Phillies Wall of Fame and then Hall of Fame? Chase Utley putting ‘pieces together’ on his Cooperstown chances.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Chase Utley got 59.1% of the votes in the latest Hall of Fame election, putting him squarely in the red zone on the way to 75% and Cooperstown pay dirt.

In that case, did the Phillies just give him a Tush Push?

John Middleton, diehard Eagles fan from Bryn Mawr via Havertown, appreciates the metaphor. He just isn’t sure if it applies. So, the owner of the Phillies answers the question with a question: Will a Hall of Fame voter in, say, San Francisco or Texas be influenced when the Phillies induct Utley into their Wall of Fame within Citizens Bank Park on Aug. 7?

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“I know there was a lot of talk along those lines when we retired Dick Allen’s jersey [in 2020] that maybe this was going to be the thing that helped him get across the line with the Hall of Fame,” Middleton said. “Chase’s trajectory, I don’t want to jinx anything, it certainly seems to put him on that path, whether it’s next year or the year after that.

“So I don’t know. I guess it can be [a factor]. But I think, look, it’s a recognition by a team that the guy was really, really good.”

And, truth be told, it’s also Utley’s turn.

Before the Phillies opened the Wall of Fame floodgates to the foundational players from their 2007-to-2011 run of five consecutive division titles, back-to-back National League pennants, and a World Series championship, they needed to establish an orderly process. As Middleton recalls, longtime director of promotions Scott Brandreth came up with the idea.

“Induct them,” Middleton said, “based upon the date of their debut with the Phillies.”

Jimmy Rollins would be first last summer before Utley this year. If the team sticks to its sequence, Ryan Howard would be up next. Then Cole Hamels.

But if it’s coincidental that Utley will get his bronze plaque on the Wall in South Philly as he’s closing in on the Hall in upstate New York, the narrative is equally unavoidable.

Even Utley is thinking about it.

“One step a time,” he said this week after the Wall of Fame announcement. “But, yeah, obviously you can’t help but pay attention to it.”

Utley, 47, conceded he didn’t know much about the Hall of Fame election process when he first appeared on the ballot in 2024. He lived in London with his wife, Jen, and their two sons for the last three years. They traveled across Europe. There was an ocean between them and the debates over which former players should be immortalized.

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But as family and friends kept him abreast of the voting habits of longstanding members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Utley’s curiosity kicked in. And after three voting cycles in which his poll numbers climbed from 28.8% to 39.8% to 59.1%, he has a better understanding of how the sausages … uh, the plaques … get made.

“I’ve tried to educate myself on how the process works,” Utley said. “And, yeah, it seems like it’s evolving a little bit different than it has in the past. But I think the game is evolving. We as people are evolving as far as how we identify good players and great players and Hall of Famers.”

Based on voting history, Utley eventually will get into the Hall of Fame. Will 2027 be the year Cooperstown calls?

“You start to put the pieces together on how that may work,” Utley said. “I’m not sure what every voter is thinking. I think some voters have a perspective of, ‘Listen, if I didn’t vote for him the first time he’s on the ballot, I’m never going to vote for him again.’ And that’s their prerogative, and I completely respect and understand that.”

In other words, who knows?

The Utleys are back from England, back to living in the Los Angeles area, where Chase grew up and went to college. The Phillies wanted to find a role for him. Instead, he took a job with the Dodgers: special assistant to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

In time, he may want to do more. For now, this is fine.

“It’s fulfilling, right?” said Utley, whose sons are 14 and 11. “It’s giving back to the game a little bit, trying to help them in whatever aspect is possible. I get to sleep in my own bed every night, so that’s nice.”

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Utley retired after the 2018 season with these numbers: .275 average; .358 on-base percentage; .465 slugging; 117 OPS+; 1,885 hits; 411 doubles; 259 homers; 1,025 RBIs; 64.6 wins above replacement

Additionally, he was a six-time All-Star and a World Series champion. He has the third-highest stolen-base rate ever among players with at least 100 attempts (87.5%). And he’s tied with Reggie Jackson and George Springer for the most homers in a World Series (five in 2009).

Teammates revered Utley for his talent, effort, and baseball IQ. Opponents had to contend with Rollins’ speed and Howard’s power but were obsessed with not letting Utley beat them at the plate, on the bases, or in the field.

But the crux of the case for Utley as a Hall of Famer is a span of 10 seasons, from 2005 to 2014, in which he wasn’t only the best player at his position in the NL. He ranked second among all players in the sport with 59.7 WAR. Only Albert Pujols (67.7) was better.

The case against Utley: The peak of his powers lasted only six seasons because of injuries. Also, until this year, the writers hadn’t elected a player with fewer than 2,000 hits since Ralph Kiner in 1975. But Andruw Jones just got in with 1,933, and Buster Posey stands a good chance next year in his ballot debut despite finishing with 1,500.

Utley finds the whole thing … fascinating?

“It’s intriguing and interesting how it all works,” he said. “That’s why this game is so great. Because there’s so many different perspectives, so many different ideologies. It’s interesting to see some players that maybe didn’t get in in the past that are now getting some recognition, like maybe they should be in the Hall of Fame. I think all of that is kind of cool to see how it evolves.”

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Take, for instance, Jeff Kent. A five-time All-Star second baseman with 377 career homers but a below-average defender, he topped out at 46.5% in 10 years on the writers’ ballot before getting elected in December by a special committee.

If Kent is a Hall of Famer, it should boost Utley’s candidacy at an underrepresented position in Cooperstown. Kent will be only the 22nd second baseman to get inducted.

“I recognize now that there’s guys that, over time, their careers start to stand out a little bit more,” Utley said. “To me, that part is really interesting, how there’s so many different perspectives.”

Perspectives change. So does the Hall of Fame electorate.

To receive a ballot, voters must have 10 consecutive years of membership in the BBWAA. Each year, new voters enter the process, while others get weeded out. It explains how a candidate’s year-to-year vote total changes when his statistics don’t.

One trend in Utley’s candidacy: He tends to fare well with newer voters. And there were more first-time voters this year than usual (46, according to Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker).

In making a 19.3% jump from 2025 to 2026, Utley netted 50 votes among returnees and picked up 38 from first-time voters, according to the Tracker. He was 68 votes shy of the 75% threshold. It took Carlos Beltrán two years to bridge the gap after falling 69 votes short in 2024. Whether Utley can do it in one year might depend on how many new voters come into the process.

After three voting cycles, Utley is starting to understand more about that. One thing he doesn’t comprehend: the lack of traction for his longtime double-play partner.

While Utley’s case is built on a big, brief peak, Rollins’ is rooted more in longevity and durability, which enabled him to collect 2,455 hits despite only a 95 OPS+. But he won four Gold Gloves (and probably should’ve had more) at shortstop and is the only shortstop ever with at least 200 homers and 400 steals.

Yet Rollins, who debuted at 9.4% in 2022, didn’t double that total until 2025 before netting 37 votes and rising to 25.4% this year. Maybe he’s finally gaining momentum.

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Maybe he got a boost from being added to the Phillies’ Wall of Fame last summer.

“Obviously, we had a front-row seat to watch what he was able to do on a daily basis on the field — and I do have a little bias because he’s my friend and a longtime teammate — but there’s not many people that have done it better, in my opinion, than Jimmy,“ Utley said. ”The way he was able to control the hardest position on the field at shortstop and make it look easy.

“I know it gets talked about, but I’m not sure how much it’s emphasized on how good of a shortstop that he was. He made the difficult play look easy. He was a student of the game. I just hope people recognize that.”