Ex-Met Billy Wagner, five votes short in 2023, awaits last shot at Hall of Fame
Billy Wagner of the Mets reacts after giving up a game-tying three-run home run in the ninth inning to Mark Reynolds of the Arizona Diamonbacks as Conor Jackson of Arizona rounds the bases on June 11, 2008, at Shea Stadium. Credit: Getty Images/Jim McIsaac
Billy Wagner knows a lot about teetering on the precipice.
His was a career forged on a tightrope — ninth innings, fearsome hitters, little margin for error. His temperament combined unpolished personability with the inherent confidence that you need to be a successful closer.
And for the last nine-plus years, he’s been tip-toeing around a different ledge: Hall of Fame or not?
“It’s very humbling,” he said Tuesday at Citi Field. “Everybody goes, well, shoot, you’re five votes away. Nobody has ever not gotten in (while getting that close). My life tells me — it hasn’t been a sure thing when I walked in anywhere, so you know what? You take it as it comes.”
But he didn’t mince words, either: “I’m not here to say that I should be a Hall of Famer, but it is one of those things where you sit there and you get humbled very quickly. I can’t get any more saves. I can’t lower my ERA. I can’t get anymore strikeouts so I have to really teach the kids to be humble and sometimes, that sucks.”
Barring a future vote by the Era Committee, 2024 will mark Wagner’s final year on the regular ballot: a tantalizing prospect for an iconic closer who came just five votes shy last season. He would be only the eighth career reliever inducted into the Hall, and though he would be in rarefied company, his numbers are in line with those already enshrined.
Wagner has the lowest ERA and FIP — fielding independent pitching — of any Hall of Fame reliever not named Mariano Rivera. He pitched in the steroid era, and had a career ERA+ of 187 — meaning he was 87% better than the average pitcher. His 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings are the best of any pitcher ever, and his 422 saves are eighth most in MLB history, and second-most for a lefthander (behind former Met John Franco's 424).
He spent three-plus seasons with the Mets — having once deemed Flushing the last place he wanted to play — and quickly changed his tune.
But despite being one of the prototypes of the fire-throwing closer of the ‘90s, Wagner learned not to take anything for granted.
“Mariano is over there, Billy Wagner is over here,” he said, reflecting on his time in New York. “Billy Wagner punches out three on 13 pitches and Mariano gets two ground balls and a pop-up. What story is getting written? That was different. You can be successful but you couldn’t be that successful (in Rivera's shadow). You had to learn how to deal with that and move on but because I thought Mariano was the greatest pitcher ever. I really wasn’t offended about it.”
Precedent says that Wagner will likely make the cut this year, but he won’t be by the phone to find out. As he’s done previously, he won’t wait for the call that could confirm his enshrinement. As it stood, having a NBC Nightly News camera crew there last season was difficult enough.
“I’m not good at that,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t respect that opportunity. It’s just that you don’t get those calls, that’s tough. It’s going to suck.”
Regardless, he has no regrets about his career trajectory. Few expected much from the wiry kid from Marion, Virginia, and he made a career about proving them wrong. When he retired at age 38, it wasn’t strictly out of necessity: He had a 1.43 ERA that year, made the All-Star team and compiled 37 saves, 104 strikeouts and an ERA+ of 275. The prevalent belief is that, if he would have kept going, he’d be in the Hall already.
“I did have gas left,” he said. “My kids still say I was pretty good from 45 feet. That’s not the reason to play. The reason I stopped was my kids…If I don’t make the Hall of Fame because I went and played with my kids, that’s not the real Hall of Fame. I was plenty good, number-wise. I had other responsibilities.”
Injury updates
Kodai Senga (shoulder) threw 52 pitches (30 for strikes) and allowed two hits and two walks in 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. The Mets hope to continue to build him up, though there’s no firm plan on his progression Sean Reid-Foley (shoulder) played catch at 120 feet and will hopefully throw a bullpen session in the next two to three days, Carlos Mendoza said.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
