JAWS and the 2025 Corridor of Fame Poll: Omar Vizquel and Francisco Rodríguez

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing take a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2025 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this yr’s poll, and different candidates within the sequence, use the device above; an introduction to JAWS could be discovered right here. For a tentative schedule and an opportunity to fill out a Corridor of Fame poll for our crowdsourcing challenge, see right here. All WAR figures confer with the Baseball-Reference model except in any other case indicated.

The fourth and last multi-candidate pairing of this sequence is by far the heaviest, masking two candidates who’ve each been linked to a number of incidents of home violence.

Omar Vizquel (17.7% in 2024)

Within the historical past of Corridor of Fame voting, no candidate, not even the more and more inflammatory Curt Schilling, has taken a fall on the size of Omar Vizquel. 4 years in the past, the 11-time Gold Glove winner and profession chief in video games performed at shortstop seemed to be trending in direction of election, having acquired 52.6% on the 2020 poll, in his third yr of eligibility. Whereas there was loads of room to quibble over his candidacy on a efficiency foundation — regardless of his Gold Gloves, the defensive metrics don’t maintain him to be the second coming of Ozzie Smith, nor do the park- and league-adjusted offensive metrics — that wasn’t what stopped his march to Cooperstown in its tracks.

Within the strategy of updating his profile for the 2021 poll, I found that in October 2020, Vizquel’s second spouse, Blanca García, accused him of home violence by way of an Instagram reside publish. García, who was within the midst of divorcing Vizquel, confirmed paperwork from 2016 and ’17 pertaining to a cost of fourth-degree home violence assault filed on January 18, 2016, by which level Vizquel was on the teaching workers of the Tigers. The printed, and to that time the reporting of the allegations, had all been in Spanish.

Inside weeks, The Athletic‘s Katie Strang and Ken Rosenthal revealed an in-depth investigation unearthing information not solely of that 2016 cost however of García’s description of one other incident of violence from 5 years earlier. By way of an legal professional who spoke to The Athletic, Vizquel denied all allegations of home violence, and in a minimum of one interview with a Venezuelan information outlet, denied García’s assertion that she was later pressured into signing a letter saying, “I don’t consider I used to be assaulted,” and requesting that the fees be dropped. Whereas many citizens had already forged their ballots by the point The Athletic revealed its findings on December 16, Vizquel’s share of the vote slipped to 49.1%.

That wasn’t the tip of the disagreeable and surprising allegations. In August 2021, a former batboy for the Birmingham Barons sued Vizquel for sexual harassment that came about in 2019, when he was managing the White Sox’s Double-A affiliate. The previous batboy, who has autism, alleged that he was “focused for sexual harassment due to his incapacity,” and provided a graphic account of Vizquel’s habits. Although Vizquel’s parting with the staff had been publicly portrayed as amicable, with director of participant growth Chris Getz (now the White Sox basic supervisor) citing him as “a constructive affect,” The Athletic‘s Strang and James Fegan reported — and the White Sox confirmed — that an inside investigation had led the staff to droop Vizquel with pay after which hearth him on the finish of the season.

Vizquel is not in authorized jeopardy; his divorce has been finalized, and he and the White Sox each reached confidential settlements with the batboy in 2022. Vizquel’s Corridor of Fame candidacy has not recovered, nevertheless. In 2022, his share of the vote plummeted to 23.9%; his 25.2% drop was the biggest in electoral historical past. He sank to 19.5% on the 2023 poll, and 17.7% in ’24.

Along with being chockfull of gamers linked to performance-enhancing medicine — some suspended by Main League Baseball, others alleged to have used the medicine at a time earlier than MLB might accomplish that — current Corridor of Fame ballots have included a number of candidates accused of home violence. José Reyes, who went one-and-done on final yr’s poll, is the one one who drew a suspension beneath MLB’s Joint Home Violence, Sexual Assault and Baby Abuse Coverage, which was created in 2015, however Vizquel and different candidates present (Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, and Francisco Rodríguez) and previous (Barry Bonds, Carl Crawford, and Sammy Sosa) all might need confronted suspensions had the coverage been in place throughout their enjoying careers.

The place the connection to PEDs derailed the candidacies of Bonds and Sosa (neither of whom was ever suspended by MLB) and have executed so to this point for the twice-suspended Ramirez, voters haven’t uniformly determined that home violence allegations or convictions are disqualifying. Talking for my very own ballots, I voted for Sosa as soon as, Bonds twice, and am about to vote for Jones for the fifth time; with 61.6% final yr, his seventh on the poll, he has an affordable shot at election by the writers. I can definitely perceive voters selecting to rule such candidates out on these grounds, whether or not or not they’ve a firsthand connection to somebody whose life has been affected by home violence, and whether or not or not they put inventory within the so-called character clause.

