Phillies’ Legend Predicted to be Hall of Famer
With much of the focus centered on the Winter Meetings and what the Philadelphia Phillies will do this offseason to help them raise a World Series banner for the first time since 2008, a legend from that last championship team is on the Hall of Fame ballot. Chase Utley has become eligible to be elected to baseball’s highest honor for the first time and there is some speculation about whether he will or will not be voted in.
The Hall of Fame conversation has gotten much more muddy in recent years as voters are taking into account more things than just counting stats. The “Steroid Era” guys have hit the ballot as well, complicating matters even more. So, what are the chances that Phillies’ legendary second baseman gets enshrined one day?
Well, prominent national baseball write, Jayson Stark, thinks there’s a good chance Utley will have his name in Cooperstown. “But my gut feeling, based on the vibe I’m sensing since the new Hall ballot was announced, is that there’s a Chase Utley Hall of Fame speech coming … one of these years,” we wrote in his recent mailbag column for The Athletic. If Utley were to be inducted, he would be the first player to ever make the Hall of Fame with fewer than 2,000 hits (1,885).
Andruw Jones is another player on the ballot who has under 2,000 hits as well, so it comes down to who gets voted in first to hold that distinction. But, even with the lack of counting stats for Utley, Stark still thinks he has a great case and fits what the voters have been searching for when sending in their ballots. “What gets modern voters’ engines revving these days … or Utley’s new-age voter charisma? (Five straight seven-WAR seasons! JAWS! Defensive Runs Saved! All that winning!) … Chase Utley is the litmus test of how much voters have evolved and where Hall voting is headed. We care less and less about our favorite counting numbers. We care more and more about big peaks and rate stats.
So it’s all right in his hot zone. That evolution is likely going to get Utley elected,” he says in his case for the second baseman. It will certainly be interesting. If Philadelphia was asked if Utley should be in then he’d be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
How the voters view his career will be determined, as he has a maximum of 10 years until his time on the ballot is over.
