JAWS and the 2026 Corridor of Fame Poll: Omar Vizquel and Francisco Rodríguez

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing take a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this yr’s poll, and different candidates within the collection, use the device above; an introduction to JAWS will be discovered right here. For a tentative schedule and an opportunity to fill out a Corridor of Fame poll for our crowdsourcing mission, see right here. All WAR figures discuss with the Baseball Reference model except in any other case indicated.

The third and last multi-candidate pairing of this collection is by far the heaviest, masking two candidates who’ve each been linked to a number of incidents of home violence.

Omar Vizquel (17.8% in 2025)

Within the historical past of Corridor of Fame voting, no candidate, not even the more and more inflammatory Curt Schilling, has taken a fall on the dimensions of Omar Vizquel. 5 years in the past, the 11-time Gold Glove winner and profession chief in video games performed at shortstop gave the impression to be trending towards election, having obtained 52.6% on the 2020 poll, in his third yr of eligibility. Whereas there was loads of room to quibble over his candidacy on a efficiency foundation — regardless of his Gold Gloves, the defensive metrics don’t maintain him to be the second coming of Ozzie Smith, nor do the park- and league-adjusted offensive metrics — that wasn’t what stopped his march to Cooperstown in its tracks.

Within the means of updating his profile for the 2021 poll, I found that in October 2020, Vizquel’s second spouse, Blanca García, accused him of home violence on an Instagram stay publish. García, who was within the midst of divorcing Vizquel, confirmed paperwork from 2016 and ’17 pertaining to a cost of fourth-degree home violence assault filed on January 18, 2016, by which level Vizquel was on the teaching workers of the Tigers. The printed, and to that time the reporting of the allegations, had all been in Spanish.

Inside weeks, The Athletic’s Katie Strang and Ken Rosenthal revealed an in-depth investigation unearthing data not solely of that 2016 cost, but in addition of García’s description of one other incident of violence from 5 years earlier. By means of an lawyer who spoke to The Athletic, Vizquel denied all allegations of home violence, and in not less than one interview with a Venezuelan information outlet, denied García’s assertion that she was later pressured into signing a letter saying, “I don’t consider I used to be assaulted,” and requesting that the costs be dropped. Whereas many citizens had already solid their ballots by the point The Athletic revealed its findings on December 16, Vizquel’s share of the vote slipped to 49.1%.

That wasn’t the tip of the disagreeable and stunning allegations. In August 2021, a former batboy for the Birmingham Barons sued Vizquel for sexual harassment that occurred in 2019, when he was managing the Double-A affiliate of the White Sox. The previous batboy, who has autism, alleged that he was “focused for sexual harassment due to his incapacity,” and provided a graphic account of Vizquel’s conduct. Although Vizquel’s parting with the staff had been publicly portrayed as amicable, with director of participant improvement Chris Getz (now the White Sox normal supervisor) citing him as “a optimistic affect,” The Athletic’s Strang and James Fegan reported — and the White Sox confirmed — that an inside investigation had led the staff to droop Vizquel with pay after which fireplace him on the finish of the season.

Vizquel is not in authorized jeopardy; his divorce has been finalized, and he and the White Sox each reached confidential settlements with the batboy in 2022. Vizquel’s Corridor of Fame candidacy has not recovered, nonetheless. In 2022, his share of the vote plummeted to 23.9%; his drop of 25.2 share factors was the biggest in electoral historical past. He sank to 19.5% on the 2023 poll and 17.7% in ’24; his 17.8% in 2025 stopped the slide however ran one other yr off the clock. He’s now in his second-to-last yr of eligibility.

Along with being chockfull of gamers linked to performance-enhancing medication — some suspended by Main League Baseball, others alleged to have used the medication at a time earlier than MLB might accomplish that — current Corridor of Fame ballots have included a number of candidates accused of home violence. José Reyes, who went one-and-done on the 2024 poll, is the one one who drew a suspension underneath MLB’s Joint Home Violence, Sexual Assault and Youngster Abuse Coverage, which was created in 2015, however Vizquel and different candidates present (Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, and Francisco Rodríguez, the final of whom we’ll cowl under) and previous (Barry Bonds, Carl Crawford, and Sammy Sosa) all might need confronted suspensions had the coverage been in place throughout their taking part in careers.

The place the connection to PEDs derailed the candidacies of Bonds and Sosa (neither of whom was ever suspended by MLB) and have executed so so far for the twice-suspended Ramirez, voters haven’t uniformly determined that home violence allegations or convictions are disqualifying. Talking for my very own ballots, I voted for Sosa as soon as, Bonds twice, and am about to vote for Jones for the sixth time; with 66.2% final yr, his eighth on the poll, he has an affordable shot at election by the writers. I can actually perceive voters selecting to rule such candidates out on these grounds, whether or not or not they’ve a firsthand connection to somebody whose life has been affected by home violence, and whether or not or not they put inventory within the so-called character clause.

