The 2019 National Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced Jan. 22 and this year's BBWAA ballot includes only one slam dunk, no doubt about it surefire Hall of Famer: longtime Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Rivera is the greatest reliever in baseball history and, as of this writing, he's received 100 percent of the vote on 87 known ballots according to Ryan Thibodaux's tracker.

Rivera will not receive a vote from every Hall of Fame voter, however. Bill Ballou of the Telegram & Gazette explained he will not vote for Rivera because saves are overrated. Ballou starts his piece by saying "Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer in baseball history," then adds:

Rivera was 82-60 with a 2.21 ERA and 652 saves, all but 10 of his 1,115 games a reliever. For most of those games, though, he was presented with "clean innings," tools designed to make it as easy as possible for the closer. He didn't have to face batters a third, or even a second, time around. He rarely came in with men on base. He didn't have to conserve energy and pitches to stay in the game for as long as possible to allow the closer to get a save.

He was great in the ninth inning, agreed, but if he was that great why not bring him with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh or eighth? Why not use him as a starter?

Saves are indeed overrated -- why is protecting a three-run lead in the ninth considered equal to protecting a one-run lead in the ninth? -- but Rivera's greatness transcends his MLB record 652 saves. His career 205 ERA+ -- that is a ballpark adjusted metric in which 100 is league average -- is far and away the best among pitchers with 1,000 big league innings. Clayton Kershaw is a distant second with a 159 ERA+.

Saves or no saves, Rivera will not receive Ballou's Hall of Fame vote this year. He still has a chance to go in unanimously, however. That's because Ballou says he will not turn in his Hall of Fame ballot this year:

Rivera could be the first Hall of Famer elected unanimously. I think I'm right about closers, but not so much that I would deny Rivera a chance to be the first unanimous Hall of Famer.

Thus, I'm not voting this year. A submitted blank ballot is "no" vote for every candidate, so I'm doing a Switzerland and not sending one at all.

Ballou is abstaining from voting, meaning his ballot will not be counted. Had he sent in a blank ballot, it would've been counted. A blank ballot counts. Not returning the ballot essentially means the ballot doesn't exist. It does not count toward the final totals and that's what Ballou is doing. He's not voting for Rivera in the sense that he's not voting for anyone this year.

Voting for the Hall of Fame is a privilege and an honor, and everyone who has a vote votes in their own way. Some hate saves, some love saves. So on and so forth. The large voting body -- over 400 Hall of Fame ballots are expected to be cast this year -- lends itself to a wide variety of opinions. And, in all likelihood, Rivera will not be the first unanimous Hall of Famer. Chances are at least one voter will strategically omit Rivera from his ballot and give that vote to a borderline candidate who needs the help more. It's happened before and it'll happen again.

The logic may be specious, but Ballou not voting for Rivera won't hurt Rivera's Hall of Fame chances this year because Ballou is abstaining rather than submitting a blank ballot. That's better than sending in the ballot and omitting Rivera.