Scott Rolen, Fred McGriff inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — It has been more than a decade since either of them played a major-league game. But for Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff, Sunday was the highlight of their long, distinguished careers.

It is the day they were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. So it is a perfect time to look back on their paths to Cooperstown.

Rolen’s Hall of Fame case

Was Scott Rolen the Nolan Arenado of his era (1996-2012)? You could make that argument.

Rolen was a ferocious, acrobatic defender who won eight Gold Glove awards in a 17-season career. The only third basemen in history who won more are Arenado (10), Mike Schmidt (10) and Brooks Robinson (16).

And if we use Baseball Reference’s Career Defensive Runs above average as the measure of Rolen’s defense, he ranks as the third-best defensive third baseman of all time (with 175). Only Adrián Beltré (216) and Robinson (294) finished their careers with more. (What about Arenado? He’s at 149, in his 11th season. So he’s clearly going to join this group.)

“I’ve always seen third base as an integral defensive position,” Rolen said last week via Zoom during his Hall of Fame news conference, even though he’s well aware, he said, that “maybe it wasn’t viewed that way” by everyone else.

But no matter how you view it, it was the combination of elite leatherwork and above-average offensive production that propelled Rolen to the podium in Cooperstown. Here’s a list that tells that story:

MOST SEASONS WITH A GOLD GLOVE AND 120 OPS+ AT 3B*

Schmidt — 10
Rolen — 8
Arenado — 6

(Source: Baseball Reference / Stathead)
(*with enough PA to qualify for a batting title)

Rolen’s path to election

In Rolen’s first year on the writers’ ballot (2018), he received 50 fewer votes (43) than Manny Ramirez, and had his name checked on only 10.2 percent of all ballots cast. But in Year 3, as the ballot became less overloaded, Rolen’s candidacy took off.

In three consecutive elections, no candidate jumped by more votes than he did. Between 2019 and 2022, he soared from 17.2 percent to 63.2 percent. And this year, in his sixth go-round, he leaped another 13 percent. That enabled him to clear the 75-percent threshold by only five votes, with 76.3 percent. That was the second-narrowest margin in the last 35 elections.

Nevertheless, Rolen was the only player elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters this year. He and David Ortiz are the only two to clear 75 percent in the last three elections. Rolen also becomes just the ninth third baseman elected to the Hall by the writers. The only others in the last 30 years: Chipper Jones (2018) and Wade Boggs (2005).

McGriff’s Hall of Fame case

He hit 493 home runs, had five top-10 MVP finishes and was a middle-of-the-order force for five playoff teams in a 19-year career. So it…