This article was written prior to the Hall of Fame induction on January 20th. Congratulations to Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones for their induction!!
This is quite a boring year for the Hall of Fame.
Several years removed from the Bonds/Clemens debates, and steroid era mainstays falling off the ballot, the current holdovers are a comparatively far less significant, and the newcomers are… disappointing. Despite this, there are plenty of interesting discussions to be had about a variety of players, so let’s highlight a few of the big names up for nomination in 2026:
The Maybes
Carlos Beltrán – If there is any player who has a strong chance of getting in, it’s Carlos Beltrán. From a statistical standpoint, he’s a clear standout. 2725 career hits, 435 home runs, 312 stolen bases, all while playing good defense at center. His 70 bWAR and 67 fWAR are clearly Hall of Fame Territory. His accolades are also impressive: 9x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove, 2x Silver Slugger, and 1999 AL Rookie of the Year. Combined with his stellar postseason record, he has a clear case.
The only reason Beltran isn’t already in is his involvement in the 2017 Astros sign-stealing scandal. He was the only player directly named in the Commissioner’s report, with his role being apparently quite significant (the public does not know all the details, but it’s safe to assume). This has caused many to be hesitant.
Chase Utley – For about five years in the late 2010s, Chase Utley was the second-best player in baseball, only narrowly behind still-outstanding Albert Pujols in fWAR from 2005-2009. Utley had steady production well into his 30s, and while he doesn’t have any significant milestones or incredible accolades under his belt, he has north of 60 WAR on account of his outstanding defense and on-base skills at second base, making him a sabermetric darling.
The problem is that Utley was not a popular player outside of Philly, and a particular slide against the Mets has made him an infamous figure of late 2000s and 2010s baseball. This will be a critical year for Utley, who would likely need to break 50% this year if he wants a good shot at getting in on the writers’ ballot. His second year placed him at just shy of 40%.
Andruw Jones – For ten years, Andruw Jones was a step below being a modern-day Willie Mays. That’s not a far-fetched claim either: Through their age-30 seasons, Mays accumulated more WAR (76.7-62.7), but Jones actually hit more home runs and was every bit as stellar in center as the Say Hey Kid. Mays would spend his 30s continuing his excellence en route to one of the all-time great careers.
Jones did not.
Jones had a disastrous stint in LA and bounced around the league out of shape and poorly performing until he was out of MLB entirely at age 36. That dramatic decline, combined with a domestic violence case in 2012, has tainted his reputation. Jones barely hung on the ballot his first two years before making steady gains each year with the departure of the Bonds/Clemens block.
Félix Hernández – Felix represents the bridge between the four great aces of the 2010s – Scherzer, Kershaw, Greinke, and Verlander – and the four great aces of the 90s – Clemens, Johnson, Maddux, and Martinez. Hernandez is a very interesting case because he pitched at the very onset of the pitch tracking era, which radically changed how pitchers were used and evaluated. Compare Felix to the aces of the 20th century, and he falls well short. Compare Felix to the aces of today, and his volume and sustained success for a decade make him compare favorably to the likes of Sale, Cole, Wheeler, and deGrom. Felix is a newer fan favorite, but traditionalist voters want a guy to pitch into their 30s.
Steroid Guys
Alex Rodriguez – Three MVPs, 696 home runs, suspended twice for steroids, and one of the most hated players in baseball. A-Rod is notable for being one of the first modern shortstops in MLB – that is, a player with tremendous athleticism playing the 6. A-Rod will almost certainly not get in, but he’s an interesting case study into more modern steroid guys.
Manny Ramirez – Everyone should do themselves a favor and look up the roster of the 2008 Dodgers. Funniest team ever. Anyway, Ramirez is a Boston sports legend but has no shot. Recent voters have been a bit more favorable towards him, but now on his final year on the ballot, he’s only barely crossed the 33% mark.
Andy Pettitte – Pettitte differs from the other names in this section because he publicly apologized for his usage. A postseason hero, his candidacy looked dead in the water until he saw an uptick last year from 13% to 28%. It’s still very doubtful Pettitte will get inducted, but crazier things have happened.
Other Notables
Bobby Abreu – Baseball Reference Bobby, as we call him, has got one of those careers that makes you think. If you want a shorthand as to why a lot of us sabremetrically inclined folk love Abreu, he’s just shy of being a career 300/400/500 hitter with base stealing to boot. Gotta love that.
Dustin Pedroia – Pedroia has a fairly underappreciated career. Very steady production with great defense playing up the middle. He’s probably not going to sniff even a quarter of the votes, but he’ll stick on the ballot for ten years, easy.