Certainly, it’s right here that I have to point out the “integrity, sportsmanship, [and] character” part of the voting guidelines. Till Mark McGwire landed on the 2007 poll, it was by no means actually used to exclude anybody; in the meantime, the varied electoral our bodies have admitted a parade of spitballers, sign-stealers, racists, cheaters, and abusers. The clause was the brainchild of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a person who brimmed with such integrity that he spent his complete 24-year time period as commissioner upholding the sport’s shameful coloration line. The historical past of that hypocrisy and so many others — witness the election of Bud Selig, himself steeped within the collusion of the Eighties in addition to the overseeing of the so-called Steroid Period — leads me to keep away from placing any inventory within the clause, which isn’t to say that I don’t have my very own methods of coping with the darker features of gamers’ candidacies, akin to my “Wild West”/testing period distinction on the subject of PED allegations.

Vizquel will be the take a look at case for the citizens on the subject of home violence. Some have requested why his allegations have price him votes regardless of different candidates with previous allegations, akin to Jones (who pled responsible), faring higher. A couple of prospects come to thoughts, and so they’re not essentially unique. One is that whereas the allegations didn’t floor till after Vizquel grew to become a candidate, as soon as they did, they shattered the “good man” fame that was a sure a part of his attraction. One other is that it’s the mixture of two totally different classes of allegations, the place one might need not have been seen as disqualifying by some voters. A 3rd is the baseball connection, in that the sexual harassment allegation particularly pertains to Vizquel’s office conduct whereas serving as a staff worker. What’s extra, MLB opened investigations into each issues, and whereas the league may not be capable of self-discipline Vizquel on both one except he’s employed once more, the likelihood that he might nonetheless obtain substantial punishment could deter groups from doing so. Some mixture of those components could also be preserving voters from together with him on their ballots.

As famous, there’s room to seek out fault with Vizquel’s candidacy even whereas sticking to a performance-only viewpoint. His longevity-driven counting stats and fame for nice protection are offset by his modest superior statistics. He’s forty seventh in JAWS amongst shortstops, under present candidate Jimmy Rollins (thirty fourth) and two one-and-dones from final yr, Troy Tulowitzki (twenty eighth) and Hanley Ramirez (forty fourth). He’s additionally under Rabbit Maranville, the lowest-ranked Corridor shortstop (forty third), and his rankings have fallen since he first grew to become eligible, with the lively Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Xander Bogaerts, and Trea Turner climbing proper previous him. However even earlier than that, and earlier than all of this ugly stuff got here to mild, his relative standing was sufficient to maintain him off my poll.

You possibly can learn extra about Vizquel’s profession, his efficiency, and the small print relating to the aforementioned allegations inside his 2023 profile right here.

Francisco Rodríguez (10.2% in 2025)

From Rodríguez’s profile:

Francisco Rodríguez was the October Shock. Because the Angels went on their 2002 postseason run, they launched a secret weapon out of their bullpen, a 20-year-old Venezuelan righty with an unholy fastball-slider mixture and the poise of a grizzled veteran regardless of him having all of 5 2/3 main league innings underneath his belt. Typically throwing a number of innings and rapidly graduating right into a setup function in entrance of nearer Troy Percival, Rodríguez set plenty of data, together with one for essentially the most strikeouts by a reliever in a single postseason (28) whereas serving to the Angels to their first (and up to now solely) championship in franchise historical past.

Although he endured some rising pains on the main league stage, by 2004 Rodríguez was an All-Star, and from ’05-08 he led the American League in saves thrice, setting a still-standing single-season report with 62 within the final of these campaigns. His mid-90s fastball and mid-80s slider befuddled hitters, whereas his demonstrative antics — “a melange of pirouettes, fist pumps and primordial screams,” as one author put it — generally obtained underneath their pores and skin.

Rodríguez cashed in as soon as he reached free company, signing a three-year, $37 million cope with the Mets, however he was hardly ever the identical pitcher he’d been in Anaheim. He made three extra All-Star groups, however was arrested twice, as soon as for assaulting his girlfriend’s father (and tearing ligaments in his thumb within the course of) and as soon as for home abuse. He pled responsible to the previous and attended anger administration courses, whereas the costs for the latter had been dropped when the girl returned to Venezuela. Each incidents seemingly would have interrupted his profession to a good larger diploma had they occurred after Main League Baseball and the Gamers Affiliation adopted the league’s home violence coverage in 2015.

Inevitably, groups stored paying Rodríguez to pitch, and by the point his 16-year profession was over, he ranked fourth on the all-time saves checklist, behind Corridor of Famers Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Lee Smith, and forward of the 5 different enshrined relievers. That standing, in addition to his quantity 12 rating in R-JAWS, makes him [the 2023] poll’s solely newcomer in addition to Carlos Beltrán who has a believable Corridor of Fame case…

Within the three years since that was written, Rodríguez has dropped to sixth in saves, as each Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel have handed him, and he’s been bumped to thirteenth in R-JAWS, as properly, by Jansen and Aroldis Chapman. In the meantime, in his second poll look, he obtained 10.2%, 0.6 factors under his debut mark. You possibly can learn extra on his profession and Corridor case within the aforementioned profile right here.