2023 MBL Offseason Update and Hall of Fame Inductions

While March 30 seems quite far away… in the eyes of Major League Baseball (MLB) fans all across the country, it is approaching fast, and for many, it cannot come soon enough. With that being said, the MLB offseason is not a period of no importance. It is a slot of time for teams to address their team’s needs, enact trades, maneuver players throughout their minor league farm system as they continue to develop their talent, and, last but not least, renegotiate contracts between players’ agents and the ownership of each respective team. Now those are all team related, but also on the minds of fans across the nation, is the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony that occurs every year on a weekend in July, aptly named “Hall of Fame Weekend.” This year, Scott Rolen was voted into the Hall, along with Fred McGriff who was also inaugurated in December via the inaugural contemporary baseball era committee. Rolen garnered 76.3 percent of the votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Rolen is arguably one of the best defensive third basemen to play the game in its history, and his career of 17 seasons, an NL Rookie of the Year honor, 7- time All-Star honors, a Silver Slugger, 8-time Gold Glove honors, and World Series Champion in 2006, all culminated in his ascent to the Hall on his sixth time on the ballot. Throughout his career, Rolen played on four teams, with his lengthiest tenure being with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1996 to 2002. Especially notable about his ascent to the Hall this year is that on his first ballot in 2018, he only received 10.2 percent of the vote, which is the lowest ever for a candidate who was eventually voted into the Hall. Out of all his seasons, the 2004 one had to be one of, if not his best. For the majority of the season, he led the National League in RBIs and had the highest vote total of all players for the All-Star game that year. His late season that year was a bit shadowed by injury, but he still managed to close out the season with a career-high .314 batting average, 34 home runs, and 124 RBIs. That same year, Rolen finished fourth in the voting for National League MVP. Following his retirement from the game in 2018, he was hired as the Director of Player Development for the Indiana University baseball team—a position that he holds to this day. Rolen also started a charity in 1999 called the Enis Furley Foundation (named after one of Rolen’s dogs), which aimed at helping children and their families who struggle with illness, hardship, and other special needs.