Edgar Martinez Snubbed In Hall Of Fame Vote

SEATTLE, WA - Edgar Martínez, widely thought of as one of the best designated hitters in baseball history, gained a lot of ground in Hall of Fame voting. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough.

Martínez ended with 70.4 percent of the vote, just 20 votes shy of the 75 percent needed. It was his ninth try, and next year's ballot will be his last. Fortunately, he's widely considered a lock to enter Cooperstown next year.

“I didn’t think this year it was going to happen, especially looking at the (online) tracker for the last week or so,'' Marítnez told USA Today. He expressed thanks for the team and fan support.

Many analysts have said that Martínez deserves to be inducted and that the arguments against him are based on an outdated view of the DH's role in the game.

"There's no reasonable way to claim that Martínez does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because he wasn't good enough at his job," wrote Deadspin's Emma Baccellieri. "Any coherent argument against Martínez has to depend on the idea that DHs do not belong, period—that an entire swath of players, in a role formally established by the league four and a half decades ago, can never do enough to be included in the hall."

Others who made it in this year include Chipper Jones, Trevor Hoffman, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome, Jack Morris, and Alan Trammell.

Martínez spent his entire 18-year career with the Seattle Mariners and is now a hitting coach for the team. He was a two-time AL batting champion, five-time Silver Slugger and seven-time all star.

Martínez is remembered well for his outstanding playoff performance in 1995 against the New York Yankees, when he .571. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Seattle Patch, click here to find your local Washington Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Image via Getty Images/Stephen Breshear