Padres News: Trevor Hoffman Ready for Hall of Fame Vote

Trevor Hoffman can’t believe that he has already been out of baseball for five seasons. As we have all watched the the game of baseball change we have seen the definite arrival of a dominant bullpen and closer come to prominence. Certainly Hoffman and Yankees closer Mariano Rivera were big parts of that change and emphasis. Yet Hoffman did it with a dominating change-up, not the high powered fastballs that many of today’s bullpens boast in surplus.

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Hoffman will join Ken Griffey Jr as first year inductees for this years class, and many assume he is a shoe-in, but Trevor isn’t giving himeself that assurance just yet. As reported by Mark Newman, he isn’t confident yet at all:

"“I’m optimistically hopeful that I’ll have the opportunity to go to Cooperstown. I didn’t play with that in mind. I don’t think you can. Ultimately, being a team player, that’s not what it’s about. But deep down you know if you have a decent career going, and some of the numbers might stack up.”"

Hoffman currently stands as second all time on the saves list with 601. Mariano Rivera passed him in 2011 en route to the record of 652 and Lee Smith is third all time with 478 which Hoffman passed in 2006.

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The current save is certainly a more modern stat, at least with specialized closers like they are now, but that shouldn’t diminish what Hoffman accomplished as it certainly appears this model is here to stay. Also, even watching around the game shows just how talented and amazing his longevity is. The Giants have won 3 World Series in 5 years but with three different closers. The Detroit Tigers never seem to have a reliable closer no matter who they import to finish the 9th inning.

As far as current threats, you can no look no farther than Francisco Rodriguez and a couple closers with Padres ties. Rodriguez at 33 has 386 saves and is first on the active list. Huston Street is fourth on the list with 315 and Craig Kimbrel stands as the perhaps the greatest chance to break the record eventually. At 27 he is seventh on the list with 225 career saves already.

The ballots for the Hall of Fame will be announced in early December and the voting will be done by January. There is a good chance that Trevor Hoffman will join Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn in Cooperstown.