ESPN's Buster Olney Predicts Big Jump For Felix Hernandez in Hall of Fame Voting
After getting 20.6 percent of the vote in 2025, 'The King' is on the ballot for the second time, seeking to become the fourth member of the Seattle Mariners to make the Hall of Fame.
Video Transcript
Brady Farkas here, refuse to lose podcast and your Roundtable Sports Mariners publisher.
Felix Hernandez, Mariners Hall of Famer, Mariners legend, Is on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the second consecutive year this year.
We received 20.6% of votes last year.
You need 75% of votes to get in.
I ultimately don't believe Felix will get in this time around.
To see a 50% jump in just one year feels rather unheard of to me.
But we had Buster Olney on the latest edition of the Refuse to Lose podcast.
And he thinks Felix will get in, eventually.
And he thinks he'll make a substantial jump.
This year, maybe into the 35 or 40% range.
And the more I think about it.
I do think Felix is going to get into the Hall of Fame.
And I think he's going to deserve it.
The traditionalists will look at it and say he doesn't have the counting stats.
He only won 169 games total.
He only had, you know, a bit over 2000 Strikeouts in his career.
Uh, 2,524; so 2,500.
But he didn't reach the 3,000 mark, which is kind of a historical gold standard.
But, pitching has changed now.
The primes are going to be shorter.
Now, they may be as or more dominant than We're used to seeing from the Nolan Ryans of the world, But they're going to be shorter.
And Felix had a ten-year run where he was absolutely incredible.
Ten years, 190 innings pitched or more thrown.
He had 6,200 strikeout seasons.
He won a Cy Young Award.
He finished, uh, in the top 54 times of the Cy Young.
He threw a perfect gameagain.
He's going to be dinged due to lack of wins, but only partially, You know, response to that, when he played on some subpar Mariners teams.
So, I think all in all, Felix is kind of the intersection of old guard and new wave.
Right?
I think the analytics community should look Favorable upon his ten-year run of dominance.
And the old guard should view favorably the fact hes one of the last of a dying Breed of innings-eaters and true workhorses.
Again, 10 years in a row of 190 innings or more.
That just doesn't happen anymore.
And when Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander go Away, and now with Clayton Kershaw gone, we, we, we probably won't see it again.
King Flix, Hall of Famer eventually, and hopefully a big leap this year.
