The 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Class will be announced today.
This is a pretty thin ballot regarding who might get in. There are a few reasons for this. First, there have been six additions total in the past two years. In addition, this is also one of the weaker first ballots we have seen in a while. I think two players on the ballot could get in this year, with another five or six likely in the future.
There is certainly more to just voting for “The best baseball players on the ballot, especially when you factor in the rules for qualifying. A player needs 75% of the vote to gain induction from the Writers’ Association. If a player does not reach the 75% threshold, they still might have a chance in future ballots. They have 10 chances, but they also must receive above 5% of the votes to be eligible for the next year’s ballot.
My Criteria for the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame
I do not have a vote, but this article will be on who I would vote for if I did. Before I give my case about any player, I would vote strictly based on their quality of play. Some people leave out players because of steroid allegations, some leave out players due to character clauses, and some leave out players because they just don’t like them. While these are understandable reasons (except for maybe the last one), I think voting on anything except how they played and what they accomplished in their career causes too big a gray area. This is especially true because there are a ton of cheaters and awful people in the hall today.
One more note, some people have strict standards for who they think should be in, leading them to have a very small ballot. However, if I were a voter, I’d fill mine out (10 players max). At the end of the day, all of these guys were the best players of their time. To be a top ten player on a Hall of Fame ballot usually means there is at least an argument. Some people might say this is too generous (and they are probably right), but I think it more than makes up for all of the guys who only vote for 0-2 guys on their ballot.
With that in mind, here is my ballot, listed by year of eligibility. (Note: Most of the info I get from the numbers and accolades is on Baseball Reference
Just Missed It:
Cole Hamels, Mark Buehrle, Jimmy Rollins. I’m not sure if I see a world where I vote for any of these guys in the near future. However, crazier things have happened.
Manny Ramirez
In my opinion, Manny Ramirez is one of the more underrated players of all time. When people think about the elite bats of the 1990s and 2000s, they often overlook Ramirez, even though they shouldn’t. He has 8 seasons above a 1.000 OPS, seven seasons above a 160 OPS+, and five seasons above 40 home runs. Oh yeah, and by the way, he hit 555 home runs for his career. Ramirez is a 12-time All-Star, 9-time Silver Slugger, 2-time World Series Champion, and won World Series MVP in 2007. He also has nine finishes in the top ten for MVP voting, including four times in the top five.
Considering his numbers and accolades, of course, he has the talent to get in. However, in 2009, he was suspended for 50 games for using PEDs. This is a disqualifier in a heavy portion of the writers’ eyes. This is Ramirez’s last year on the ballot. Last year, he finished with 34.3% of the vote. As of January 19th, he is at 43%. Even though lots of votes are private, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker, he is eliminated. One day, he might get in through the Veterans Association, but unfortunately, not through the Writers.
Andruw Jones
I grew up (and still am) a huge Mets fan. I did not start watching closely until 2006, and thank God for that. Mets fans from that era know exactly how frustrating it was to face Andruw Jones 15–20 times every season.
Every year, I say my favorite stat about him. That is, he is one of four players to hit 400 home runs with 10 Gold Gloves. The other three are Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., and Mike Schmidt. All three are debatably the greatest of all time at their positions.
So why hasn’t Jones been inducted? First off, the back end of his career was pretty brutal. He only played over 100 games once in his last five seasons, and in those five seasons, he had a 95 OPS+. In addition to his poor play, he does have “off-the-field issues”. Thids s understandably a deal breaker for a lot of voters. With this being said, he finished with 61.6% of the vote last year and was at 83% on January 19th. Historically, this is usually enough before the anonymous ballots are revealed. Even if Jones falls short this year, I would be shocked if he doesn’t get in next year.
Bobby Abreu
I had Abreu on my ballot in 2022, but took him off it for three years. However, he was the first guy off my ballot last year. With three players inducted last year, adding Abreu back to my ballot was easy. People might scoff at this, but I think people don’t realize how elite he was. Abreu is a guy who was awesome during his time, but in the pre-analytics era, people did not realize just how good he was. Abreu has six seasons with over .900 OPS seasons, has two 30-home run, 30-stolen bases seasons, and amased an over 60 WAR in his career. The average WAR is usually 50-70.
Abreu is a two-time All-Star, one-time Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner, and won the Home Run Derby in 2005. Between his well-roundedness, consistency, and longevity, Abreu has a far better case than people think. He likely won’t get in over the next year or two, but he could easily sneak in by his tenth year on the ballot.
Alex Rodriguez
When it comes to evaluating A-Rod’s career, it’s not a matter of questioning whether he is good enough to be in the Hall of Fame; it is whether or not he is the greatest player of the 21st century. Where do we start with him? His 696 Career home runs? His 3 MVPs? Or his 10 silver Sluggers? Or maybe that he earned the two biggest contracts in MLB history at the time he signed them.
