- - Baseball Hall of Fame voting update: Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones on track for induction — will anyone else join them?

Jack BaerJanuary 8, 2026 at 7:51 AM

0

In two weeks, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its Class of 2026. We already know one member of the class, and we have a pretty good idea about two others. After that, it's hazy at best.

The past couple of years have had some fairly obvious first-ballot inductees in Ichiro Suzuki (2025) and Adrian Beltré (2024). There are no such players this year. Instead, any inductees will be benefiting from the slow drift of BBWAA votes, through which a player such as Billy Wagner can go from 10.5% voting in his first ballot in 2016 to a triumphant 82.5% in his final year of eligibility last year.

That's where the Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker comes in. The helpful spreadsheet is run by the team of Ryan Thibodaux, Anthony Calamis and Adam Dore, who track every publicly available BBWAA ballot (and some privately indulged ones). As of Wednesday, 140 ballots had been tracked out of an estimated total of 424, enough that we can get a pretty solid idea of which way the wind is blowing.

As a reminder, players need to receive at least 75% of the BBWAA vote to be inducted into the Hall. They get 10 years on the ballot to get there but automatically fall off if they ever receive less than 5% of the vote. After that, they can still get in through the Hall's Era Committees if they don't make it via BBWAA.

Here's how all 27 players on the ballot are doing so far, with numbers as of Wednesday.

Already in

Jeff Kent

Kent was the lone player to emerge from the Contemporary Era Committee's vote in December, on a ballot that also included Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Carlos Delgado. Kent fell off the BBWAA ballot in 2023, receiving 46.5% of the vote in his final year, but he immediately got in through the committee.

On track for this year

Carlos Beltrán (88.4% of vote, 4th year of eligibility)Andruw Jones (83.0%, 9th)

Both Beltrán and Jones are accomplished outfielders who are ahead of the pace needed to reach induction, but that doesn't mean this is over. BBWAA voters who never reveal their ballots tend to be harsher judges than the public ones, which is how Beltrán went from 73.6% of known ballots to 70.3% in the final vote last year.

Both men also have off-field issues that could come up in voting, notably Jones' domestic violence arrest in 2012 and Beltrán's central role in the Astros cheating scandal. Those are obviously very different situations, but both are relevant in a world in which the character clause has become a major deciding factor in these votes.

On track for sometime in the future

Chase Utley (66.7%, 3rd)Félix Hernández (58.5%, 2nd)Cole Hamels (32.0%, 1st)

These guys would all need miracles ranging from minor to major to reach Cooperstown this year, but they should still probably expect plaques at some point in their futures. Very few players who get a majority of votes in their first three years on the ballot end up not making it eventually.

Utley and Hernández both had Hall of Fame primes, then fell off a bit due to age and injury, but the voters don't seem too worried about what those two did in their 30s. And for Hamels, 32% is a fine starting number in his first year on the ballot.

Who will join Jeff Kent in the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame? (Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports)Could go either way

Andy Pettitte (55.8%, 8th)Dustin Pedroia (25.2%, 2nd)David Wright (19.7%, 3rd)

Only Hernández has gained more returning votes than Pettitte so far this cycle, and the southpaw is also doing well with first-time voters, at 70%. Those are encouraging signs. But you have to wonder how much resistance against Pettitte has calcified due to his alleged steroid use. With only two years remaining on the ballot, he needs a lot of people to come around quickly.

Pedroia and Wright are both one-team infielders who didn't quite have Hall of Fame longevity but could ultimately get in if future voters look kindly upon them.

Staying alive

Bobby Abreu (38.8%, 7th)Jimmy Rollins (25.9%, 5th)Mark Buehrle (22.4%, 6th)Omar Vizquel (12.9%, 9th)Francisco Rodriguez (12.9%, 4th)Torii Hunter (4.8%, 6th)

It's hard to imagine any of these guys getting the boost they need at this stage of their candidacy, but they will probably make it to the next ballot. Hunter went from 4.8% of public votes last year to 5.1% in the final count, so a similar bump would keep him in the safe zone this time around.

Vizquel remains a notable case given that he appeared to be a lock for induction at one point, after he reached 52.6% in his third year of eligibility in 2020, but domestic abuse and sexual harassment allegations have since made him a non-candidate.

Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez (47.6%, 5th)

With Bonds and Clemens both out of Hall of Fame consideration until 2031, the most controversial candidate is now Rodriguez, whose multiple steroid scandals didn't prevent him from getting a job at Fox Sports but do appear to be a significant barrier for the Hall of Fame.

His 47.6% number is at least a significant jump from where Rodríguez has been hovering in his first four years of eligibility — from 34.3% in 2022 to 27.1% in 2025 — but his lack of progress with first-time voters (46.7% this year) means the tides are not yet turning the way he needs them to.

It's over

Manny Ramirez (43.5%, 10th)

With no more ballots after this one, the Boston Red Sox great can start crossing his fingers that the Contemporary Era Committee doesn't mind his PED use as much as the BBWAA clearly does.

Hello, goodbye

Ryan Braun (2.7%, 1st)Edwin Encarnacion (1.4%, 1st)Shin-Soo Choo (0.7%, 1st)Hunter Pence (0.7%, 1st)Gio Gonzalez (0%, 1st)Alex Gordon (0%, 1st)Matt Kemp (0%, 1st)Howie Kendrick (0%, 1st)Nick Markakis (0%, 1st)Daniel Murphy (0%, 1st)Rick Porcello (0%, 1st)

It is extremely difficult to make the Hall of Fame. The above players have a combined 1 MVP award, 1 Cy Young Award, 27 All-Star selections, 13 Gold Gloves, 10 Silver Sluggers and 5 World Series rings, but it looks like none of them will get a second look from voters. Braun's admitted PED use obviously looms largest here.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”