The 2024 HOF has been announced: 3B Adrian Beltre, 1B Todd Helton, and 1B/C Joe Mauer join Manager Jim Leyland for the 2024 Class of Hall of Famers. Closer Billy Wagner fell short of joining the group by five votes on his ninth ballot, and Mauer slid in on his first ballot by only four votes. Adrian Beltre felt like a like for most fans ans writers to get into the Hall on his first ballot, while Joe Mauer’s case wasn’t so surefire for many reasons, and Todd Helton was just a “matter of time” it felt like, getting in on his sixth ballot. Just a quick review of baseball’s history as far as players and how many get into the Hall of Fame. Since 1876, the first year of the National League, and today, January 25th 2024, there have been 20,532 Major League Baseball players. With the addition of Beltre, Helton, Mauer, and Leyland, there are 346 members of the MLB Hall of Fame. So if you round up, only 1.69% of people who have ever managed a Major League game or played in a Major League game are in the Hall of Fame; to put this into context, let’s take the reigning champion’s stadium maximum capacity, Globe Life Field, which is 40,300. The whole of all Major League players since the beginning of the game would fill just over half of this stadium, just half! Globe Life Field has suites that can hold up to 120 guests, so the entirety of the MLB Hall of Fame would only take up three of these large suites, with room to spare for future Hall of Famers. That is how special of a group these 346 HOF members are, if they only take up three large suites at Globe Life Field. Now, let’s look at each player who joined the Hall of Fame in 2024.
Adrian Beltre – First Ballot 
Beltre debuted on June 24th, 1998 with the LA Dodgers, against the Anaheim Angels, at the age of 19. He started at Third and had two hits in five at-bats, grabbing one RBI while the Dodgers ended up winning 6-5 in 11 innings against their crosstown rivals. To finish his career, he last played on September 30th 2018 at the age of 39 as a Texas Ranger, getting one hit in two at-bats in a 3-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners. In between his first and last games, Beltre spent seven seasons with the Dodgers, five with the Mariners, one with Boston, and eight with the Rangers. He racked up four All-Star appearances, five Gold Glove Awards, four Silver Slugger Awards, and two Platinum Glove Awards as he was both a defensive and offensive force to be reckoned with at his position. The closest that Beltre ever got to winning the MVP Award was being the runner up in 2004 to Barry Bonds, in his last season with the Dodgers. Beltre amassed a bWAR of 93.5 over his astounding 21 seasons in the Majors (4th highest for 3B), showing amazing consistency as he played in at least 110 Games each season besides his rookie season (77 Games) and age-38 season (94 Games). He finished his career with over 3000 Hits, over 470 Homeruns, over 630 Doubles, and over 1700 RBIs; seven times over his career he hit .300 or higher, but never grabbed a batting title, finishing his career with an OPS+ of 116. He was a true Thirdbaseman as he played over 2700 Games at the position over 21 seasons, followed up by 156 Games as a DH over 13 seasons. Beltre is no doubted a deserving first ballot HOF inductee.
Todd Helton – Sixth Ballot
Helton was a one team man, playing all 17 seasons of his career with the Colorado Rockies, which started in 1997 at the age of 23 and ended in
2013 at the age of 39. Todd Helton was another player who showed a lot of consistency while playing at least 110 Games in all of his seasons besides his rookie year (35 Games) and age-38 season (69 Games). He logged over 2100 Games at First, followed by 15 Games in the Outfield and just 2 as a Designated Hitter. His one weakness was the Postseason, where he only hit .211 over 15 Games and 57 At-Bats, and he only drove in 2 Runs. He did, however, have a streak of 5 straight All-Star appearances from 2000-04, had a Batting Title in 2000 as he hit .372 over 160 Games and led in On-Base Percentage, Slugging, OPS and Total Bases with 405; he also led in Hits, Doubles, and RBI with 147 that season, which was easily his best in the Majors. The only other time he ever led the league in any category was in 2005, with a league leading On-Base Percentage of .445, beating out Barry Bonds on the account him only appearing in 14 Games that season. Along with his 5 All-Star Games, Helton also had 3 Gold Glove Awards, and 4 Silver Slugger Awards to go with his Batting Title in 2000. As far as career totals go, he barely had over 2500 Hits, just over 360 HR, but carried a lifetime Batting Average of .316. The reason he, just like his Coors Field friend Larry Walker had to wait so long to get into the Hall was where he played. His lifetime Batting Average at Coors Field was an astounding .345, while Away it was only .287, and he only played 35 more Games at home than away. He also had almost 350 more Runs scored at home versus Away, nearly 80 more HR, almost 300 more RBI, and exactly 50 more Doubles at Coors Field. To boil it all down into one number, Todd Helton only racked up a lifetime bWAR of 61.8, which would put him at 15th overall for Firstbaseman. Active player Joey Votto is a shoo-in at a lifetime bWAR of 64.4 if that’s the metric we’re using now, and recently retired Albert Pujols is a no doubter with a lifetime bWAR of 101.7, second to only Lou Gehrig’s bWAR of 113.8, who’s a HOFer.
Joe Mauer – First Ballot
I’ll say it plain and simple, Joe Mauer is no first ballot MLB player in my humble opinion. But then again, that’s why I’m not a BBWAA Writer, I suppose. Getting in by the skin of his teeth, a measily 4 votes separating him from the Hall of Fame and “Hall of Really Good” should say something. The problem with Mauer is that he never really had a single position as his primary; he played less than half of his career games as a Catcher, the rest at First or as a DH. But if you lump him in with Catchers, his career bWAR of 55.2 is good for 9th overall. But if you put that against Firstbasemen, he doesn’t even si
t in the top 25 all time. What Joe Mauer DOES have is being the hometown kid who played for the hometown team and excelled. There’s no doubting that he was good in his prime, but playing only 49% of your career games as a Catcher does not make you a true Catcher, and that’s okay. He had to adjust to allow his body to stay healthy and continue playing. Along with being the 2009 MVP, he had three Batting Titles, three Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, and six All-Star Game appearances. Joe Mauer was good, he was REALLY good. But Joe Mauer was not first ballot HOF good. Along with his bWAR of 55.2, he had just over 2100 career Hits, just under 150 HR, under 1000 RBI, but had a lifetime Average of .306 and OPS+ of 124. He played less than 1000 Games as Catcher (921), 603 at First, and 310 as DH with a couple as an Outfielder (2). But again, consistency was key to Mauer’s 15 year career, as he played in at least 100 Games in 13 of those 15 Seasons; he only played in 35 Games as a rookie, and 82 Games in 2011 towards the midway of his career. Consistency was key in Beltre’s and Helton’s careers, and maybe that’s why Mauer was inducted along with them, among his other offensive and defensive awards. If we are going to classify Joe Mauer as a career Catcher, then there are no active players who are close to his bWAR at #7 on the list. It starts to make you wonder about Buster Posey and Yadier Molina who were true career Catchers, and whether or not they’ll make it into the HOF on their first ballot.
