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Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz all elected to Hall of Fame

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A Hall of Famer, but not because of his time in pinstripes. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
A Hall of Famer, but not because of his time in pinstripes. (AP)

The Hall of Fame has four new members. On Tuesday, the BBWAA announced Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz have all been inducted into Cooperstown. This is the first time four players have been inducted in one year since 1955 (Joe DiMaggio, Gabby Hartnett, Ted Lyons, Dazzy Vance) and the first time three pitchers were inducted in one year in history.

Biggio fell two votes short of induction last year, and historically when a player misses by that narrow a margin, he gets in comfortably the next year. That’s what happened here — Biggio appeared on 82.7% of the ballots this year, well more than the 75% necessary for induction. The full voting results are available at the BBWAA’s site.

Johnson is an inner-circle Hall of Famer and appeared on 97.3% of the ballots, the eighth highest voting total of all-time. He spent two seasons with the Yankees and is presumably going into the Hall of Fame as a Diamondback. Arizona signed him to a four-year contract in 1999 and he won four straight Cy Youngs from 1999-2002, so yeah. Pedro and Smoltz appeared on 91.1% and 82.9% of the ballots, respectively.

The Yankees had some pretty great battles against those three over the years, including beating Smoltz’s Braves in the 1996 and 1999 World Series. Johnson bested the Yankees in the 1995 ALDS and 2001 World Series and is simply one of the best pitchers ever, arguably the best lefty ever. Pedro … man did he and the Yankees share some memorable moments. His 17-strikeout one-hitter at Yankee Stadium on September 10th, 1999 is one of the most dominant pitching performances I’ve ever seen:

Former Yankees Tim Raines (55.0%), Roger Clemens (37.5%), Mike Mussina (24.6%), Gary Sheffield (11.7%), Aaron Boone (0.4%), Tom Gordon (0.4%), and Tony Clark (0%) all fell well short of induction. Boone, Gordon, and Clark drop off the ballot because they received fewer than 5% of the vote.

In his final year of Hall of Fame eligibility, Don Mattingly received only 9.1% of the vote, so he exhausted his 15 years on the ballot and was not inducted to Cooperstown. He topped out at 28.2% of the vote during his first year of eligibility back in 2001 and has sat closer to 13% over the last decade or so, including only 8.2% last year.

Down the line, Mattingly could be eligible for induction via the Expansion Era Committee, which meets every three years to identify and vote on Hall of Fame candidates who started their careers after 1972. The Expansion Era Committee did not elect anyone this winter and will meet again in 2017. I love Donnie Baseball as much as anyone, but I don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer and I don’t think he’ll get in via the Expansion Era Committee either.

Among the first-time-eligible players set to jump on the ballot next year are Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Edmonds, Trevor Hoffman, and Billy Wagner. No notable ex-Yankees though. Jorge Posada is set to appear on the ballot for the first time the year after that, giving me two years to prepare to the mother of all Hall of Fame campaigns.

Smoltz, like Maddux, turned down Yankee dollars

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At this point it’s common knowledge that Greg Maddux turned down Yankee money to sign with the Braves. The Yankees had offered five years at $34 million in the winter of 1992-93, the year after Maddux had won the Cy Young award with the Cubs. Instead he signed a five-year, $28 million deal with Atlanta. That’s $6 million, or 18 percent, less than what the Yankees offered. This would be akin to CC Sabathia having signed with the Giants for seven years and $132 million.

These types of stories are the types you don’t hear often. After all, it’s about the money, stupid. Yet yesterday, via MLBTR, we learned of one more such incidence. This involved another Brave, John Smoltz, who turned down $53 million Yankee dollars to sign with the Braves for $30 million. Looking through Cot’s, it appears Smoltz refers to the three-year, $30 million contract he signed after the 2001 season. It’s understandable why the Yankees would have wanted him at that point.

Then again, it’s easy to forget that Smoltz had been having trouble with his shoulder in 2001 and had been moved to the bullpen. He started just five games that year and finished 20, logging just 59 innings in the process. Perhaps the Yankees wanted to give Smoltz another try in the rotation. That would be the only way this would have made sense. The Yankees already had the best closer in baseball, who was coming off yet another sub-1.00 WHIP season. Smoltz would have gotten a chance to close, as Mariano missed some stretches, including from August 15 to September 15. Obviously, no one could have known that at the time, which is why Smoltz turning down the money made sense. That is, if the plan was for him to pitch in the bullpen.

Instead, the Yankees signed David Wells to shore up their rotation, and were rewarded by him going 19-7 with a 3.75 ERA. They also nabbed Steve Karsay, who pitched well in his first season and wound up being the one filling in for Mo. That, however, was essentially it for Karsay’s career.

Smoltz had a $12 million club option for 2005, which the Braves were apparently going to decline. Did the Yankees come knocking again? I’m sure they did. That was the winter of Carl Pavano and Randy Johnson. Smoltz wound up signing a two-year, $20 million contract with an $8 million option for 2007. The Yankees surely could have, and more than likely would have, topped that. That year Smoltz transitioned back to the rotation and pitched 229 innings of 3.06 ERA ball. The Yanks sure could have used that in 2005.

What makes this story odder is that Smoltz turned down less money from the Braves, $2 million, to pitch for the Red Sox and their $5 million this year. Why the change of heart? Was Smoltz finally fed up with taking the ATL discount? Or did he not see the Braves making much noise this year? Dude’s 42 years old. Surely he wants one more crack at the title. It’s a shame he didn’t come to New York when he had the opportunity. He might have brought home another one a bit earlier.

Smoltz: Yanks courted me

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Via MLBTR, we hear a Dan Patrick interview with John Smoltz in which the former Brave and current Red Sox pitcher explains that the Yanks were in on his contract talks. According to the injured hurler set to come off the DL by early June, the Yanks were one of four teams — the Red Sox, Dodgers and Braves being the others — to come calling, but in the end, Boston won out. It’s good to hear that Brian Cashman was doing what he could to land a low-risk, high-reward starter. If Boston wanted to guarantee more money, so be it.