Yankees great sees surprising Hall of Fame surge

The New York Yankees earned another name in Cooperstown on Tuesday night. CC Sabathia entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot, as the legendary southpaw will celebrate an illustrious career this summer.

Meanwhile, another Yankee legend didn’t hear his name called. But, there are reasons to potentially be optimistic.

World Series champion Andy Pettitte has been on the Hall of Fame ballot for seven years. Amid steroids suspicion, voters haven’t given the Yankee great a lot of consideration. In 2024, Pettitte only earned roughly 13 percent of the vote. With 75 percent as the threshold, yeah, he was a long way away.

But there was some encouragement to be found in the 2025 results. Pettitte earned 27.9 percent of the vote, up massively from that previous mark. A near 15-percent jump, even though he’s still under 30 percent, is absolutely noteworthy.

The Yankee great is going to need a lot more support if he wants to make a run to Cooperstown. He’ll have three more years left, as the maximum amount of time a player can stay on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is ten years. There have been eight players inducted on their final year of the ballot.

Encouragingly for Pettitte, one happened this year. Legendary closer Billy Wagner entered the Hall of Fame this year on his tenth and final year on the ballot. He’s part of a three-man class featuring himself, the aforementioned Sabathia, and the great Ichiro, who earned almost 100 percent of the vote.

Pettitte is a three-time MLB All-Star and a five-time World Series champion. He won titles with the Yankees in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and then in 2009 after he returned to the big leagues. Pettitte famously started Game 5 of the 1996 World Series, a deciding game that swung favor to New York, who finished the series off in the ensuing sixth game. He won the ALCS MVP award in 2001 for his performance.

We’ll see if the Yankees can add yet another one of their greats to Cooperstown over the next three years. Time is running out, but that significant surge is potentially telling.