The former Mets’ closer will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today
Billy Wagner will get his long-awaited moment today when he is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame alongside Ichiro Suzuki and C.C. Sabathia. Wagner was elected into Cooperstown in his tenth and final year of eligibility, securing votes on 82.5% of ballots.
Wagner will go into the Hall wearing an Astros cap after spending nine of his 16 major league seasons in Houston. But he also played a significant role in Queens, serving as a central figure of the 2006 team—he finished sixth in Cy Young voting that year—and making the NL All-Star team in 2007 and 2008. He threw 189 2⁄3 innings in Flushing, earned 101 of his 422 career saves, and recorded 230 of his 1,196 strikeouts with the Mets. He retired with the eighth-most saves all-time, the second-most saves of any lefty behind John Franco, and finished with an impressive 2.31 ERA, the lowest by any retired left-handed pitcher with at least 500 innings pitched.
Wagner is not the type of player who will be enshrined in the Mets’ Hall of Fame or see his number retired by the franchise, but he still played a pivotal role in some big years at the end of the team’s run in Shea Stadium. And it was a fun rivalry when Mets and Yankees fans would argue about Billy Wagner vs. Mariano Rivera for who deserved to play ‘Enter Sandman’—when Metallica’s hit came blaring on the Shea Stadium speakers, there was palpable excitement in the ballpark. Even in a short amount of time, he made a big impact in New York, and today seemed like an appropriate time to reminisce about some of his best moments in orange and blue.
July 4, 2006: Wagner records his 300th career save
Many view saves as an antiquated and largely irrelevant stat in 2025, but that doesn’t negate the fact that only 31 pitchers have ever joined the 300-saves club, and only four are left-handers. He is also one of three pitchers to ever reach the milestone in a Mets uniform—John Franco did it in 1996, and Jason Isringhausen did it in 2011.
Wagner closed out a July 4 match against the Pirates in 2006 to open the door to the exclusive club. He did it by allowing one hit and striking out one in a shutout frame to secure the 7-6 victory for the Amazins. The feat only occurred because the Mets, who trailed 6-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth, pushed across three runs thanks to an Endy Chávez two-run double, which scored Carlos Delgado and David Wright, and an Xavier Nady single to drive in Chávez with the go-ahead run.
Wagner began the inning by striking out future Met Jason Bay, then got Freddy Sanchez to fly out to center. After Joe Randa singled to give Pittsburgh some false hope, Wagner settled down to retire José Castillo on a force out to short.
September 18, 2006: Wagner closes out NL clinching win
While Wagner picked up 422 career saves, one of his most memorable moments on the mound came in a non-save situation. Willie Randolph called on Wagner to finish off the team’s game against the Marlins on September 18 and send the team that had “run roughshod over the National League”, as Gary Cohen so eloquently put it, into the postseason as NL East champions.
Steve Trachsel got the nod to start the game and hurled 6 1/3 innings, and José Valentín hit a two-run homer in the third to put the Mets ahead. Valentín added a solo shot in the fifth for good measure and the Mets never really broke much of a sweat in this one, but it was only fitting that the team’s closer would get the chance to finish off the game and the NL East race.
Much like the rest of the game, the Marlins didn’t put up much of a fight in the ninth against Wagner. The left-hander needed just 11 pitches to slam the door, starting off with a Dan Uggla pop up to second base and following that up with a Miguel Cabrera fly ball to center. The anticipation reached a fever point as Josh Willingham entered the box, and Wagner got him to fly out to left fielder Cliff Floyd, who closed his glove and raised his left arm as Wagner was engulfed by his teammates and fireworks shot out from the center field apple. It was the team’s first NL East title since 1988.
Wagner shuts down Dodgers, sends Mets to NLCS
Wagner only pitched 4 2/3 innings in the postseason during his nine years in Houston, but he got to pitch three innings for the Mets in the 2006 NLDS against the Dodgers. He picked up the save in Game One after allowing one run on two hits with two strikeouts, and followed that up with a scoreless ninth in Game Two for the save.
