The Baseball Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that third baseman Scott Rolen, veteran of 17 big league seasons, was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Rolen was the only player to receive enough votes to qualify for enshrinement by the BBWAA in this year’s election cycle. He will be inducted alongside first baseman Fred McGriff, who was previously elected by the Era Committee.
Rolen first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2018. He garnered 10.2% of the vote, well below the 75% threshold for admittance but well above the 5% minimum required to stay on the ballot. On the ballot for the sixth time this year, Rolen received the most votes of any returnee from last year with 76.3% of the vote, just above the 75% required for induction. Rolen was voted into the Hall of Fame by five votes joining six other players who made it by that small of a margin.
Rolen was selected by the Phillies in the second round of the 1993 draft, debuting in the major leagues in 1996 when he was just 21 years old. In 1997, he hit 21 home runs and stole 16 bases en route to a batting line of .283/.377/.469 and was crowned the National League Rookie of the Year for that campaign. Rolen hit between 25 and 34 homers in each season from 1998 to 2004, and won a Gold Glove award in 1998 – the first of eight such awards he would win. Over 17 MLB seasons, he hit 316 home runs, scored 1,211 runs, drove in 1,287, and stole 118 bases. He made seven All-Star teams, won eight Gold Gloves, a Rookie of the Year award and a World Series
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