If the Hall of Fame judged players strictly on on-the-field performance, A-Rod would have been a first-ballot inductee. However, A-Rod was suspended in 2013 for using steroids. In addition, many think he was using them for a long time before that. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have not been voted in yet. As much as people want to believe he will get in eventually, it will be a very long time until he does.
Carlos Beltran
This is Beltran’s fourth year on the ballot. As of January 19th, he is well on pace to reach the 75% threshold. In my opinion, this is long overdue. At his peak, Beltran was one of the best five-tool players in the game. Not only did he have multiple seasons in which he hit over 30 home runs, but he was also one of the best defensive center fielders in the league and a great base runner. For his career, Beltran amassed 67.4 WAR, which is 10th all-time amongst center fielders.
The only reason that he is not in by now is that he was the alleged ringleader for the 2017 Astros cheating scandal. However, not only am I basing this solely on on-the-field performance, but Beltran was not cheating when he was in his prime. He wasn’t accused of cheating until the very end of his career. I think that the writers wanted to punish Beltran by leaving him out for the first few years, but I think he’ll have enough votes to finally make it this time.
Francisco Rodriguez
K-Rod was on my ballot in 2023, but I left him off the past two years due to the stronger ballot. Similar to Abreu, he is back on with a weaker ballot. A lot of people think the K-Rod does not have the peak to get in, but he has become underrated. From 2004-2008, he averaged 72 innings pitched and 41 saves, and had a 2.23 ERA with a 200 ERA+. In those five seasons, he finished top five in Cy Young three times. The best season he had was 2008, when he broke the single-season record in saves. That record will likely never be broken.
Even with all of that, K-Rod is unlikely to ever get inducted. It is very hard for closers to get on, but when they do, it is because they have a high peak AND great longevity, but he really only has the peak.
David Wright
I consider myself to be more of a basketball than baseball guy, but David Wright is my favorite athlete of all time. Whenever I tell people that, they’ll say something like “Oh, Wright was awesome. If he stayed healthy, he would have made it to the Hall of Fame.” Well, I’m here to tell all those people that David Wright deserves to be in the Hall of Fame despite all of that.
Wright was a seven-time All-Star, won two Gold Gloves, and two Silver Sluggers. Only 30 players in the history of baseball have done that. 17 of those 30 players are already in the hall. Wright finished Top 10 in MVP four times. Statistically speaking, Wright finished in the top 10 in Batting Average four times, OBP three times, OPS four times, OPS+ four times, and WAR three times.
However, the main argument for Wright is that the median WAR for Hall of Fame members is between 50 and 70. Wright’s lifetime WAR is 51.2. The Hall of Fame is for the players who were the best in the game. Argue about longevity all you want, but if guys with greater longevity are not going to contribute to more wins as much as guys with less, then what is the point?
When evaluating a player, the voters should value peak over longevity, and few players peaked higher than David Wright during his time. It probably won’t happen, but I will always argue that Wright deserves the Hall of Fame, even with his shortened career.
Chase Utley
If Beltran and Jones get voted in this voting cycle, Utley will likely be the highest vote getter to not get inducted this cycle. As a Mets fan, I hated Utley growing up. However, it was a relatively easy choice to put him on my ballot. Utley is a six-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger, and was probably the best player on the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies, who won the championship.
Even though the last few years of Utley’s career were average at best, I think the fact that he had an elite peak and was able to produce at a major league level for a long time will get him into Cooperstown one day.
Felix Hernandez
Last year, Hernandez was the very last player on my ballot. However, this year it was a slam dunk to include him on.
Hernandez was a six-time All-Star and won the Cy Young in 2010. For his entire career, he finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting six times. Statistically, he led the league in ERA twice, finished Top-10 in ERA six times, WAR (among pitchers) six times, strikeouts nine times, and ERA+ five times.
When it comes down to it, for more than a couple of years, Hernandez was looking like the best pitcher in baseball. Yes, his last few seasons were rough, but he peaked like very few others in the history of the game, and that alone gets him my vote for not just this ballot, but a lot of others.
Dustin Pedroia
Pedroia just missed the cut off my ballot last year to Hernandez. However, I could see an argument for being ahead of him. Because Pedroia peaked so early in his career, people forgot how great he was in his prime. In his rookie season, he won Rookie of the Year and had an .832 OPS in the playoffs, en route to winning a World Series. The following year, he led the league in base hits, runs scored, and doubles, which led him to winning MVP and earning both a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove.
Some will argue he didn’t do much after his peak, but he still made three All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, finished top ten in MVP voting twice, and captured a World Series in 2013. That may not satisfy voters who prioritize longevity, but elite accomplishments matter far more to me. And if those accomplishments happen in a short amount of time but not much happens outside of a few elite seasons, then so be it.
Conclusion
The talent on the ballot might be thinner than most. However, it features players who were some of the best in the game at their peak. At the end of the day, that is what should be recognized, whether the players get inducted or not.
More From the Author
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