Concerning the BBWAA’s election, an eligible player’s name must appear on at least 75% of the BBWAA ballots cast in a given year to become a Hall of Fame member. The BBWAA removes a candidate from future ballots if either the candidate’s name appeared on fewer than five percent of the ballots or the player was on the ballot for 10 years but did not meet the 75% condition.

Delgado’s name initially appeared on the BBWAA’s ballot in 2015. Unfortunately, his name appeared on only 3.8% of ballots cast, and the BBWAA removed him from future ballots. Now, for the first time, Delgado is on a Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, for the Hall of Fame class of 2026. To gain entrance into the Hall, Delgado’s name must appear on at least 12 of the 16 Era Committee ballots cast.

Delgado played 17 seasons, 12 with the Blue Jays (1993-2004), one with the Marlins (2005) and four with the Mets (2006-2009). He posted a 135 wRC+ and a 44.4 bWAR. Other highlights from his career include the following:

• His wRC+ was 19th among the 162 players who played during his career (1993-2009) and had at least 5,000 plate appearances. Concerning first basemen, Delgado’s wRC+ was the eighth highest, and, notably, five of the seven first basemen ahead of Delgado are Hall of Famers (or future Hall of Famers, in the case of Albert Pujols).
• Delgado hit 473 home runs, which is 34th all-time. Among players whose careers began after 1979, his home run total ranks #16 overall and eighth among first basemen.
• In four seasons, Delgado finished in the top 10 of MVP voting: 2000 (4th), 2003 (2nd), 2005 (6th) and 2008 (9th).
• He won three Silver Slugger Awards (1999, 2000 and 2003).
• Delgado had two seasons in which his bWAR was in the top 10 among position players (2000 and 2003).
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Delgado’s last full MLB season was 2008, his age-36 campaign. He generated a 123 wRC+ with 38 home runs and a 1.3 bWAR. In 2009, he played 26 games, but did not play after May 10 due to a hip injury. Subsequently, Delgado underwent two hip surgeries. He attempted a comeback in 2010 with Boston’s Triple-A affiliate, but after five games, he called an end to the comeback and his MLB career.

Delgado was not known for his defence. As a first baseman, his Total Zone per 1,200 innings was -2. That is inferior to Don Mattingly’s +3, and many MLB observers considered Mattingly to be a premier defender at first base. I wrote about Mattingly’s candidacy earlier this week; the former Blue Jays bench coach is on the same Hall of Fame ballot as Delgado. Concerning dWAR, the career marks of Delgado and Mattingly are -17.2 and -6.2, respectively.

Delgado’s best case for Hall of Fame membership is his home run total. Of the 33 players with more home runs, 24 are Hall of Famers, seven were linked with performance-enhancing drugs (Barry Bonds et al.) and have yet to be elected to the Hall of Fame, and two are almost-certain Hall of Fame members (Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera). If the Era Committee does not elect Delgado to the Hall of Fame, he will be the only non-PED-linked name among the top 34 home run hitters not in the Hall. Onto the bWAR numbers!

Three bWAR-based metrics are valuable for evaluating whether a player has earned Hall of Fame membership: bWAR, WAR7, and JAWS. bWAR does not require explanation, but WAR7 and JAWS do. One of the limitations of career bWAR is that a Hall of Fame candidate may have generated a high bWAR because they had a lengthy career. Since a Hall of Famer should be one of the best at their position over multiple seasons, WAR7, the total of a player’s seven highest bWAR seasons, is informative because it measures dominance across many years. JAWS, developed by Jay Jaffe, is the average of bWAR and WAR7, and it is instructive because it balances these two metrics (bWAR and WAR7). Jaffe, now of FanGraphs, wrote an excellent article about Delgado’s Hall of Fame candidacy

However, as with Mattingly, it is the bWAR-related metrics that most hurt Delgado’s Hall of Fame candidacy. In addition to Delgado, Table 1 shows the career bWAR marks of the top 15 first basemen whose MLB careers began after 1979. Delgado’s bWAR, WAR7 and JAWS numbers are noticeably below the average of the Hall of Famers on the list (Jeff Bagwell, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Todd Helton, Fred McGriff, and David Ortiz). Of these Hall of Fame members, McGriff was the only one voted in by an Era Committee. Delgado’s bWAR, WAR7 and JAWS marks are 44.4, 34.5 and 39.4, which rank 19th, 21st and 18th, respectively.

Concerning the all-time Hall of Fame list, there are 25 first basemen. Their average bWAR, WAR7 and JAWS are 65.0, 42.0 and 53.5, respectively. Furthermore, among all first basemen, Delgado’s bWAR and WAR7 rank 40th, and his JAWS slots in at #38.

Circling back to Table 1, Delgado’s WAR7, like Mattingly’s, is similar to those of Ortiz and McGriff. So, should he be in the Hall of Fame? The answer is no, because Hall of Fame membership should be exclusive and reserved for those who were clearly the best of their era at their position. In other words, the entrance bar should be set high. The Hall of Fame candidacies of Ortiz and McGriff were marginal. The bar should not be lowered further to grant Hall of Fame access to Delgado or Mattingly.

The Last Word
The threshold to be a Hall of Famer should be set high. Although Delgado’s home run total is impressive, there should be more than one aspect of hitting, no matter how important that one aspect is, that vaults a player into the Hall. Delgado’s all-around game, as measured by bWAR-related metrics, places him, like many players, in the Hall of Very Good, not the Hall of Fame.