ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Monday has no doubt been quite a newsworthy day for the St. Louis Cardinals. From an on-field standpoint, the team was busy, reportedly adding Daniel Descalso to the 2024 coaching staff as bench coach and signing Lance Lynn to a one-year deal with a club option for 2025.
Off the field, a couple of Cardinals have a chance to enter Cooperstown.
The Baseball Hall Of Fame announced Monday the 26 players set appear on the 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot, with longtime Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday joining the ballot, being one of 12 newcomers to appear on it.
Joining Holliday among the newcomers include Minnesota Twins legend Joe Mauer, Texas Rangers legend and all-but Hall of Fame bound Adrian Beltre, Cardinals villain and longtime Cincinnati Reds infielder Brandon Phillips and Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley.
Holliday joins Carlos Beltran as the only former Cardinals player to appear on the ballot. St. Louis-native Mark Buerhle also appears to the ballot, returning to it for the fourth straight year.
Holliday will have 10 years to stay on the ballot unless he gets under 5% of the vote at any point during the process. To make the Hall of Fame, a player needs to be on 75% of all ballots.
Holliday played 15 years in the majors, appearing in uniforms for the Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees and Oakland A's. During Holliday's career, he played 1903 games, 982 of them for the Cardinals. During his career he collected 2096 hits, 316 home runs and 1220 RBIs while hitting a .299/.379/.510 slash line in his career. According to Baseball Reference, Lynn .899 OPS was 32 percent above the league average.
In Holliday's career he had seven All-Star appearances, four Silver Sluggers, won a batting title and NLCS MVP in 2007, and winning the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011.
While Holliday will appear on the 2024 Hall of Fame Ballot, the chances Holliday reaches the Hall of Fame appears slim, with a likelihood he could get under 5% and drop off the ballot entirely after this year.
Among the 12 newcomers, Mauer, Utley and Beltre are the most likely to either stay on the ballot for 2025 or in Beltre's case, get inducted into Cooperstown in 2024.
Holliday's overall numbers and achievements are one of a quite successful Major League career, like all of the players who appear on the Hall of Fame Ballot. However, it is hard to make a case Holliday should receive induction into Cooperstown.
According to Baseball Reference, Holliday's career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) 0f 44.5 is 36th best all-time among left fielders, and far below the average Hall of Fame left fielder WAR of 65.1.
Additionally, his JAWS, which is a metric developed by sabermetrician Jay Jaffe as a way to measure a player's Hall of Fame worthiness, is 36th highest of all-time among leftfielders, with Holliday's 39.4 JAWS being well below 53.4 of an average Hall of Fame left fielder.
Between Beltran and Holliday, Beltran seems like the most likely former Cardinals player to be inducted next for Cooperstown through the Baseball Writers Hall of Fame ballot before Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols both appear on the ballot in 2028.
All eligible BBWAA voters have a deadline of Dec. 31 to submit their ballots. The results will be announced on Jan. 23, 2024.