{"id":518117,"date":"2026-01-13T11:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/518117\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:31:18","slug":"baseball-hall-of-fame-ballots-2026-the-athletics-voters-explain-their-selections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/518117\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball Hall of Fame ballots 2026: The Athletic\u2019s voters explain their selections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced next Tuesday and immortalized, along with Jeff Kent<\/a>, this summer in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n

Twenty-seven players, including 12 newcomers<\/a>, are on this year\u2019s Hall ballot, which is voted on by over 400 members of the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America. Many of The Athletic\u2019s writers have the privilege of voting for the Hall of Fame \u2014 and whether they\u2019ve been doing so for decades or cast their first ballot in this election, it\u2019s a meaningful experience for all of them.<\/p>\n

Here are the ballots of 12 of The Athletic\u2019s Hall of Fame voters and, in their words, more on their selections.<\/p>\n

(Note: Jayson Stark, Ken Rosenthal and Tyler Kepner will reveal their respective ballots in separate columns before next Tuesday\u2019s election.) <\/p>\n

Dan BarbarisiCarlos Beltr\u00e1n, Andruw Jones, Cole Hamels, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andy Pettitte\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Cole Hamels was the NLCS MVP and World Series MVP in 2008. (Winslow Townsend-Pool \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit, during his playing career, I never really thought of Hamels as a Hall of Famer. He was always just a good pitcher \u2014 always there, always performing well, but never the best pitcher in the league, never delivering that blow-you-away season that changes our perception of a player.<\/p>\n

But he kept pitching well, kept delivering seasons that kept him among the top 10 pitchers in the league, even top five, over an extended peak from 2008 to 2016. You could count on Hamels for an ERA right around 3.00, 200-plus innings, a strikeout per inning, a 1.20 WHIP. The guy was a metronome, in an era when dependable, consistent starting pitching was already becoming rare, foreshadowing where the game has gone today.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re clearly at a crossroads in how we evaluate pitchers, with the standards for what makes a great starting pitcher still catching up to what they\u2019re doing on the field.<\/p>\n

Judged against his forebears, Hamels doesn\u2019t measure up. He lacks the counting numbers and the win totals and the long, sustained career of dominance. Compared to pitchers of today, he looks like an absolute horse. For his own era \u2014 not that long ago, but clearly already a different time \u2014 he should be seen as what he was: one of the best pitchers in the league for a long time, a player whose lack of one or two extreme standout seasons shouldn\u2019t detract from a stellar body of work.<\/p>\n

Hamels wasn\u2019t exciting. But he was great for a long time, one of the very best in a period where his kind of production was becoming increasingly hard to find.<\/p>\n

Tim BrittonBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, Chase Utley, David Wright<\/p>\n

It is clear from my ballot that I appreciate peak performance, even if it doesn\u2019t come with the type of longevity preferred in Hall of Fame inductees. Hern\u00e1ndez, Pedroia, Utley and Wright were among the sport\u2019s very best during their primes, though those tended to end rather abruptly. This makes Andruw Jones\u2019 absence from my ballot more conspicuous.<\/p>\n

On the field, Jones would be an easy \u201cyes\u201d for me. Despite the plunge his value took as soon as he was in his 30s, he was a player of immense defensive value who also happened to hit more than 400 home runs.<\/p>\n

However, I view Jones\u2019 2012 arrest for battery against his then-wife<\/a>, and his subsequent guilty plea to a related disorderly conduct charge, as disqualifying \u2014 obviously more so than Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s involvement with the Astros\u2019 cheating scandal.<\/p>\n

I understand and accept that many of you will view this as sanctimonious. I agree that it would be simpler to limit my perspective to only what happened on the field. But induction into the Hall of Fame is the sport\u2019s greatest honor, and the Hall instructs voters to consider a player\u2019s character and integrity when deciding whether to immortalize them with a bronze plaque. By that standard, Jones falls short for me.<\/p>\n

Dan BrownBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Mark Buehrle, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Andy Petitte, Manny Ram\u00edrez, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley<\/p>\n