The Mets traveled to Dodger Stadium with a chance to sweep the series and punch their ticket to the NLCS. The Mets, to their credit, wasted no time setting the tone, scoring three in the first off Greg Maddux on run-scoring hits from David Wright, Cliff Floyd, and Shawn Green. The Mets added a run in the fourth, but would go on to trail after allowing two runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. The 97-win Mets did not panic, immediately erasing the deficit with a three-run sixth, and they added two insurance runs in the eighth.
That set the stage for Wagner, who entered with a four-run lead, needing just three outs to close the door on the Dodgers and end the 2006 NLDS. Wagner began the inning by striking out Russell Martin and Wilson Betemit before allowing a single to James Loney. Ramón Martínez then came to the plate and fouled out to right field to end the game, and Wagner was again the center of the dog pile on the mound.
August 8, 2007: Wagner picks up 350th career save, stretches scoreless innings streak to 21
The 300-save club is rare, but the 350-save club is rarer still, with only 14 hurlers (three southpaws) being part of this group. It’s not an accomplishment that gets as much attention, but Wagner joined the group in noteworthy fashion.
The Mets trailed the Braves 3-1 heading into the seventh inning of their game on August 8, 2007, but pulled ahead thanks to a Luis Castillo two-run single in the seventh, and a Moises Alou solo shot in the eighth. That set the stage for Wagner to enter for what would be his 26th save of the season in 27 tries. However, as he was known to do at moments in his tenure, he made things interesting.
Wagner allowed a leadoff single to forever Mets nemesis Chipper Jones, and then another single to Mark Teixeira. He then walked ex-Met Chris Woodward to load the bases with nobody out. However, that was no problem for the future Hall of Famer, as he got future Met Jeff Francoeur to ground out, with the tying run being cut down at home. After that, Andruw Jones grounded into a game-ending double play, giving Wagner his 350th save. More notably still, it was the 21st consecutive scoreless inning for Wagner, a stretch spanning 20 appearances dating back to June 13. As it were, it would also be his final scoreless appearance of the stretch, as he allowed two runs and suffered the loss two days later.
August 20, 2009: Wagner returns to mound 11 months after undergoing Tommy John Surgery
This moment won’t be remembered by many and is by far the least consequential one compared to the other four, but it was an emotional return for Wagner, who underwent the surgery in September 2008 amid the team’s second late-September collapse in as many seasons—Wagner would miss the final two months of that campaign. Impressively, an 11-month return from the surgery is almost unheard of, as it typically takes anywhere from 12 to 18 months for pitchers to find their way back to the mound after Tommy John Surgery.
The 2009 Mets were languishing after finishing with a winning record in each of the prior four seasons—they would go on to end the year with a 70-92 record and a fourth-place finish in the NL East. But Wagner’s return was a nice story in a dark season, as he entered in the eighth inning of the team’s game against the Braves on August 20, 383 days since his last time taking the mound. He relieved Johan Santana, who pitched seven innings and allowed three earned runs, and with the Mets trailing 3-2.
The lefty looked like he hadn’t skipped a beat, throwing nine of his 14 pitches for strikes in a 1-2-3 eighth. He kicked things off by striking out Reid Gorecki, and then got Chipper Jones to fly out to right. He ended things by striking out Brian McCann swinging, and that was that. Wagner entered in similar circumstances four days later against the Phillies, pitching a scoreless eighth in the team’s 6-2 loss while striking out two and working around a walk.
That would be the final appearance of Wagner’s Mets tenure, as the team traded him to the Red Sox a few days later, giving him the chance to pitch in a pennant race and play for earn that elusive World Series ring.
You can watch the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony today, beginning at 1:30 p.m., by tuning in to MLB Network. The ceremony will also be streamed on MLB.com, MLB.TV, and the MLB App. The ceremony will take place at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, NY.