Days from the January 24, 2023, announcement by the National Baseball Hall of Fame of candidates who may have been elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), the burning question is not who those candidates, if any, will be. Instead, the burning question is: What morality are BBWAA voters going to legislate for the Hall of Saints this year?

For more than a decade, the controversy over performance-enhancing drugs (PED) has consumed discussion about who should or should not be elected to the Hall, capped by the late Hall of Famer Joe Morgan's now-infamous 2017 missive to voters about keeping the PED Penitents out of Cooperstown. But although the PED predicament remains—among the returning candidates on the 2023 BBWAA ballot are Manny Ramirez and Álex Rodriguez—voters are now finding other performance flaws in candidates to deny them entrance to the Hallowed Hall.

When Jacoby Ellsbury arrived as an August call-up in 2007, he didn't just join the Red Sox—he accelerated them. A late first-round pick with track-star speed, he played the role of the postseason's "X-factor" to perfection, batting a scorching .438 in the World Series to help hoist a trophy before his rookie eligibility had even expired. He arrived as a blur of potential, and for the next few years, he was the most disruptive force on the American League basepaths, with back-to-back stolen base titles in 2008 and 2009.

However, the defining chapter of Ellsbury’s Boston story isn't just about speed; it’s about one of the most unexpected offensive explosions in franchise history. After an injury-plagued 2010, he returned in 2011 to produce a season that defied logic. A player who had never hit more than nine home runs suddenly found a power stroke that stunned the league, launching 32 home runs with 105 RBIs. That year, he became the first member of the Red Sox 30-30 club, winning a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger while finishing as the narrow runner-up for the AL MVP. It was an apex that felt like lightning in a bottle, a perfect fusion of his elite speed and a newfound, thumping authority at the plate.

The final act of his run saw him play the hero once more, leading the league in steals for a third time in 2013 and serving as the leadoff engine for another World Series championship team. When he departed for New York as a free agent in 2014, he left behind a legacy built on 241 stolen bases and a reputation as a player who could beat you in every facet of the game when the lights were brightest. He arrived as a rookie spark and left as a two-time champion, having authored a 2011 campaign that remains one of the greatest individual seasons ever seen at Fenway Park.

Jacoby Ellsbury played entirely in the American League elite where he played mostly with the Boston Red Sox and later for the New York Yankees.  Ellsbury first came up in the 2007 season when he was called up in June of 2007 and would make the starting lineup and would help the Red Sox win the World Series where he batted .438.