David Wright – David Wright was a surefire Hall of Famer until he very suddenly wasn’t, as injuries prevented the Mets star to putter out of baseball by 2015. Wright hung onto the ballot in 2024 and ’25, with this year a crucial third data point in seeing if he can climb the ranks to be a serious contender. If you’re a peak and personality inclined voter, you shouldn’t wright him off. (heh, get it im sorry)
Cole Hamels – Atlanta legend Cole Hamels was never a Cy Young finalist, but the four-team All-Star had a long and steady career. Hamels’s performance on his ballot debut will give a good indication as to how the BBWAA feels about modern-day volume guys.
Jimmy Rollins – The cornerstone of the 2008 Phillies team, Rollins is sort of the 2000s version of Marcus Semien, playing just an obscene amount. Did you know he has the single-season record for plate appearances with 778? One of the more interesting records that is probably unbreakable with player usage now. He’s not getting in, great career, though.
Mark Buerhle – Perfect game, World Series winner, one of the most consistent pitchers of his era. He got Cy Young votes once in his career, but definitely one of the most memorable and well-liked pitchers of his day. There’s a volume-based case for him, and he’s at exactly 60 bWAR. I choose to believe he saw this in 2015 and decided to retire. Seems like a thing he’d do.
Omar Vizquel – Gross
Ok fine. Vizquel was an ironman defender who played for 24 years, won 11 Gold Gloves, and collected 2800+ hits. Vizquel was not a WARlord, but was on a decent track to get in until reports of domestic violence and alleged sexual harassment toward an autistic batboy surfaced in 2020 and 2021, respectively. He’s lingered on the ballot, but his campaign is dead in the water. Good riddance.
Francisco Rodríguez – The second-best reliever in the AL for a decade, thanks to that one guy in New York, K-Rod has the single-season saves record and a very good career overall.
Ok, that’s enough summarizing. The new names are, for all intents and purposes, not relevant. Ryan Braun might hang around, but other than that, the new names are one-and-dones. So these are the big names we are dealing with. Now, without further ado, here are the PL Staffer Hall of Fame picks:
Staff Picks
PL Staffers induct Carlos Beltrán into the Hall!!!
In my form, I gave writers the option to submit a brief explanation to one of their votes. Here are some staff comments:
“Andy Pettitte needing (at least) eight years is a joke. He had elite seasons and had a long career. He’s penalized for not having any Cy Youngs or MVPs, but he was a rock for over a decade. Easy pick for me” – Kyle Bland
“Sacrificing a would-be vote for Buehrle in order to keep K-Rod around in fruitless hopes that the narrative on relievers getting into the hall and their under-representation is different in just five years before he’s ineligible. It would functionally be a wasted vote, but I can’t bring myself to let him slip off the fictional ballot. Also, Bobby Abreu was very, very good at baseball.” – Jack Foley
“It’s time to let the PED-era players in. A-Rod is a HOF-er in every sense, and Andy Pettitte is arguably the best postseason starting pitcher of all time. Let them in, put an asterisk, I don’t care, but you can’t just ignore an entire era of some of the games’ best players ever.” – Erik Hinrichsen
“This is a ballot that is full of Hall of Very Good players. Félix Hernández, Bobby Abreu, and Carlos Beltrán stand out for their extended excellence, but I can also see none of those three getting in. Andruw Jones is very borderline for me. I don’t feel he had the offensive numbers to be a true Hall of Famer. One of the best defensive center fielders of all time. His domestic violence incident should be considered, but my knowledge of it doesn’t make it disqualifying. Beltran will always have the stain of the Astros’ cheating scandal on him. Félix Hernández was one of the most dominant and durable pitchers of his era, even if the win total doesn’t show that.” – Steve Drumwright
“David Wright is an example of a philosophical baseball question, which is ‘how long does a player have to be great to be considered a Great?’ Wright was a top-tier player for a decade, and then, very suddenly, was almost entirely out of baseball. Had he continued with mediocre production into his mid-30s instead of flared out, he probably gets a lot more consideration, despite the fact nobody remembers late career players.” – Carson Picard (oh hey, that’s me)
“I just want Pence to know that somebody is looking out for him.” – Asher Dratel
Conclusions
PL Staffers like pitchers. No surprises there. For the second year in a row, Félix Hernández gets over 50% of the vote, and this year I am proud to report no staffer voted for Omar Vizquel! Four players fall one vote shy of the 75% threshold. PL writers were more favorable toward steroid users, and so Alex Rodriguez joins the one-vote-shy club consisting of Abreu, Hernandez, and Utley. Notably, the PL staff does not induct Andruw Jones, likely on account of his domestic violence case. Generally, this graph follows career WAR, which is to be expected. A few players have aforementioned asterisks and footnotes that complicate matters, but the results here are clearly from big-hall, pitching-friendly voters.
If you want to see how our ballots compare to actual BBWAA members, resident stat wizard Kyle Bland made an app to track Hall of Fame voting, and included an option for PL Staffers! Here’s mine:
Slightly unorthodox, not terribly stingy ballot – relative to BBWAA voters. If you want to poke around with this, visit The Ballot Metrics App here!
