Now that the Class of 2024 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame has been elected, it’s time to move ahead and start analyzing the names that will be on the ballot in 2025.
For Cleveland Guardians fans, there is one name that brings out lots of good, old memories: CC Sabathia.
The left-hander from Vallejo, California was a homegrown pitcher in the franchise, making his MLB debut in 2001 and being trusted in an important AL Division Series game right away, which he won.
That year, he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Japanese sensation Ichiro Suzuki (the headliner of the 2025 HOF class and a former teammate on the New York Yankees).
Here is a list of players who are eligible for Hall of Fame voting in 2025 🗳️
Who's getting in? pic.twitter.com/iiYuT9cl3g
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) January 24, 2024
Sabathia would go on to complete a nice career, playing for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Yankees in addition to Cleveland.
He won 251 games, with a 3.74 ERA and the Cy Young award in 2007 with Cleveland.
He was an instrumental part of that team that made it all the way to the American League Championship Series that year and narrowly lost to the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
In total, Sabathia accumulated six All-Star berths (three with Cleveland) and five top-five Cy Young finishes.
In Cleveland, he left a 3.83 ERA and 106 wins in eight seasons, and became a folk hero in the city.
He became part of the team that transitioned from the highly successful late-90s Cleveland teams into the new millennium, and he made the adjustment from thrower to pitcher as he matured.
He is, without a doubt, one of the most accomplished pitchers the franchise has seen in recent years and is a firm candidate to make the Hall.
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