All that said, the counting stats are starting to make a difference and they’ll be difficult to ignore. Hitting his 300th home run means he’s just the eighth player with catcher as his primary position to do that. Ever. He’s now behind Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Lance Parrish and Ivan Rodriguez. Those are six Hall of Famers and Parrish. His 1,005 RBI rank 19th. He has a shot to pass one or two this year, but will very likely pass at least six before the end of next year and he has a very good shot to move into the top-10 by the end of 2027 (I’m assuming he gets a two-year deal this winter).
If he can get to 359 home runs and pass Berra and 1,180 RBIs and be fourth in homers and 10th in RBIs, I think I might be fairly surprised if he doesn’t get in at some point during his 10 years on the ballot, especially as framing importance is farther away from being so vital.