There is a chance that Dick Allen will not be the only former Chicago White Sox player going into the Hall of Fame this year.
Allen was finally voted into the Hall of Fame on the veteran's committee vote during the Winter Meetings. It was a long overdue honor for a player with a career 58.7 bWAR and won the MVP in 1972 while with the White Sox.
The only sad part of Allen's induction is he got elected posthumously.
The White Sox have a chance to add another Hall of Famer this year when the 2025 BBWAA vote is announced this week.
The White Sox have ties to five players on the ballot.
Some ties, however, are brief. One of the former players brought scandal to the team when he managed one of the Sox's minor-league teams, and another is a team legend who likely will never get in on the baseball writers' vote.
Andruw Jones has the best shot at getting elected this year.
He only played on the Southside for one season and it was toward the end of his storied career. He posted a 1.9 bWAR season for the Sox in 2010.
He mostly made his Hall of Fame case during 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, where Jones won 10 Gold Gloves and made five NL All-Star teams.
He was one of the best fielding centerfielders the game ever saw. From 1998-2007, he hit 26 or more home runs including leading the National League in dingers with 51 in 2005.
He crushed 434 career home runs including 19 when he played for the Sox. He finished with a 62.7 career bWAR.
Jones got 61.6% of the vote last year falling well short of the 75% needed for induction.
He is currently three percentage points shy of the 75% needed to get inducted.
Manny Ramirez had the shortest tenure with the Sox of all the players the club has ties to on the Hall of Fame ballot.
Yes, Man-Ram did play on the Southside for 29 games in 2010. He came over to the Sox when the waiver trade deadline still existed.
For those who may have forgotten, there was a time when there were two trade deadlines, the non-waiver deadline that always came at the end of July and the waiver deadline that came at the end of August.
Manny's large salary made it easy for the Dodgers to get him through waivers. Former general manager Kenny Williams' obsession with getting star players past their prime was the reason he played with the Sox for those 29 games in 2010.
Manny hit one of his career 555 home runs with the White Sox. Manny's induction is going to be tough considering he failed two performance-enhancing drug tests. He likely will never get voted in by the BBWAA because of that.
He currently has 36.4% of the vote among revealed ballots. In 2024, his final percentage was 32.5%.
Jimmy Rollins ended his career with the White Sox.
Rollins had a great 15-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies. He won an MVP, four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, made three All-Star teams, and won the 2008 World Series.
He probably should have hung it after the 2014 season and retired as a Phillie. Instead, the shortstop played another season with the Los Angeles Dodgers and then played 41 games with the White Sox in 2016.
He was clearly cooked with the White Sox, but that does not take away from the amazing career he had in Philadelphia.
He currently has 20.8% of the vote that has been revealed. His final percentage in 2024 was 14.8%.
Mark Buehrle is a White Sox legend who likely will have to get in a veteran's committee vote.
The White Sox southpaw has his No. 56 retired. He was part of the pitching rotation that dominated the 2005 postseason and finally brought a title back to Chicago after 88 years of misery.
He was a five-time All-Star, four of those appearances came with the White Sox and won four Gold Gloves. Buehrle also posted a 59.1 career bWAR during his 16-year career, with 12 spent being one of the best pitchers the Sox ever had. He also threw a no-hitter and a perfect game.
The problem with Buehrle's Hall of Fame case is he never won a Cy Young; the highest he ever finished in that voting was fifth. His career ERA is 3.81, and that might not be good enough since he only cleared the 200-win mark.
What keeps getting him consideration and staying in the Hall of Fame debate is that he was always good enough and reliable enough to pitch 200 innings for all but two seasons. One of them was his call-up season in 2000 when he threw mostly out of the bullpen and the other was his final season in Toronto where he finished 1.1 innings short of 200.
In an era where now pitching 180 innings for a starter is considered a feat, what Buerhle was able to do to be good enough and healthy enough to keep taking the ball every five days and be very good is why he still gets votes.
Buehrle is currently at 12.7% of the revealed vote. Last year he finished 8.3%.
Omar Vizquel was a great defensive shortstop who played two seasons for the Sox but brought scandal to the franchise as a minor-league manager.
Vizquel is no longer associated with the franchise or any team in baseball after being sued by a batboy with autism for sexual harassment while he managed the White Sox Double-A team in 2019. Vizquel ended up settling the suit.
He also was accused of domestic violence in 2020 by his ex-wife--allegations Vizquel has denied.
Clearly, Vizquel has had off-the-field troubles since leaving the game and it is a good thing the Sox are no longer associated with him, especially the accusations made in the suit.
His playing career did make a case to still get Hall of Fame votes with his ability to play really good defense as a shortstop over his 24 seasons in the majors.
He played two of those seasons with the Sox in 2010-2011 when, once again, Kenny Williams was obsessed with getting former star players past their prime.
Vizquel mostly made a name for himself in Cleveland having won nine of his 11 Gold Gloves there. He won two more with the San Fransisco Giants. Fielding is about the only case he can make as his career OPS+ is 82. In 1999 he did hit .333, but otherwise, he was usually in the .250-.295 range.
Although he also finished with 2877 hits, it just can be attributed to raking up all those hits because he played 24 seasons.