible.

Let’s take a look at some players currently on the Hall of Fame ballot who at one point suited up for the Blue Jays and their current trajectory when it comes to making it into Cooperstown this year.

Roger Clemens

After spending 13 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, right-hander Roger Clemens signed a four-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays worth $40 million. Prior to joining the Jays, Clemens won three Cy-Young awards and one MVP award with the Red Sox while posting a 3.06 ERA through 383 appearances.

Joining the Blue Jays for the 1997 season, Clemens won two more Cy Young awards in back-to-back campaigns, finishing with a 2.05 and 2.65 ERA respectively. He pitched 14 complete games over the next two years with the Blue Jays and also led the league in strikeouts through both campaigns (292 and 271 respectively). As a member of the Jays, Clemens earned back-to-back pitching Triple Crowns and was an All-Star in both seasons. He requested a trade following the 1998 season and would be dealt during the 1998/1999 offseason to the New York Yankees in exchange for David Wells, Homer Bush, and Graeme Lloyd.

Clemens has been on the ballot for ten years and has not been elected into the Hall of Fame due to his link to performance-enhancing drugs later in his career. He was listed in the Mitchell Report, particularly in 1998 when he was a member of the Blue Jays. Former teammate Jose Canseco also mentions Clemens and his steroid use in his book “Juiced”.

Players linked to PED’s have had a difficult time being elected into the Hall of Fame, with voters still on the fence about whether players attached to steroids should be in Cooperstown.

Clemens is going to cut it close in his final year of eligibility. He is currently on 129 of the 170 of the known ballots and if the voting ended today, his 75.9% would be just good enough to get him into the HOF. He needs to be on 165 of the remaining ballots left in order to reach the threshold and it’s a bit of a coin flip on how the remaining voters will sway, with it all depending on whether they are supporters of players who used PED’s during their careers or against.

Fear not, if Clemens does not get voted in this year he could still be elected by one of the ERA committees further down the line.

Omar Vizquel

A 24 year veteran of the Major Leagues, infielder Omar Vizquel was in his twilight years when he joined the Blue Jays organization for a one-year run back in 2012. In fact, it was his last season in the MLB before he hung up the cleats for good as a player.

Making his MLB debut for the Seattle Mariners back in 1989, Vizquel played for six teams throughout his career, most notably with the Cleveland Indians back in the mid-’90s to early 2000s. Overall, he would finish his Major League career with a .272/.336/.352 slash line and a .688 OPS with 951 RBI through 2968 games. With the Blue Jays, Vizquel was mainly used as a bench player and only played in 60 games, collecting 36 hits in 153 at-bats.

It wasn’t the Venezualan’s bat that was his calling, as his defensive play and .985 fielding percentage as a shortstop is what put him on the map. Vizquel only made 190 errors in his 24 years at the big league level and won 11 Gold Glove Awards during that time.

Entering his fourth year on the ballot, Vizquel most likely wasn’t going to be getting into Cooperstown this year but things are now starting to look bleak for the former infield wizard.

Vizquel is currently facing a lawsuit from a former batboy of the Birmingham Barons over alleged sexual harassment when he was managing the White Sox farm team. This recent lawsuit is also on the heels of domestic abuse allegations brought forward from the year prior by his wife Blanca.

This has seen Vizquel’s popularity amongst the voters drop dramatically, as he has currently lost 42 votes from those who voted for him last year and he currently stands at just 11.2% (19 of the 170 known ballots).

He came into the 2022 season appearing on 49.1% of the ballots last year but it seems like the character issues off the field are now going to prevent Vizquel from entering Cooperstown, at least for the foreseeable future.

Jeff Kent

Drafted by the Blue Jays in the 20th round of the 1989 MLB Draft, infielder Jeff Kent only spent half of one season on the organization’s active roster before being shipped to the New York Mets at the 1992 trade deadline. Kent and a player to be named later would be dealt to the Mets in exchange for pitcher David Cone, who would go on to help the club win its first World Series in franchise history.

Kent on the other hand would go on to play 17 years in the Majors split between six different organizations. He would finish his career with a .290/.356/.500 slash line with 377 home runs, 1518 RBI, and a .855 OPS through 8498 at-bats. Kent was a four-time Silver Slugger as well as a five-time All-Star, capturing the MVP Award in 2000 as a member of the Giants where he posted a 1.021 OPS through 159 games.

This is Kent’s ninth year on the Hall of Fame ballot and he has slowly started to gain some traction in the final years. He currently has 52 votes to his name and sits at 30.6% and cannot mathematically be inducted this year. Next year will be his last chance on the ballot before having to wait for the ERA committees to consider him for Cooperstown.

Mark Buehrle

Acquired from the Miami Marlins as part of the blockbuster 2012 trade, southpaw Mark Buehrle was known for his ability to pitch deep into ball games and his precision command on the mound. While his arsenal didn’t light up the radar and the strikeout total was never near the top of the leaderboards, Buehrle was able to pitch around the strike zone and get hitters to chase and get weak contact, all under 20 seconds per pitch.

As a member of the Blue Jays, Buehrle pitched to a 3.74 ERA through 91 starts. A workhorse on the mound, the Missouri product went 200+ innings for 14 seasons in a row, falling just shy of the 200 mark in 2015 when he was unable to escape the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays in the last game of the season (198.2 innings). This is an incredible feat for a pitcher and one that should not go unnoticed. Overall, the left-hander finished his career with a 3.81 ERA through 518 appearances with a 1.281 WHIP, 5.1 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9 through 3282.1 innings pitched. He called it a career after being left off the Jays postseason roster in 2015.

Buehrle is currently in his second year on the HOF ballot and has only mustered nine votes so far in 2022. He will need to be careful if he wants to remain on the ballot moving forward, as he needs to remain above 5% to continue being included for Hall of Fame consideration. In order for that to happen, he needs to be on 11 more ballots once the final results are revealed on the 25th.