I held off on Hern\u00e1ndez a year ago, but this persuasive analysis by Mike Petriello of MLB.com<\/a> changed my mind. Petriello made the case that King F\u00e9lix was the best pitcher in baseball between 2005 and 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dominating a position for roughly a decade sounds like a Hall of Famer to me, and, indeed, just 19 hurlers since 1950 have emerged as the best pitcher in the sport across a 10-year span. Others on the list include Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Pedro Mart\u00ednez, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s career numbers lump him with a less glittering tier by Baseball Reference similarity scores<\/a>. (Kevin Appier, Jake Peavy, Frank Viola, et al.) But F\u00e9lix\u2019s glorious and sustained peak gets him over the top for me, as we struggle to evaluate starters in an era without massive inning totals or 300-game winners.<\/p>\n

Voting for Hern\u00e1ndez (49.8 career bWAR) made it tough to exclude Pettitte (60.2) and Buehrle (59.0), so I voted for them for the first time. I\u2019ll vote for Hamels (59.0) next year.<\/p>\n

As for the guys tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, I just hold my nose and click the box. There are some problematic cases already in the Hall, and the inconsistency grows increasingly unjustifiable.<\/p>\n

Steve Buckley<\/p>\n

Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Andruw Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, David Wright<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a baseball story I\u2019ve told a couple or a couple of hundred times over the years. It actually takes place inside a football stadium, the old joint where the New England Patriots played before Robert Kraft ponied up millions of dollars in private money to get Gillette Stadium built.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re in the press box at Foxboro Stadium, The Boston Globe\u2019s Bob Ryan and me, sometime in the 1990s, and we\u2019re arguing about the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ryan is making a passionate case as to why longtime Cincinnati Reds shortstop Dave Concepci\u00f3n should be enshrined in Cooperstown. I am making the counterargument that, gee, sorry, Concepci\u00f3n was a fine ballplayer, but he should not be in the Hall of Fame. We keep going back and forth. Think of it as an Aaron\u00a0Sorkin ping-pong shot. Finally, there comes an announcement in the press box, a request really, for the gentlemen arguing about baseball to please take their discussion to the back room.<\/p>\n

The point here? Bob Ryan was, and remains, a passionate, lifelong student of the game. He covered the Red Sox for a few years, but beyond that, he\u2019s famous for scoring every at-bat of every game he\u2019s attended over the past half century-plus, from the World Series to college ball. He even wrote a book that displays his favorite scorecards from over the years, including Red Sox right-hander Reggie Cleveland\u2019s 18-hit, complete-game, 12-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 25, 1977.<\/p>\n

And yet as I drove home that night, one question nagged at me: How could Bob Ryan be so wrong about Dave Concepci\u00f3n?<\/p>\n

The answer is simple. Everybody\u2019s Hall of Fame ballot sucks. Everybody\u2019s. I know this to be true because the comments, social media posts and emails that are inspired by the annual declaration of my own ballot invariably include a few colorful pronouncements that my voting privileges should be taken away.<\/p>\n

It used to be these arguments were generally fun, though often spirited and, yes, occasionally Steel Cage-worthy. Then came the PED era, and for some baseball writers, the Hall of Fame election wasn\u2019t much fun anymore. To vote for any of those steroid guys meant being crushed by angry fans because you were rewarding cheaters who besmirched Baseball\u2019s Sacred Records. If you didn\u2019t vote for them, a posse would be rounded up to chase you down for the purposes of reminding you that this or that guy never failed a test, that there were no real rules in place, that, hey, come on, players from the 1960s popped \u201cgreenies,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

If you were a so-called Big Hall voter, you were dismissed as an overzealous fanperson. If you voted for just one or two players, or Heaven help us submitted a blank ballot, you were mocked as a self-appointed \u201cProtector of the Game\u201d who must keep Cooperstown reserved for Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, Ted Williams, Satchel Paige and maybe, maybe, a few others.<\/p>\n

Everybody\u2019s ballot sucks.<\/p>\n

You know what? It\u2019s taken me many years to figure this out, but it\u2019s actually a good thing that everybody\u2019s ballot sucks. It\u2019s liberating. It means you can vote for the maximum 10 players. Or you can vote for no players. You can champion the newfangled WAR7 (a player\u2019s peak performance over seven seasons), or you can hold tight to old-timey counting numbers. (Early Wynn won 300 games! He\u2019s in!)<\/p>\n

In the end, none of it makes any difference because everybody\u2019s ballot sucks anyway.<\/p>\n

My choices for the Baseball Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026 are noted above.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s a pretty good ballot. In fact, I think it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

Rustin DoddBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ram\u00edrez, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, Chase Utley\"\"<\/p>\n

