Four former Angels come up short on Hall of Fame ballot

The results of this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame voting were announced on Tuesday afternoon, and if you were holding out hope that former Angels players Torii Hunter, Bobby Abreu, Mark Teixeira and Tim Lincecum might make their way to Cooperstown in 2022, I’m afraid I have some bad news to deliver you:

None of the former Halos came particularly close to reaching the 75 percent threshold required for induction, with the closest being Abreu all the way down at 8.6 percent of the vote. He finished in virtually the same spot he did last year when it was his second year on the ballot, and with such a long way to go, he’ll need to start making significant gains in order to have any sort of chance. A less crowded ballot and his strong support among some of the more sabermetrically inclined fans might help Abreu in the long run, but as of now, his candidacy is not looking too good.

Hunter—a longtime fan favorite among the Angels faithful—also managed to get above the five percent of the vote required to stay on the ballot for another year, but he did so by the slimmest of margins, surviving by just two votes. In fact, he actually lost percentage points when compared to his finish last year, dropping from 9.5 percent down to 5.3. Like Abreu, he will likely also see that number rise with a more favorable ballot next year, but his candidacy will also likely need a lot of help in the coming years

Teixeira and Lincecum, two guys who made very brief cameos in Anaheim during their long careers, weren’t so lucky, as both fell off the ballot in their first year of eligibility. Lincecum made nine disastrous starts for the Halos during the 2016 season after his illustrious career with the Giants came to a close, pitching to a 9.16 ERA before being demoted to AAA in August. Teixeira fared much better with the Angels during his stint with the club after being acquired at the 2008 trade deadline, hitting a monstrous .358/.449/.632 with 13 home runs in 54 games (as well as going 7-15 in the team’s lone playoff series) before leaving for the Yankees in free agency that offseason. His departure did net the Angels the compensation pick in the 2009 draft that eventually turned into Mike Trout, however, something the writers seemed to have unfortunately overlooked when evaluating his candidacy.

The only player to be elected into the Hall of Fame this cycle was former Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, whose induction will surely bring up some bad memories for a large portion of the Angels fanbase. Ortiz gained a reputation as a notorious Halos killer during his 20-year-long career, hitting .272/.367/.549 with 32 home runs and 91 RBI in just 126 regular season games against them. Big Papi’s torment of the Angels got even worse once October rolled around, with those numbers skyrocketing to .340/.492/.596 in 13 playoff games between the two teams across four different ALDS series in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009.