MLB broadcaster Bob Costas feels Billy Wagner's stellar career stats demand Hall of Fame selection

Bob Costas has backed pitcher Billy Wagner to finally make his entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The legendary American sportscaster believes Wagner's stats make his Hall of Fame bid impossible to ignore.

The 70-year-old Costas has been a prominent voice in American sports broadcasting. His 40-year stint with NBC ended in 2019. He was the 2018 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually by the National Baseball Hall of Fame since 1978 to honor broadcasters for their contribution to the game.

While speaking to Chris "Mad Dog" Russo on his MLB Network talk show "High Heat," Costas threw his weight behind seven-time All-Star Wagner. He said:

"Billy Wagner is a guy, you know, pitched for multiple teams, didn't have any iconic moment. In fact in the postseason, that's the drawback to his candidacy, he wasn't good at all. But when you compare him to those who are already in, as primarily relief pitchers, his stats are so overwhelmingly great that it's impossible to ignore him.

"He's not a guy that you think of automatically, ' Gee, why isn't Billy Wagner in the Hall of Fame?' But then, when you look at the comps, it's very hard to deny him."

Billy Wagner first entered the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame ballot in 2015. After securing 51% of the votes in 2022, the former Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies player looks set to cross the elusive 75% threshold this year and become one of 2023's newest entrants to the MLB Hall of Fame.

When Billy Wagner opened up on why he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame

Pitcher Billy Wagner of the Atlanta Braves against the Florida Marlins at Turner Field on September 29, 2010, in Atlanta, Georgia.

In a 2015 interview with Sporting News, Wagner said:

"I've heard you gotta have 1,000 innings, but I've probably got better numbers than the guys that have got 1,000 innings. ... Should they be in the Hall of Fame if I've got better numbers at 900 innings than they do at 1,000 innings?"

The JAWS metric was introduced by Jay Jaffe in 2004 to determine whether a player is worthy of being a Hall of Famer or not. A reliever's JAWS is calculated by taking the average of their total career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and the sum of their seven best WAR seasons.

With a score of 23.7, Billy Wagner ranks sixth on this list. The five ranked above him already occupy a place among the greats at Cooperstown. Interestingly, with 422 saves to his name, the southpaw also ranks sixth among relief pitchers with over 400 career saves. (Stats courtesy Baseball-Reference.com)

Never say never, but 2023 might just be the year when "Billy the Kid" finally takes his place among the greats of the game.