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).

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

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— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (@baseballhall.org) November 3, 2025 at 8:05 AM

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. 

Built with Kit

(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. 

Some Thoughts on the New Rule Changes

We’ve got a new Starting Nine up over at The Crawfish Boxes, once again featuring yours truly! The topic of this one is our early impressions on the new rule changes, including the pitch clock and shift bans. So far, I generally think there's a lot to like about them, but I do have a few slightly more complicated thoughts about them as well, as does everyone else. Go check it out if you have a minute!