Earlier this week, I reviewed the Veterans Committee ballot ahead of their upcoming December 7th announcement. Part 1 (which can be read here) covered the cases of Gary Sheffield, Carlos Delgado, Fernando Valenzuela, and most-likely inductee Jeff Kent; Part 2 (which can be read here) covered the new rules shenanigans that are likely to impact the candidacies of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy. Check both of those out if you haven’t already, I think I did a pretty good job on them!
And now, we finally have the final piece of the puzzle: earlier this week, the Hall of Fame officially announced the sixteen people who will be serving as voters for the vote this weekend. If you haven’t been following the most recent iteration of Veterans Committee elections as closely, this has kind of become a big deal over the last few years. The VC has always been unique in that they meet to discuss votes in person, and these conversations can have a notable impact on the final results as members try to strategize or campaign for certain candidates. Of particular note was the 2019 election, where Harold Baines swung a surprise induction while going in front of an especially-favorable set of voters.
Nothing since has been quite that shocking, but looking at the committee can sometimes give you clues to what’s on the horizon. For example, last year’s sixteen panelists tilted me towards predicting Dave Parker would make it in, which did indeed happen. It’s not a guarantee to have an effect (I thought last year’s panelists might be sympathetic to Luis Tiant too, which did not occur in the slightest), but it’s always worth taking a look. This year’s set of voters is:
Hall of Fame Players: Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, and Robin Yount
Executives: Owners Mark Attanasio and Arte Moreno, plus General Managers Doug Melvin, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins, and Terry Ryan
Writers: Jayson Stark and Tyler Kepner of The Athletic, plus historian Steve Hirdt
I don’t know that there’s one overriding theme this time, in the way that there was with the Baines ballot. However, that has been kind of the norm since then; I think the Hall realized that it was a bad look (even if probably unintentional), and has been going out of its way to avoid a repeat. But there are smaller trends that can play a part, and sometimes add up. Going through my thoughts on those, roughly in order that they occurred to me:
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Friday, December 5, 2025
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Reviewing the 2026 Veterans Committee Ballot, Part 2: The More Complicated Half (and the New Rule That Caused It)
Earlier this week, I began breaking down the 2026 Veterans Committee’s Hall of Fame ballot. I started with the four cases that I think needed the least context or rules-gaming, specifically Jeff Kent, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Delgado, and Fernando Valenzuela (plus, there’s a general refresher on voting rules, too). If you missed it, take a minute to check it out now! Especially since the election itself is coming up soon (specifically, on December 7th).
That leaves us with the other four names to cover today: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy. This part gets frustrating to write about, and I think that is in large part because it’s the worst kind of Hall of Fame discussion: one where the real focus of the talk isn’t the players up for induction, but instead about the Hall itself and its various rules and politics. It’s like when the umpires become the focus of a game, it’s a sign that something is not going right.
(Stats are from Baseball-Refernce unless otherwise noted.)
In fact, we can probably knock out the player discussion in much less time than I spent on the other four, in large part because all of them have been the subject of Hall discussions for ages now (despite little actual movement in the central cases). Mattingly and Murphy have been up for election since even before I started writing about this, spending fifteen years on the annual BBWAA ballot (beginning in 2001 and 1999, respectively), aging off of that, and then making it to three additional (non-annual) Veterans Committee ballots prior to this year.
The Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot features eight candidates for consideration in the Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Results will be announced at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 7: ow.ly/Agwx50XlQRH
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (@baseballhall.org) November 3, 2025 at 8:05 AM
[image or embed]
That leaves us with the other four names to cover today: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy. This part gets frustrating to write about, and I think that is in large part because it’s the worst kind of Hall of Fame discussion: one where the real focus of the talk isn’t the players up for induction, but instead about the Hall itself and its various rules and politics. It’s like when the umpires become the focus of a game, it’s a sign that something is not going right.
(Stats are from Baseball-Refernce unless otherwise noted.)
