Is Andy Pettitte a Hall of Famer?
For some, the answer is an immediate no, regardless of any evidence presented. And there are reasons why he hasn't garnered a lot of support on previous Baseball Hall of Fame ballots. Pettitte was consistently good but never otherworldly great during his 18-year career. He made three All-Star teams and ranked among the top 10 ERA leaders in his league three times. He finished among the top three in Cy Young voting only once. He ended just two qualified seasons with an ERA+ of at least 130.
That's not exactly Cooperstown quality. Plus, Pettitte did admit in 2007 to twice using human growth hormone to help him recover from an elbow injury. That's immediately disqualifying in the eyes of some voters.
And the Baseball Writers' Association of America had generally passed over Pettitte through his first six years on the ballot as his voting percentage never crossed 20%. However, there was a shift in 2025, when the left-hander's percentage more than doubled, from 13.5% to 27.9%.
Now in his eighth year on the BBWAA ballot, Pettitte's Hall candidacy is suddenly trending in the right direction. He still has a long way to go to reach the 75% threshold for election, but it's not an impossible climb. Larry Walker's voting percentage sat at just 21.9% after his seventh ballot cycle. Three years later, the outfielder was bound for Cooperstown.
Before the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot results are revealed at 6 p.m. ET on Jan. 20, live on MLB Network, here are three reasons why Pettitte deserves to make a similarly meteoric rise.
No starting pitcher has done more in October
Pettitte accomplished a lot over 18 regular seasons, and we'll get to some of those accomplishments in a bit. But we're not talking about him as a possible HOF'er without his extensive postseason résumé. Yes, he had the good fortune of being a part of 16 playoff squads and five World Series winners. But those teams kept giving the ball to Pettitte time and time again in some of the most important games of the year, and he often stepped up. Along the way, he set numerous records that may never be broken.
Pettitte's postseason stat sheet includes 44 starts, 276 2/3 innings and 19 wins. All of those are the most in playoff history. Justin Verlander is the closest to Pettitte in playoff starts and innings (37 and 226, respectively), and he's the only other pitcher with more than 15 wins (17).
And when Pettitte was on the mound in October, it was hard to get him off of it. He cleared six innings in 35 of those 44 games and made it through seven frames 19 times. Both of those are MLB postseason records, as are his 28 quality starts.
Do you want more postseason records? How about Pettitte's 12 starts in potential series-clinching games? Roger Clemens has the second most with 10. Pettitte earned the win in six of those 12 games (hey, another record!) while his team went 8-4. In those eight clinching victories, Pettitte posted a fabulous 2.66 ERA. His first clinching W came in ALCS Game 5 against the Orioles in 1996, when he was 24 years old. Pettitte's last one came as a 37-year-old in World Series Game 6 against the Phillies in 2009. That was one of his five victories in the Fall Classic.
Overall, Pettitte had a 3.81 ERA in the postseason, which is right in line with his 3.85 mark during the regular season. That would be the second-highest career ERA for a Hall of Famer. Jack Morris, another pitcher who got into Cooperstown thanks in large part to his performance on baseball's biggest stages, had a 3.90 ERA in the regular season.
But when you factor in the time in which Pettitte played, his ERA can actually help his case.
He thrived in a hitter-friendly era
From the start of the Expansion Era in 1961 through 1992, there were only two seasons (1961 and 1987) in which MLB teams averaged more than 4.50 runs per game. Then, starting in 1993, the runs-per-game rate was above 4.50 for 17 consecutive years. It topped 5.00 a handful of times.
Pettitte arrived near the dawn of this offensive era, debuting with the Yankees in 1995. Yet he found a way to be consistently successful, more so than many other Hall of Famers. Pettitte's ERA+ was 110 or better in 13 of his 18 seasons and 117 overall. That ERA+ is far better than Morris' (105) and Catfish Hunter's (104), who threw about 130 more innings (3,449 1/3) than Pettitte (3,316) during his career. The left-hander is also close to Don Drysdale, who had a 121 ERA+ over 3,432 frames.
Luminaries such as Nolan Ryan (112), Fergie Jenkins (115) and Steve Carlton (115) trail Pettitte in ERA+ as well. However, they each tossed significantly more innings.
Just as he was in the playoffs, Pettitte was a workhorse and a winner in the regular season. He completed 10 seasons with at least 200 innings, tied for fourth most in the Wild Card Era (since 1995). Only Verlander and Mark Buehrle have more such seasons among pitchers who have debuted since '95. All of those innings -- as well as his spot on a bunch of title contenders -- led to Pettitte racking up 256 wins, second to Verlander (266) among that same group of hurlers.
Pettitte also never had a losing record in any of his 18 seasons, starting at least 10 games in each. The only other Modern Era pitcher who had as many years with at least 10 starts and no losing seasons is Grover Alexander.
Speaking of wins, Pettitte's 60.7 Baseball-Reference WAR would rank 46th among Hall of Fame starters, putting him in front of Yankees legends such as Whitey Ford (53.5) and Red Ruffing (55.3). He's also close to another, more modern Yankee -- another left-hander whom Pettitte shared a clubhouse with.
He compares favorably to a first-ballot teammate
“[With] my getting in, hopefully people will reconsider [Pettitte's] candidacy and put him in."
That was CC Sabathia last year talking about his former Yankees teammate. The two southpaws played together in the Bronx for the final four seasons of Pettitte's career, including on the Yankees' 2009 championship team. Sabathia coasted into the Hall in his first year on the ballot, and a spare few would argue that Pettitte was the better of the two pitchers.
Sabathia was a six-time All-Star. As the 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, he, unlike Pettitte, had a stretch when he was the best pitcher in his league. Sabathia also put himself in hallowed company as one of only three lefties with at least 250 victories and 3,000 strikeouts. Those neat and tidy counting stats really buttressed Sabathia's Cooperstown case.
Although Pettitte fell 552 K's shy of 3,000, he did have more wins than Sabathia (256 to 251) in 39 fewer starts. And in terms of run prevention and bWAR, Pettitte is in the same neighborhood as CC. Actually, they are next-door neighbors.
Pettitte: 3.85 ERA in 3,316 innings, 117 ERA+, 3.74 FIP, 60.7 bWAR
Sabathia: 3.74 ERA in 3,577 1/3 innings, 116 ERA+, 3.78 FIP, 61.8 bWAR
Pettitte may not have enough time left on the BBWAA ballot to get to the 75% needed for election. But his postseason success and regular-season reliability make him worthy of the Hall -- even if that decision is ultimately reached by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee at some point down the road.