No former Toronto Blue Jays elected into Hall of Fame

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Last years Cy Young award winning pitcher, Roger Clemens throws the first pitch of the Toronto Blue Jays season against the Minnesota Twins at Toronto’s Skydome 01 April. Clemens won 3-2 and pitched 7 innings with 2 hits, 1 run and 3 strike outs. Carlo ALLEGRI AFP PHOTO (Photo by CARLO ALLEGRI / AFP) (Photo by CARLO ALLEGRI/AFP via Getty Images) /

The 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame results were announced this week and no Toronto Blue Jays alumni made the cut.

It wasn’t unexpected, especially with so much controversy and also competition around the likes of players bigger-than-life such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and others. Truth be told, quite a few players eligible this year by all rights should have been elected but were not. When all was said and done, only David Ortiz, aka Big Papi, will be inducted into this year’s class.

Ortiz was named on 77.9 percent of the votes, which seems low in and of itself as well. That said, no ex-Blue Jays will join the nine others who have been elected in the Hall, most recently Roy Halladay posthumously in 2019.

Of the 30 players on the ballot this year, five were on Blue Jays’ teams: Clemens, Scott Rolen, Omar Vizquel, Jeff Kent, and Mark Buehrle. This year’s vote was especially interesting because Clemens, Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling were all in their tenth and final year of eligibility. Despite some hardcore Twitter campaigns, all fell short, with the greatest hitter in the history of baseball ending at 66 percent. Bonds was within 36 votes necessary to make the cut, but the “Steroid Era” controversy overshadowed his incredible achievements.

Roger Clemens

Clemens was the top vote-getter behind Ortiz and Bonds, ending his final year of eligibility at 61.6 percent, nearly four percent higher than in 2021. Clemens spent the 1997 and 1998 seasons with the Blue Jays, winning the Cy Young award both years amidst a run of nearly two decades of all-star years. It was two out of an incredible seven Cy Young awards. He was also an 11-time All-Star, was one of only seven pitchers (at the time) to win an MVP award and a Cy Young in the same season and was in the top three of strikeouts in a season twelve different times.

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Clemens, who also pitched for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and finally the Houston Astros, is near the top of too many pitching records to count, but my favourite is third-most strikeouts all time, behind only Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. Another favourite is throwing more than 200 innings in 15 different seasons – simply incredible. The Blue Jays, for their part, won 88 games in 1998 and finished third in the division, the 88 wins being the mark to beat for 17 seasons until 2015.

The Rocket, however, seemed unfazed by falling off the Hall of Fame ballot, posting this on Twitter on Tuesday evening:

Scott Rolen

Third-baseman Scott Rolen came to the Blue Jays in 2008 via the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Troy Glaus. Rolen played in just over 200 games through a year-and-a-half for the Jays before being shipped to Cincinnati at the 2008 Trade Deadline. While he was likeable enough as a Blue Jay, I’m sure he is most fondly remembered for the trade because coming back from Cincinnati was a journeyman down-on-his-luck guy named Edwin Encarnacion.

In just his fifth year eligible for the Hall of Fame, Rolen was named on 63.5 per cent of the ballots and with a weak class projected in 2023, should be elected next time around. Rolen won eight Gold Gloves and his .968 fielding percentage ranks 21st all time. Rolen was also an excellent hitter, ending his 17-year career with a slash line of .281/.364/.490 and an OPS of .855.

The 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame results were announced this week and no Toronto Blue Jays’ alumni made the cut, with only David Ortiz entering this year.

Omar Vizquel

The sleek-fielding Vizquel spent just one season with the Blue Jays in 2012 as a 45-year-old before he retired from Major League Baseball. Vizquel won 11 Gold Gloves in his career and his 29.5 Defensive WAR is good for ninth all-time. The shortstop was also speedy, swiping 404 bases in his tenure.

Vizquel has never been overly close to getting into the Hall of Fame, but his stock dropped immensely the past couple of years as controversy has surrounded him by the names of domestic violence and sexual harrassment issues, both alleged. It’s been made clear that on the field alone is not sufficient to gain entrance to the Hall, and Vizquel received just 94 votes this year after garnering 197 in 2021.

TORONTO, CANADA – SEPTEMBER 27: Mark Buehrle #56 of the Toronto Blue Jays delivers a pitch in the first inning during MLB game action against the Tampa Bay Rays on September 27, 2015 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /

Jeff Kent

Kent is the lone player on this list drafted by the Blue Jays, although he wasn’t a Blue Jay very long. He suited up in just 65 games for the 1992 Jays (bad year to leave the team) before turning into David Cone, a key player in the 1992 World Series Championship victory for the Blue Jays. Regardless of all Kent went on to achieve, it’s always worth trading away a prospect in exchange for a championship. You hear that, Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins?

Kent spent six years with the San Fransisco Giants, five years with the New York Mets, four years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, two years with the Houston Astros, and one year with the Cleveland Indians. In those 17 years, he won an MVP award in 2000, was a four-time Silver Slugger and five-time All Star. Of course, the Blue Jays also had Roberto Alomar as their superstar second-baseman, where Kent spent most of his fielding time as well.

Despite those achievements, in his ninth year on eligibility, Kent was named on 32.7 per cent of the ballots, so barring a big jump next year, he could fall off the first phase of the Hall of Fame induction process. This seems even more likely, considering he rose just 0.3 per cent over 2021.

Mark Buehrle

In just his second year on the ballot, southpaw Mark Buehrle just narrowly escaped falling off the ballot by just staying above the five percent minimum threshold. In fact, at 5.8 per cent, Buerhle and Torii Hunter (5.3 per cent) both just escaped the reckoning, unlike 10 other players eligible this year who did not hit that minimum. However, Buerhle lost nearly half of his votes from last year – 44 to 23 – so that’s not the right direction to trend.

Buerhle came to the Blue Jays in that massive 2012 deal with the then-Florida Marlins. The deal saw Buerhle, Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, Josh Johnson, and Jose Reyes join the Blue Jays and going the other way were Henderson Alvarez III, Anthony DeSclafani, Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Jake Marisnick, Jeff Mathis and Justin Nicolino.

Known as the guy who barely took time to breath between pitches and got us all to bed before 10:00pm, Buehrle put together three strong and respectable seasons for the Blue Jays before hanging up his spikes, including being named an All-Star in 2014. In 2015, the longtime Chicago White Sox starter fell just 1.1 innings pitched shy of throwing 200 or more innings in 15 consecutive seasons, a truly remarkable achievement.

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However, the Hall writers don’t typically put a ton of stock in consistency and reliability, even if Buerhle did it at a fairly high level for a decade and a half. However, the BBWAA has eight more years to give Buerhle a chance. Whether he ends up in the Hall or not, Buerhle had an impressive career, walking away with a no-hitter, a perfect game, a World Series ring, five All-Star nominations, four Gold Glove wins and a host of non-tangibles as well. Most of all, it was just awesome watching him pitch.

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