Jorge Posada deserved a better Hall of Fame fate

Jorge Posada may not be a Hall of Famer. There is probably no one out there (aside from possibly the Posada family) willing to say that Posada deserved induction in Cooperstown without a doubt. Because that is true, it’s possible to view Posada receiving less than 5% of the vote and dropping off the ballot as no great injustice...but it kind of is.

While Posada is likely not on the level of a Mike Piazza or Ivan Rodriguez, he certainly more than held his own in the conversation among catchers of his era. The defense is what it was, but his offense was absolutely spectacular. He was a five time All-Star on some very good Yankee teams across his 15-year career. His defense will certainly be a knock against him, and he doesn’t have Piazza’s numbers to make up for it entirely.

What I do think most rational people would be willing to concede is that Posada deserved better than one year on the ballot. His candidacy may be borderline, but that should have earned him a few more years to see if some clearing of the ballot could help his cause. Unfortunately, his fate will now be up to the Veterans Committee, and they aren’t likely to have a different answer.

Part of the issue here is the ten-vote limitation. Voters only being able to check ten boxes with so many deserving candidates means that someone is getting hung out to dry. In this case, that person was probably Posada. He deserved a better fate, but they couldn’t give him one because other players were deserving of the votes from many people. It certainly isn’t hard to look at the ballot and think that ten names would be deserving before you get to Posada. It’s pretty awful luck for him.

While Cooperstown may have never been a reality for Posada in a perfect world, his career was deserving of more than a flash in the pan appearance on the ballot. His numbers were certainly worth at least debating over the next couple years, even if the result was always him coming up a bit short. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.