HALL OF FAME 2022
MLB insider tries to justify his controversial HOF ballot
Jan 25, 2022, 1:06 pm
HALL OF FAME 2022
Monday on MLB Network, Jon Heyman shared his Hall of Fame ballot that had one head-scratching omission, Roger Clemens. While it's not that surprising that Clemens would be left off the ballot due to his alleged use of steroids, it is however curious that Heyman voted for Barry Bonds, who has also been linked to the same PED accusations as Clemens. In the video below, Heyman lays out why he voted for Bonds and not Clemens, and MLB Network's Brian Kenny jumps in to press Heyman on why one alleged "steroid guy" gets in, and the other doesn't.
.@JonHeyman dives into his #HOF2022 ballot selections on #MLBNow. (📽️ via @MLBNow) https://t.co/bcu84c0xdm pic.twitter.com/fOoikTpxUKÂ
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 24, 2022
Heyman's main reason for voting Bonds in over Clemens stems from his assessment that Bonds was already a Hall of Famer before he started using PEDs, which Heyman believes started in 2001. Clemens on the other hand, had his career rebirth posting Cy Young seasons with the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998. This is when Heyman believes he started using, and Clemens wasn't Hall of Fame worthy before 1997, according to Heyman. Looking at the numbers, Clemens pitched 11 seasons that Heyman believes were fueled by PEDs. So if Heyman doesn't count those seasons as part of Clemens' HOF resume, an argument could be made.
Personally, I would vote both Clemens and Bonds in the HOF without a second thought. Whichever way this goes, we'll have our answer on Tuesday night. This is the last year both players are eligible to get in, so it's now or never.
Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.
“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game. “We’re definitely going to fight to not have a salary cap and the league’s obviously not going to like that.”
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.
Despite higher levels of luxury tax that started in 2022, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have pushed payrolls to record levels. The last small-market MLB club to win a World Series was the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
After signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract, New York opened this season with an industry-high $326 million payroll, nearly five times Miami’s $69 million, according to Major League Baseball’s figures. Using luxury tax payrolls, based on average annual values that account for future commitments and include benefits, the Dodgers were first at $400 million and on track to owe a record luxury tax of about $151 million — shattering the previous tax record of $103 million set by Los Angeles last year.
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026, and management lockouts have become the norm, which shifts the start of a stoppage to the offseason. During the last negotiations, the sides reached a five-year deal on March 10 after a 99-day lockout, salvaging a 162-game 2022 season.
“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap isn’t about growing the game,” union head Tony Clark said Tuesday. “A cap is about franchise values and profits. ... A salary cap historically has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about a fair versus not. This is institutionalized collusion.”
The union’s opposition to a cap has paved the way for record-breaking salaries for star players. Soto’s deal is believed to be the richest in pro sports history, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal with the Dodgers signed a year earlier. By comparison, the biggest guaranteed contract in the NFL is $250 million for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Manfred cites that 10% of players earn 72% of salaries.
“I never use the word `salary’ within one of `cap,’” he said. “What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that’s real we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective.”
A management salary cap proposal could contain a salary floor and a guaranteed percentage of revenue to players. Baseball players have endured nine work stoppages, including a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that fought off a cap proposal.
Agent Scott Boras likens a cap plan to attracting kids to a “gingerbread house.”
“We’ve heard it for 20 years. It’s almost like the childhood fable,” he said. “This very traditional, same approach is not something that would lead the younger players to the gingerbread house.”