For the fourth consecutive season and the 16th time in 17 years, the 2022 MLB Hall of Fame voting will almost certainly not see a former member of the Milwaukee Brewers earn enshrinement in Cooperstown. The ballot itself, however, continues to provide a great opportunity to look back on the careers of players with lasting legacies in the local baseball community.
Gary Sheffield
For the eighth consecutive year one of the former Brewers on the ballot will be Sheffield, arguably the most controversial Brewer of all time. Sheffield’s case for enshrinement has not significantly changed since last year’s ballot: He still ranks among the sport’s all-time leaders in several offensive categories, is still a nine-time All Star and five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, a member of six postseason teams and the owner of a World Series ring from the 1997 Marlins. He’s also still shrouded by the specter of performance enhancing drug suspicion, however.
While Sheffield’s case remains the same, however, a large number of voters have changed their mind on his candidacy: He received between 11 and 14% of the vote each year from 2015-19 before jumping to 30.5% in 2020 and 40.6% in the voting announced earlier this year. There are only a handful of players in the history of Hall of Fame voting to get more than 40% of a vote and not get enshrined eventually, either by the BBWAA voters on a later ballot or by one of the Hall’s special committees. Sheffield, however, has just three more opportunities to be considered by the BBWAA, and suspicions about the legitimacy of his performance likely make his candidacy a non-starter for many voters.
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Prince Fielder
Meanwhile, the former Brewer appearing on a ballot for a first time is a story of two careers. Brewers’ fans will remember Fielder as a prospect with prodigious power who hit mammoth home runs all over the minor leagues, then came to the majors and lived up to the hype. As a 22-year-old rookie in 2006 Fielder hit 28 home runs, then became the youngest major leaguer ever to hit 50 when he did it in 2007. When Fielder left Milwaukee following the 2011 season, he was a three-time All Star, two-time Silver Slugger Award winner, was second on the franchise’s all-time list for home runs and was still only 27 years old.
After his first two seasons in Detroit Fielder had already played in 1322 games before his 30th birthday (missing just one contest over a span of five seasons) and had 285 home runs. Only 16 other players in MLB history had hit more home runs before turning 30. Ten of them are in the Hall of Fame, two others are near locks to be inducted someday (Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera) and another is Alex Rodriguez, who is also eligible for the first time this season.
Disaster struck the following season, however, when Fielder’s first year in Texas was cut short due to a herniated disk in his neck. He would play one more full season in 2015 before requiring a second spinal fusion surgery in 2016 and retiring at just 32 years old. Despite playing just one full season after his 30th birthday, Fielder is still one of just 116 players in MLB history with at least 319 home runs and 1028 runs batted in.
Of course, we’ll never fully know just how good Fielder could have been if his career had not been cut short. If his Texas seasons were replaced with five years at his 2009-13 pace, for example, Fielder would have had 490 home runs and still only been 34 years old. Even after his rough finish Fielder retired with a career .382 on-base percentage. With a graceful decline, he could have been one of his generation’s best combinations of power and selectiveness.
Instead, Fielder retired with 319 home runs, the exact same number his father Cecil accumulated in his 13 MLB seasons. This year’s Hall of Fame ballot will likely provide one more opportunity to compare their career accomplishments: The elder Fielder was eligible for induction in 2004 but was named on just one of the 506 ballots submitted that year. Prince Fielder is extremely unlikely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and probably won’t even get the 5% of the vote necessary for another shot next year, but it wouldn’t be shocking if a few voters put a checkmark next to his name and give him an opportunity to exceed his father’s total.
