Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class. The announcements were made on MLB Network, with a requirement of at least 75 percent of the votes needed for induction.

Suzuki, Sabathia, and Wagner will join former MVPs Dave Parker and Dick Allen, who were previously elected through the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Among the 14 newcomers to this year's ballot were Suzuki and Sabathia, while Wagner was a notable holdover in his final year of eligibility. Suzuki received an impressive 99.7 percent of the vote, making him the first Japanese player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He narrowly missed a unanimous selection by just one vote.

Throughout his career, Suzuki established himself as a transformative figure in baseball history. He was the first Japanese-born position player to be posted by Nippon Professional Baseball and subsequently signed with a Major League Baseball team. His immediate impact was evident when he secured both the American League Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners, leading the AL in batting average and stolen bases that year. Suzuki set a single-season MLB record with 262 hits in 2004 and joined the MLB 3,000 hits club in 2016. His cumulative total of 4,367 hits, combining his professional career in both NPB and MLB, ranks as the highest in modern baseball history. Throughout his career, he was a 10-time All-Star and also won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves for his defensive excellence.

CC Sabathia made a name for himself on the mound with the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. He achieved a World Series title with the Yankees in 2009. The left-handed pitcher earned the AL Cy Young Award in 2007 and led the majors in wins in back-to-back seasons in 2009 and 2010. A six-time All-Star, Sabathia became just the third left-handed pitcher in MLB history to surpass 3,000 career strikeouts in 2019. Upon learning of his induction, he expressed his joy on social media, highlighting his excitement as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Wagner's journey to the Hall of Fame has taken 10 years, during which he ranked sixth in MLB history with 422 career saves over his 16-year career. The respected closer played for several teams, including the Houston Astros, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, and Atlanta Braves, and was selected as an All-Star seven times. Notably, Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltrán were among the candidates who did not reach the 75 percent threshold required for induction in this voting cycle. Additionally, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez fell short due to their respective connections to performance-enhancing drugs, a factor that previously kept top players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens from induction during their eligibility period.

Ichiro Suzuki and the rest of the class of 2025 will be formally inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during a ceremony scheduled to take place in Cooperstown on July 27.