Padres Legend Falls Off Hall of Fame Ballot After Collecting Three Votes
Pick a statistical category for hitters, and Adrián González is listed among the top 10 on the San Diego Padres’ career leaderboard. The Chula Vista native did more over five seasons (2006-10) than almost any player ever to wear the Padres’ uniform.
González's five seasons in San Diego saw him play 799 games, hit 161 home runs, bat .288/.374/.514, and collect MVP votes in all five seasons.
The first baseman, five years removed from his final season in the major leagues, was eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year — and the last.
González received three votes, short of the 19 needed to remain on the ballot in 2025. The identity of the three voters will not be revealed until Feb. 6 on the BBWAA website.
González was one of three former Padres on the ballot this year. Neither Gary Sheffield (in his final year of BBWAA eligibility) nor James Shields (in his first) gained the 75 percent approval needed for induction.
Shields, like González, did not receive enough votes to remain on the ballot next year. He was one of two players who was not listed on any of the 366 ballots. Had he been inducted, Gonzalez would have been objectively closer to the bottom than the top of first basemen in the Hall of Fame.
González's JAWS score ranks 39th among all first baseman, behind contemporaries like Mark Teixeira, Jason Giambi and Joey Votto, but ahead of a few past Cooperstown inductees like Jim Bottomley and High Pockets Kelly.
As Jay Jaffe, inventor of the JAWS system wrote for FanGraphs:
González doesn’t have Hall of Fame numbers, though as far as JAWS goes, he’s tied with Don Mattingly for 39th among first basemen, 0.4 points ahead of Gil Hodges, and 1.1 points ahead of Grace, to whom he was compared as a draft prospect; he’s also ahead of Rizzo (35.9) and another popular Dodgers first baseman, Steve Garvey (33.4). As number one picks go, he’s among the most successful. He ranks sixth in career WAR among the 58 top picks, though a pair of active players are poised to pass him in 2024.
The Padres traded González to the Boston Red Sox on Dec. 6, 2010 for Anthony Rizzo and three other then-minor league players. Had he been able to maintain the 141 OPS+ he logged as a Padre, González's Hall of Fame case might not be so open-and-shut.
But after a superlative season with the Red Sox in 2011 — an AL All-Star nod and a league-leading 213 hits — age caught up with González. He simply couldn’t maintain his peak performance over six seasons with the Dodgers and a forgettable 54-game outro with the Mets in 2018.
González never slugged .500 again, practically a prerequisite for enshrinement for first basemen in the Hall of Fame. Although he'll need a Veterans Committee to get there now, González can say he received three more Hall of Fame votes than almost every player who played the game.
