Key Highlights
- And while final-year candidates often see a bump from voters looking to make a statement, the math - and the history - make it clear that Manny Ramirez is not about to receive one of the largest jumps ever recorded. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis outcome has very little to do with baseball. On the field, Ramirez is one of the most accomplished hitters the sport has ever seen. A 12-time All-Star, nine-time Silver Slugger, two-time World Series champion, and the defining offensive force of the 2004 Red Sox title run, Ramirez dominated an entire era. His blend of power, plate discipline, and bat control made him the most dangerous right-handed hitter of his generation, and the numbers back it up across every era-adjusted metric voters claim to value. If Hall of Fame voting were a blind exercise - names and nuance removed, statistics only - Ramirez wouldn’t be fighting for 75%.
- He would have cleared it a decade ago. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut ManRam isn’t being judged in a vacuum, and he never has been. Jun 20, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Former player Manny Ramirez was threw a ceremonial first pitch as part of the Red Sox Hall of Fame induction before a game against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park.
- (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)In 2009, Ramirez was suspended 50 games for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy after testing positive for human chorionic gonadotropin, a substance commonly associated with masking steroid use.
- Two years later, when informed of another failed test that would have resulted in a 100-game suspension, Ramirez chose retirement over serving the penalty. That second decision mattered.
- It cemented his status not just as a player who failed a test, but as one who walked away rather than face accountability under the rules in place at the time. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFor BBWAA voters - many of whom have spent the better part of two decades trying to define the moral boundaries of the PED era - that line is not negotiable. Players suspected of steroid use have sometimes seen their cases evolve.