Four Players Voted into Baseball Hall of Fame for 2018

The votes are in and the Baseball Writers Association of America has selected four players for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame, including two who made it in their first year of eligibility. Chipper Jones and Jim Thome are the first year eligible players who were voted in and are joined by Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman.

Jones played 19 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, mostly as a third baseman. He was the National League’s MVP in 1999 when he had career highs of 45 homers, 110 RBIs, 25 stolen bases, a .633 slugging percentage, and 1.074 OPS. In 2012, he led the NL with a .364 batting average and a .470 on base percentage. He played on three National League Champions and was a member of the 1995 Braves World Series champion team.

Thome hit 612 home runs (currently eighth best in MLB history) in his 22 year career with six teams. He played 13 seasons with the Cleveland Indians and was a member of that club’s American League pennant winners in 1995 and 1997. He hit a career high 52 home runs with Cleveland in 2002. He signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2003 and led the National League with 47 home runs that year, and had a career high 131 RBIs. He drove in over 100 runs nine times in his career.

Guerrero began his career with the Montreal Expos in 1996 and played there through the 2004 season. In 2002 with the Expos, Vlad hit .336 with 39 homers, 111 RBIs, 40 stolen bases, and a NL leading 206 hits. He signed with the Angels in 2004 and was the American League MVP that year, again hitting 39 home runs, 126 RBIs, a career high .337 batting average and a league leading 124 runs scored. He closed out his career with a year each with the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles.

Hoffman began his big league career with the Florida Marlins in 1993, and was traded to San Diego halfway through his rookie season. He then played for the Padres through 2008 before closing out his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2009 and 2010. Hoffman pitched in 1035 games in his career, every one of which was a relief appearance. He was 61-75 with 601 saves, second only to Mariano Rivera (652). In the Padres’ NL pennant winning 1998 season, Hoffman had a career high and league leading 53 saves in 66 appearances (73 innings pitched) with a 1.48 ERA. He had 37 saves and a 1.83 ERA with the Brewers at age 41 in 2009.

These players join former Detroit Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell and pitcher Jack Morris, (who played for Detroit, Minnesota, Toronto, and Cleveland) who were selected by the Veterans Committee earlier.