Marlins Add Another Hall of Famer in Ichiro as Hanley Ramirez Falls Off Ballot

Ichiro Suzuki cruised into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, picking up votes on 99.7% of ballots.

While Ichiro is mostly known for his time in Japan and his 14 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, the outfielder's impending induction means that the Miami Marlins will have yet another player representing them in Cooperstown.

Ichiro played for the Marlins from 2015 to 2017, once he was in his 40s and well past his prime. He hit .256 with a .640 OPS during his time in Miami, adding 236 hits, five home runs, 63 RBI, 22 stolen bases and 0.3 WAR to his career totals.

Those lackluster numbers aside, Ichiro recorded his 3,000th career MLB hit in a Marlins uniform in 2016. He posted a 103 OPS+ that season, which was his best mark post-2010.

That historic milestone won't be enough for Ichiro to go into the Hall of Fame as a Marlin, but he has technically become one of the franchise's most accomplished alumni.

There are now eight Marlins in the Hall of Fame, which seems high considering the team only joined MLB in 1993. The Colorado Rockies, who were added as an expansion team that same year, have three, while the Tampa Bay Rays have sent two players to Cooperstown since their inaugural 1998 campaign.

Tony Pérez made it into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2000, then took over as the Marlins' manager in 2001. From there, Andre Dawson was inducted in 2010, followed by Mike Piazza in 2016, Iván Rodríguez and Tim Raines in 2017 and Trevor Hoffman in 2018. Jim Leyland, whose managerial career included a stop and a World Series ring in Florida, made it in 2024.

None of those players are known as Marlins, though – honestly, most fans probably don't remember most of them wearing Marlins uniforms at all.

Piazza played just five games for the team in 1998, in between his two far more notable stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. The Marlins got Hoffman in the 1992 expansion draft, but he only made 28 appearances in 1993 before getting traded to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Gary Sheffield.

Raines played in 98 games in Miami, while Dawson saw action in 122 and Rodríguez appeared in 144. Pérez and Leyland only managed 114 and 324 games in Florida, respectively.

Ichiro, meanwhile, played in 432 games with the Marlins. As a result, he now leads all of the franchise's Hall of Famers in games played or games managed.

The Marlins did have another player up for a spot in Cooperstown this winter, with Hanley Ramirez appearing on the ballot for the first time. Unlike Ichiro, Ramirez actually spent his prime in Miami, establishing himself as one of the best shortstops in baseball from 2006 through 2010.

However, injuries derailed Ramirez's career, and he did not continue on a Hall of Fame pace as he bounced around between the Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians.

The Marlins' all-time leader in offensive WAR did not appear on a single ballot, failing to meet the 5% required to return in 2026.

Miami is sure to have more prominent Hall of Famers in the coming years, with Miguel Cabrera set to hit the ballot in 2029. Giancarlo Stanton might make a serious push for Cooperstown himself, depending on how the rest of his career with the New York Yankees pans out.

And while Sheffield garnered just 63.9% of the votes in his 10th and final year on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot in 2024, he could very well get inducted by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in 2026 or 2029.

So, Ichiro's reign as the most identifiable Marlins Hall of Famer will be relatively short-lived, but it is a title he will claim when he arrives in Cooperstown this summer.

CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner will be inducted alongside Ichiro, having each cleared 75% themselves.

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