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Hall of Fame players are not one-size fits all and, for many, the path to the Hall includes excellence over a long period of time. Joe Nathan’s play over the last decade is certainly going to warrant some consideration for the Hall, but there could be some obstacles awaiting him on his path to enshrinement. Much like current Twin Nelson Cruz, Nathan didn’t become a big league regular until late into his 20s. Minnesota traded for him in one of the best trades in franchise history and he immediately became one of the best closers in the game. Unfortunately for Nathan, relief pitchers are underrepresented in the Cooperstown’s hallowed halls. The current HOF relievers are Dennis Eckersley, Mariano Rivera, Hoyt Wilhelm, Rich Gossage, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Trevor Hoffman, and Rollie Fingers. Currently, Billy Wagner has been slowly gaining traction on the HOF ballot. In his fifth year of eligibility, his named was penciled in on 31.7% of the writer’s ballots. This was up 25% from the 2019 ballot where he finished with 16.7% of the vote. Back in 2017, his first year on the ballot, he was only on 10.5% of the ballots. FanGraphs Jay Jaffe named Wagner and Nathan as the two best relief pitchers outside the Hall. Both Wagner and Nathan are within 1.0 WAR of each other, but Nathan has 1.5 more WPA. While these players put up strong numbers in their era, however, each falls sort of the HOF average for WAR (39.1). Rivera and Eckersley shift the WAR average significantly as they averaged over 59 WAR between the two of them alone. One way to measure a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness is Jaffe’s scoring system known as JAWS. According to Baseball Reference, a player’s JAWS is their career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR. To examine Nathan, one must compare him to the other relievers already elected to the Hall. JAWS has Nathan ranked closely to other Hall of Fame relievers. Smith and Sutter rank just above him and Hoffman is two spots behind him with Wagner being between Nathan and Hoffman. Overall, Jaffe places Wagner and Nathan in his top-7 overall relief pitchers through his hybrid average of WAR, WPA, and situational or context-neutral wins (WPA/LI). If Wagner can garner enough support to be elected, Nathan should have the opportunity as well. Nathan has other statistics that could help his Cooperstown case. Even with his late debut, he was able to pitch into his early 40’s. Along the way, he was elected to six All-Star teams, finished in the top-5 of Cy Young voting twice, struck out more than a batter per inning and he finished in the top-5 in saves five times. Overall, he’s eighth in career saves and he had five seasons with a 1.88 ERA or lower. Much like Wagner, it is going to be a tough road to Cooperstown. Wagner continues to gain support and Nathan is close to Wagner in many categories. Will Nathan be able to stay on the ballot and eventually be on the stage in Cooperstown? We will have to wait until 2022 to find out. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

If you missed any of the series on Johan Santana’s Cooperstown Case, there were three parts to the series. The first post looked at the Kirby Puckett Clause and how it can be applied to Santana. The second article touched on the similarities in careers between Santana and the great Sandy Koufax. The third and final piece touched on his missing third Cy Young. Class of 2018 Vladimir Guerrero: In his first year on the ballot, Guerrero garnered 71.7% of the vote and finished a mere 15 votes shy of induction. He will most certainly get the call this season. Across 16 big league seasons, he hit .318/.379/.553 with 449 home runs, 477 doubles and 2,590 hits. He ranked in the top five in the MVP voting four times and took home the 2004 AL MVP. His .318 average and 449 home runs have only been matched by Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx. Trevor Hoffman: Much like Guerrero, Hoffman fell just votes shy of being elected last year. He received 74% of the vote and only needed five more votes to be inducted. He held the all-time record for career saves before Mariano Rivera took over the lead. Even as a relief pitcher, he finished second in the Cy Young voting twice and had two other top six finishes. He was the first pitcher to reach 500 saves and he is one of two players to reach the 600-save mark. Chipper Jones: The long-time Braves third baseman is making his first appearance on the ballot and he should easily make it to Cooperstown. During his 19-year career, he hit .303 while combining 468 home runs with a .930 OPS. He took home the 1999 NL MVP Award. He is one of five players to compile a .300 batting average, .400 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage, at least 450 home runs and at least 2,700 hits over a career. The other players are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial and Mel Ott. Jim Thome: Twins fans are well aware of the legend of Jim Thome. From home runs off the top of the flag pole to his devastating Game 163 bomb, Twins Territory has seen the good and the bad of Thome’s career. Thome smashed over 600 home runs, got on base over 40% of the time and compiled a career .956 OPS. Beside his performance on the field, he was known as one of baseball’s great ambassadors for his contributions off the field. Because of a log-jam on the ballot, he might be close in his first year but I still think he makes it. Future Inductions Omar Vizquel: Vizquel is an interesting case in that nearly all of his value came on the defensive side of the ball. He slashed .272/.336/.352 including only two seasons with a 100-plus OPS+ in his 24-year career. He was a defensive wizard who won 11 Gold Glove awards. Many compare him to Ozzie Smith, a first ballot Hall of Famer, who didn’t provide a lot of offensive value. With a loaded ballot, I’m guessing Vizquel won’t be elected in 2018 but he will gain some support in the years to come. Edgar Martinez: I continue to push for Edgar Martinez since he is one of the best designated hitters in history. Unfortunately, voters continue to hold his lack of defensive value against him. It’s shaping up to be a very close race for him. Out of the almost 60 public ballots, he is polling at over 80%. This would be good enough to get in but there are still plenty of unknown ballots to be counted. May Never Get In (But Still On My Ballot) Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Johan Santana Bonds and Clemens are two of the greatest players of all time but their connection to the steroid era has kept them out of Cooperstown. Mussina continues to make it on to my ballot and I think he might start to pick up some voters in the years to come. He was a very good pitcher for a long time but it might not be enough to find a place in Cooperstown. I built Santana’s Cooperstown case in multiple posts. I think he deserves to get in. To be transparent, little has changed in my ballot from last year to this year. I correctly predicted the three players who would be elected last year (Bagwell, Raines and Rodriguez) and I dropped Curt Schilling from the end of my ballot. I have replaced those four players on this year’s ballot with four first-time nominees (Jones, Thomes, Vizquel and Santana). Here is the official list of players available to be voted for by the BBWAA. Who makes your list? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.