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Former Phillies second baseman Chase Utley finished with 28.8% of the vote, or 111 in total, in his first season on the Baseball Writers Association of America Hall of Fame ballot.
Candidates must reach the 75% threshold to earn election into the Hall of Fame and can spend 10 years on the ballot before falling off, assuming they receive at least 5% of the vote in each year.
Utley’s first year on the ballot revealed a split among new school and old school voters.
Prior to the announcement, Utley was on 39.4% (86 votes) of publicly revealed ballots, according to Ryan Thibodaux’s ballot tracker. Utley received only 14% of the vote (25 votes) among writers who chose not to reveal their ballot prior to the announcement.
That kind of divide indicates that Utley will be a polarizing candidate moving forward. Receiving nearly 30% of the vote in year one is an encouraging sign moving forward, but it will likely take years for Utley to eventually get into the Hall of Fame.
Utley has a unique case. He was one of the top players in the sport during the late 2000s, but he does not have the accolades or counting statistics associated with most Hall of Famers. Advanced metrics that are commonly used today reflect well on Utley’s peak years. He posted at least seven FanGraphs wins above replacement in five consecutive seasons from 2005 to 2009. In four of those years, Utley was a top five position player in baseball, according to fWAR.
He finished as high as seventh in NL MVP voting from 2005 to 2009.
New school voters who value peak years supported Utley while the old school voters who do not take into account advanced statistics into the voting process were less likely to vote for Utley.
Nagging injuries late in his career were to blame for Utley failing to reach key milestones. He finished his career 115 hits shy of 2,000. No other player in the modern era has earned election to the Hall of Fame with less than 2,000 career hits.
Adrián Beltré and Joe Mauer were elected on the first ballot. Todd Helton, who finished at 16.2% in his first year in 2019, was elected on his sixth ballot.
Utley has nine more years of eligibility remaining on the BBWAA ballot.
