Red Sox: David Ortiz highlights expected additions to 2022 Hall of Fame ballot
By Sean Penney
Red Sox legend David Ortiz will join next year’s Hall of Fame ballot
For only the ninth time in history and the first since 2013, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America did not elect any players to the Hall of Fame this year. The countdown now begins toward the Class of 2022. While the official list of first-time candidates won’t be revealed until later this year, we can anticipate several prominent names being added to the ballot, including a few with ties to the Boston Red Sox.
The expected additions are highlighted by David Ortiz. The former Red Sox slugger has all the accolades worthy of Cooperstown. He’s a 10-time All-Star and seven-time Silver Slugger. He smashed 541 home runs and owned a career .931 OPS. Ortiz can fill a highlight reel with epic postseason performances, earning a reputation as one of the most clutch hitters in the game on his way to leading the Red Sox to three World Series championships.
Edgar Martinez’s induction into the Hall of Fame last year removed the stigma from the designated hitter role, paving the way for Ortiz. The only roadblock standing in his way is a vague connection to the PED scandal..
Unlike his former teammate Manny Ramirez, Ortiz never served a suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test. While there’s plenty of damning evidence to convince us that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds were guilty, the only stain on Ortiz’s reputation is the circumstantial evidence of his name appearing on the infamous leaked Mitchell Report.
Ortiz passed every routine drug test once MLB started cracking down on PEDs. He doesn’t belong in the same category as the other suspected cheaters who continue to fall short on the ballot each year but I suspect some voters will lump him in with that tainted batch based on rumor and suspicion.
That might prevent Ortiz from being a first-ballot Hall of Famer but with the percentages slowly creeping higher for other suspected users, we should see some of them get in within the next few years, at which point there’s no excuse for excluding Ortiz.