In fact, we can probably knock out the player discussion in much less time than I spent on the other four, in large part because all of them have been the subject of Hall discussions for ages now (despite little actual movement in the central cases). Mattingly and Murphy have been up for election since even before I started writing about this, spending fifteen years on the annual BBWAA ballot (beginning in 2001 and 1999, respectively), aging off of that, and then making it to three additional (non-annual) Veterans Committee ballots prior to this year.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Reviewing the 2026 Veterans Committee Ballot, Part 1: The Less Complicated Half
It is once again the time of the baseball calendar where Hall of Fame talk takes over! The Baseball Writers Association of America has released their 2026 Ballot (and some writers have already even released their official votes for it), while the Veterans Committee’s Contemporary Baseball Era panel will be announcing the results of their election on December 7th.
In case the embedded link has stopped working, this year’s slate of candidates consists of eight names: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela. And for further housekeeping, the panel consists of sixteen voters, who will meet in-person at the Winter Meetings to discuss their options before casting their vote. Candidates need twelve votes for induction, and while I couldn’t find anything confirming it would still be the case this year, in recent years each voter has been limited to three choices.
There’s actually another big rule change in this year’s VC process, but I want to hold off on discussing it for now. Once again, my write-up got kind of long, so I decided to split it up into two parts for posting. And as it turned out, the easiest splitting point wound up being “the half of the ballot that will be deeply affected by this rule, but doesn’t really need their individual cases discussed” and “the half of the ballot that could stand to have their cases discussed a little more, but which probably isn’t going to be affected by the new rule all that much”. The former is a little more complicated, so we’ll be focusing today on the latter to ease us in.
(Stats are from Baseball-Refernce and Fangraphs unless otherwise noted.)
And within that latter half, let’s start with the candidate that I think is the most straightforward one to cover: I believe that Jeff Kent is the most likely Veterans Committee inductee this voting cycle, and probably the only one I would place above 50/50 odds. This is actually something that I’ve been saying at least since he fell off the BBWAA ballot back in 2023 too (if not earlier). His reasoning reminds me of Fred McGriff’s in a lot of ways too, and that was another case where I predicted a Vet Ballot debut would sail in; in the end, the voters wound up doing exactly what I predicted, electing him unanimously on his first go-around in the process.
The Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot features eight candidates for consideration in the Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Results will be announced at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 7: ow.ly/Agwx50XlQRH
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (@baseballhall.org) November 3, 2025 at 8:05 AM
[image or embed]
In case the embedded link has stopped working, this year’s slate of candidates consists of eight names: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela. And for further housekeeping, the panel consists of sixteen voters, who will meet in-person at the Winter Meetings to discuss their options before casting their vote. Candidates need twelve votes for induction, and while I couldn’t find anything confirming it would still be the case this year, in recent years each voter has been limited to three choices.
There’s actually another big rule change in this year’s VC process, but I want to hold off on discussing it for now. Once again, my write-up got kind of long, so I decided to split it up into two parts for posting. And as it turned out, the easiest splitting point wound up being “the half of the ballot that will be deeply affected by this rule, but doesn’t really need their individual cases discussed” and “the half of the ballot that could stand to have their cases discussed a little more, but which probably isn’t going to be affected by the new rule all that much”. The former is a little more complicated, so we’ll be focusing today on the latter to ease us in.
(Stats are from Baseball-Refernce and Fangraphs unless otherwise noted.)
And within that latter half, let’s start with the candidate that I think is the most straightforward one to cover: I believe that Jeff Kent is the most likely Veterans Committee inductee this voting cycle, and probably the only one I would place above 50/50 odds. This is actually something that I’ve been saying at least since he fell off the BBWAA ballot back in 2023 too (if not earlier). His reasoning reminds me of Fred McGriff’s in a lot of ways too, and that was another case where I predicted a Vet Ballot debut would sail in; in the end, the voters wound up doing exactly what I predicted, electing him unanimously on his first go-around in the process.
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