The Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2025 has been determined. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, pitcher CC Sabathia and reliever Billy Wagner were all elected, each receiving at least 75 percent of the vote from eligible members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Ichiro was elected almost unanimously, but he lost by just one vote. Both Suzuki and Sabathia are voting for the first time. This was Wagner's tenth and final year. Sabathia received 86.8% of the vote and Wagner received 82.5%. Carlos Beltrán was the first person to lose in this year's vote, with 70.3% of the vote.

While every player's election is special and monumental, Suzuki's stands out. He was Japan's first member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and almost the second player in history to be elected unanimously.

Ichiro Suzuki

Suzuki, 51, has had a long and unprecedented career spanning three decades in two countries. At the age of 18, he was drafted by Orix BlueWave and began his professional career in Japan. He spent nine years with the ORIX, excelling for the most part before signing with the Seattle Mariners to move to the MLB.

Once Ichiro arrived in America, there was no stopping him. In 2001, at the age of 27, he won the American League Rookie of the Year, won the American League MVP, was selected to the first of 10 consecutive All-Star Games, won the first of 10 Gold Gloves, and won the The first of three silver bars. He is the only MLB hitter in the past 126 years to hit more than 200 singles in a year, and he did it twice. He retired after 19 seasons in MLB with a lifetime .311/.355/.402 three-base hit line, 509 stolen bases and 3,089 hits while playing for the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins. collected.

In addition to his longevity, preternatural talent and tireless dedication to his craft, story after story describes Suzuki’s incredible sense of humor, his love of chicken wings (he served the same meal before every home game eating chicken wings from the same plate) and his impeccable sense of style. Few athletes are as beloved in one country as he is, but he was beloved in both.

CC Sabathia

Sabathia, 44, was a starting pitcher for 19 years with Cleveland, the Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Yankees. Cleveland selected him in the first round of the 1998 MLB Draft, and he made an immediate impact upon his debut in 2001, finishing second in American League Rookie of the Year voting (behind Suzuki). He spent eight years in Cleveland, winning the 2007 AL Cy Young Award, before the team traded him to the playoff-hungry Brewers in 2008, where he lasted just half a season. He had a great regular season, but in his only postseason start, he was beaten by the Phillies (who won the World Series that year).

He signed with the Yankees in 2009 and rose to the top with them, making three postseason starts as New York defeated Philadelphia to win the 2009 World Series. It was the start of a 10-year run with the Yankees that featured some ups and downs (2009-2012 were his best four seasons in the majors, and 2013-2015 was his worst in the majors three seasons of his career), but from the moment Sabathia arrived, it was clear that New York was where he belonged.

In October 2015, Sabathia entered rehab for alcoholism, a disease his father also suffered from. His return to baseball at the start of the 2016 season marked the beginning of a late-career renaissance as he posted his best numbers since the late 2000s. He retired with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts in 3,577 1/3 innings. During his long career, Sabathia pitched at least 200 innings in a season eight times and more than 175 innings 14 times.

Billy Wagner

Wagner, 53, is on the ballot for his tenth and final time. Reliever's (other than Rivera) generally have a hard time getting elected, but Wagner's statistics and an influx of younger voters have helped him steadily build support over the past decade. Wagner, a Division III athlete who was drafted in the first round out of Ferrum College, spent 16 years in MLB as a reliever and lights-out closer with the Houston Astros. He played the longest with the Astros (nine seasons) and shorter with the Phillies. New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.

Wagner made 422 career saves, which ranks eighth on the all-time list and second among left-handers. His ERA of 2.31 in 903 innings was the second-lowest among pitchers with at least 900 innings since 1900. Incredibly, he was a starting pitcher his entire career until the Astros first drafted him in 1995. Even so, his transition to reliever was smooth, ultimately saving a club-record 225 games for Houston.

Wagner is just five votes away from Hall's induction in 2024, something he learned during a break in practice for the Charlottesville, Va., baseball team he coaches. He told The Athletic he had to fight back his near-death experience in front of 30 children and an uninvited NBC Nightly News camera crew. He called the situation "embarrassing."

There was no such emotion this time. Wagner traveled to Cooperstown.