Certainly, it’s right here that I need to point out the “integrity, sportsmanship, [and] character” part of the voting guidelines. Till Mark McGwire landed on the 2007 poll, it was by no means actually used to exclude anybody; in the meantime, the varied electoral our bodies have admitted a parade of spitballers, sign-stealers, racists, cheaters, and abusers. The clause was the brainchild of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a person who brimmed with such integrity that he spent his complete 24-year time period as commissioner upholding the sport’s shameful colour line. The historical past of that hypocrisy and so many others — witness the election of Bud Selig, himself steeped within the collusion of the Nineteen Eighties in addition to the overseeing of the so-called Steroid Period — leads me to keep away from placing any inventory within the clause, which isn’t to say that I don’t have my very own methods of coping with the darker features of gamers’ candidacies, equivalent to my “Wild West”/testing period distinction relating to PED allegations.

Vizquel often is the take a look at case for the voters relating to home violence. Some have requested why his allegations have price him votes regardless of different candidates with previous allegations, equivalent to Jones (who pled responsible), faring higher. Just a few potentialities come to thoughts, they usually’re not essentially unique. One is that whereas the allegations didn’t floor till after he grew to become a candidate, as soon as they did, they shattered the “good man” status that was a sure a part of Vizquel’s attraction. One other is that it’s the mixture of two totally different classes of allegations, the place one might need not have been seen as disqualifying by some voters. A 3rd is the baseball connection, in that the sexual harassment allegation particularly pertains to Vizquel’s office conduct whereas serving as a staff worker. What’s extra, MLB opened investigations into each issues, and whereas the league won’t have the ability to self-discipline Vizquel on both one except he’s employed once more, the potential of him receiving substantial punishment might deter groups from doing so. Some mixture of those components could also be deterring voters from together with him on their ballots.

As famous, there’s room to seek out fault with Vizquel’s candidacy even whereas sticking to a performance-only viewpoint. His longevity-driven counting stats and status for nice protection are offset by his modest superior statistics. He’s forty fifth in JAWS amongst shortstops, under present candidates Troy Tulowitzki (twenty eighth), Jimmy Rollins (thirty fourth), and Hanley Ramirez (forty second), to not point out Rabbit Maranville, the lowest-ranked Corridor shortstop (forty first). Vizquel’s rankings have fallen since he first grew to become eligible, with the lively Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, and Xander Bogaerts climbing proper previous him, however even earlier than that, and earlier than all of this ugly stuff got here to mild, his relative standing was sufficient to maintain him off my poll.

You possibly can learn extra about Vizquel’s profession, his efficiency, and the main points relating to the aforementioned allegations inside his 2023 profile right here.

Francisco Rodríguez (7.8% in 2024)

From the profile:

Francisco Rodríguez was the October Shock. Because the Angels went on their 2002 postseason run, they launched a secret weapon out of their bullpen, a 20-year-old Venezuelan righty with an unholy fastball-slider mixture and the poise of a grizzled veteran regardless of him having all of 5.2 main league innings beneath his belt. Typically throwing a number of innings and rapidly graduating right into a setup position in entrance of nearer Troy Percival, Rodríguez set plenty of information, together with one for essentially the most strikeouts by a reliever in a single postseason (28) whereas serving to the Angels to their first (and up to now solely) championship in franchise historical past.

Although he endured some rising pains on the main league stage, by 2004 Rodríguez was an All-Star, and from ’05-08 he led the American League in saves 3 times, setting a still-standing single-season report with 62 within the final of these campaigns. His mid-90s fastball and mid-80s slider befuddled hitters, whereas his demonstrative antics — “a melange of pirouettes, fist pumps and primordial screams,” as one author put it — typically received beneath their pores and skin.

Rodríguez cashed in as soon as he reached free company, signing a three-year, $37 million take care of the Mets, however he was not often the identical pitcher he’d been in Anaheim. He made three extra All-Star groups, however was arrested twice, as soon as for assaulting his girlfriend’s father (and tearing ligaments in his thumb within the course of) and as soon as for home abuse. He pled responsible to the previous and attended anger administration courses, whereas the fees for the latter have been dropped when the lady returned to Venezuela. Each incidents seemingly would have interrupted his profession to a good better diploma had they occurred after Main League Baseball and the Gamers Affiliation adopted the league’s home violence coverage in 2015.

Inevitably, groups stored paying Rodríguez to pitch, and by the point his 16-year profession was over, he ranked fourth on the all-time saves listing, behind Corridor of Famers Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Lee Smith, and forward of the 5 different enshrined relievers. That standing, in addition to his quantity 12 rating in R-JAWS, makes him [the 2023] poll’s solely newcomer moreover Carlos Beltrán who has a believable Corridor of Fame case…

Within the two years since that was written, Rodríguez has dropped to sixth in saves, as each Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel have handed him, with the previous bumping him to thirteenth in R-JAWS as nicely. In the meantime, in his second poll look, he dropped three factors to 7.8%. Extra right here.