Mike Piazza’s nod may help other PED suspects make Hall of Fame

Mike Piazza has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his fourth year of eligibility, Piazza received 83 percent of the votes.

Despite being one of the best catchers of his era, and possibly the best offensive catcher of all-time, it took Piazza four tries to get into the Hall of Fame before he was elected. Over 16 years in the majors, he posted a .308/.377/.545 slash line, and hit 427 career home runs. Piazza was a 12-time All-Star, a 10-time Silver Slugger award winner and finished in the top-5 of MVP voting four times during his career.

Despite that, Piazza received 57.8 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot. That figure rose in each year that followed, eventually leading to his induction in 2016.

On numbers alone, Piazza deserved to be a first-ballot inductee. The only reason that didn’t happen is due to rumors and allegations that he may have used steroids as a player.

By now, we’re all aware of Murray Chass’ infamous column about the acne on Piazza’s back. There were also rumors from anonymous sources that Piazza used steroids in Jeff Pearlman’s book about Roger Clemens.

The rumors about Piazza always followed the same path. They were either based on innuendo or came from anonymous sources. No writer or source was willing to go on the record and say Piazza used steroids.

In the four years Piazza was not inducted, nothing about his candidacy changed. He didn’t magically hit more home runs while he was retired, he didn’t see his case strengthened by new sabermetric research and he wasn’t close to seeing a boost for being in his final year of eligibility.

The only logical reason for Piazza to see his vote total rise so much is that the voters don’t care as much about steroids, or are no longer willing to punish players due to gossip and hearsay. Now that Piazza has been inducted, that could open the door for players in similar situations, like Jeff Bagwell and, eventually, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

In fact, all three of those players have already seen their voting percentage increase in recent years. Bagwell finished with 71.6 percent of the vote in 2016, making him a likely candidate for induction next year. In 2011, his first season on the ballot, Bagwell received just 41.7 percent of the vote. Most of his early struggles came from similar steroid rumors, which didn’t emerge until after Bagwell was done playing.

Bonds and Clemens have followed a similar path. Bonds received 36.2 percent of the vote in 2013. Clemens received 38.8 percent that same year. This year, Clemens jumped to 45.2 percent while Bonds rose to 44.3 percent. Neither player is close to induction, but could eventually get there if their numbers continue to rise.

That type of rise wouldn’t be unprecedented, either. Tim Raines, for example, received just 24.3 percent of votes during his first year on the ballot. This season, he’s up to 69.8 percent and should be inducted in the next few years based on his trajectory. Raines doesn’t have PED concerns like the other players mentioned, but his situation is proof that some players gain momentum the longer they remain on the ballot.

The same thing will probably happen with Bagwell, Bonds and Clemens. The BBWAA pared down their voting pool prior to the 2016, taking votes away from reporters who no longer covered the game. Most of those voters were likely older, and more likely to take a hard stance against players who were rumored to have used. With those voters no longer around, it’s no surprise all of these players saw an increase in their numbers.

The new policy won’t just impact these three players, but should play a role in the induction of future Hall of Fame candidates from the steroid era. Ivan Rodriguez, who was dogged by some of the same rumors as Piazza, will appear on the ballot in 2018.

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For Bagwell, that means he’ll likely get to make a speech in Cooperstown pretty soon. For Bonds and Clemens it’s not as clear.

By electing Piazza, the voters have shown that rumors and innuendo won’t be enough to keep qualified players out of the Hall of Fame. He could be the first of many in similar situations to benefit from this drastic change of direction.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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