Chicago Cubs: Alfonso Soriano and Sammy Sosa miss out on Cooperstown

Former Chicago Cubs standouts Sammy Sosa and Alfonso Soriano will both miss out on Cooperstown in 2020 as public ballots shy away from both players.

It appears that there will be no new Chicago Cubs enshrined in Cooperstown this year. Public ballots from baseball writers show Alfonso Soriano and Sammy Sosa polling far below the 75 percent needed to get in. In fact, both are polling low enough to be statistically eliminated from getting in this year. Sosa is on his eighth year while this is Soriano’s first.

Sosa is currently polling at 19.1 percent, meaning he’ll have a chance next year, but Soriano has yet to receive a single vote from any of the 136 currently known ballots. He’ll need to get around 21 votes of the estimated 276 remaining ballots in order to stay on for another go-around.

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It’s not particularly surprising that either of these two players aren’t polling well. Sosa, despite his insane career performance, is forever marred by his use of PEDs while Soriano grades more as a Hall of Good candidate than an actual Hall of Famer, indicated by his career 28.2 WAR.

Currently, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker, Curt Schilling, and (of course) Derek Jeter lead the polling. Despite Bonds also taking PEDs, he was a better player than Sosa and also didn’t create as much controversy with bat corking and consistently denying allegations of juicing, among other things.

As for Soriano, his stretch from 2002 through 2008, while impressive, seems unlikely to give him much support for the Hall. While he certainly has some impressive counting stats (412 home runs, 2,095 hits, and 289 stolen bases across 1,975 games), his 111 wRC+ is merely above average rather than extraordinary and his -34.4 UZR in over 6,700 innings at second base certainly hurts his case.

While neither appear destined to reach the hallowed halls of Cooperstown, it’s hard to deny their spot in Chicago Cubs history. Sosa will be immortalized for his home run chase with Mark McGwire while Soriano will be remembered for the pop he added to the team’s lineup in the late 2000’s.