The Athletic's Jayson Stark took a deep dive into the Hall of Fame chances for a couple modern day closers with Billy Wagner receiving enshrinement this year.

In electing Wagner, the BBWAA has defined the modern-day closer as its own entity, with candidates’ credentials measured not against the whole of the body but against this specific peer group.

To gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner completed a climb few candidates have managed. Wagner, the former Houston Astros closer, attained the 75% support from voters required for election in his final year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot.

Billy Wagner received 82.5 percent of the tally from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, after he missed by just five votes last year.

Other bits of intrigue ahead of Tuesday's 6 p.m. announcement: Will CC Sabathia be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is this the year Billy Wagner gets in?

After falling five votes short of Baseball Hall of Fame last year, Billy Wagner is hopeful on his final year on ballot.

In his 10th and final year on the ballot, former Astros closer Billy Wagner earned is place in Cooperstown, N.Y. in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Not the 82.5% of HOF voters who decided that Billy Wagner deserves a spot amongst ... ranking alongside Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman in every closer category between 1996 to 2010.

Wagner had a 1.98 earned run average and struck out 22 of the 56 batters he faced in his 15 games for the Red sox in 2009.

Former Houston Astros closer Billy Wagner reveals his thoughts after being chosen into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

An online site that tracks Baseball Hall of Fame voting doesn’t expect the lone voter who did not check Ichiro Suzuki on his ballot to ever come forward.

This piece was initially supposed to be a list of takeaways about the 2025 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame election. However, all my takeaways came back to the same theme, one that seems to be overshadowed by negativity.