\n This is Manny Ram\u00edrez\u2019s 10th and final year on the writers\u2019 ballot. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When I cast my first Hall of Fame ballot in 2022, I voted for four superstars heavily linked to performance-enhancing drugs: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Manny Ram\u00edrez and \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez. The decision, as you\u2019d expect, was polarizing. Dozens of fans online applauded the votes. None other than Keith Olbermann publicly ripped me for ignoring the Hall\u2019s \u201ccharacter clause.\u201d Every year that I\u2019ve cast a ballot, I\u2019ve continued to vote for those linked to PEDs, including Ram\u00edrez and Rodr\u00edguez, who were caught after MLB officially started testing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long wrestled with the ethics of doing so. Am I overlooking a serious breach? Am I enabling cheaters? Clearly, the majority of voters on this year\u2019s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee<\/a> disagree with my stance because Bonds and Clemens did not come close to getting in. So am I wrong? I\u2019m open to that possibility.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where I\u2019ve landed: These players are on the ballot. The Hall of Fame could implement protocols or processes to remove so-called \u201ccheaters\u201d from the ballot. They have not.<\/p>\n

I believe there are probably players who used PEDs who have been elected to the Hall of Fame. There are players from other eras who used \u201cgreenies\u201d (amphetamine pills). Former commissioner Bud Selig is in the Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The only reasonable thing is to look at the players on the ballot with PED questions and attempt to determine whether their numbers merit inclusion and whether they likely would have been a Hall of Fame-caliber player without using PEDs. This, too, is nearly impossible. I can\u2019t pretend like I know the answer with 100 percent certainty. It could be that I\u2019m punishing players like David Wright and Dustin Pedroia, who theoretically could have stayed healthy and played longer with the help of PEDs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m open to that possibility. But when I use that methodology and consider the careers of Ram\u00edrez and Rodr\u00edguez, I\u2019m left with the following conclusion: I think they were Hall of Fame players.<\/p>\n

Brittany GhiroliCarlos Beltr\u00e1n, Andruw Jones<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve waited 17 years to get a Hall of Fame vote because I spent the first decade of my career at MLB.com, which was not considered part of the BBWAA until late 2015, meaning my service clock to get 10 years took much longer. I\u2019ve watched other elections and critiqued voters just like most of you, while wondering what kind of voter I\u2019d be.<\/p>\n

Well, after a lot of reading and research, it turns out I\u2019m a Small Hall voter. To me, the sport\u2019s highest honor means the absolute best of the best, and I think the two guys I voted for are a cut above the rest of the candidates.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, there are cases to be made for plenty of players in the Hall of Very Good, but do I put Dustin Pedroia or David Wright in the same category as other Hall of Famers? No. I can\u2019t. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n

For steroid guys, like \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez and Manny Ram\u00edrez, I erred on the side of caution. (I know, I know, the person who presided over the steroid era \u2014 Bud Selig \u2014 is in. That\u2019s not my doing!)<\/p>\n

I do think there\u2019s a case for Chase Utley eventually, thanks to statistics like WAR that show his value exceeds what some of his career numbers suggest. F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez probably will get in eventually, too.<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m just one vote of hundreds, and as my colleagues have shown here, certainly in the minority in terms of the numbers I\u2019d like to see in the Hall. There was no slam-dunk first-balloter this year, but I still think Jones and Beltr\u00e1n are more than worthy.<\/p>\n

Chad JenningsBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Cole Hamels, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, David Wright\"\"<\/p>\n

\n David Wright leaps for a ball hit by Dustin Pedroia in 2009. Wright received 8.1 percent of the vote last year, while Pedroia garnered 11.9 percent. (Ezra Shaw \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It took 296 votes for a player to be elected to the Hall of Fame last year, and that level of necessary consensus has always shaped my approach to voting. My role is not to define the Hall of Fame. It\u2019s only to offer my two cents about what makes a Hall of Famer in my eyes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019ve always been a Big Hall voter. It fits my personality, and it\u2019s always felt natural to vote that way. What I\u2019ve wrestled with is my balance between peak and longevity. I\u2019ve come to realize I\u2019m most interested in the great players who burned bright for a relatively short \u2014 but still substantial \u2014 amount of time.<\/p>\n

And so, I vote for Pedroia and Wright, two players about whom most of my coworkers disagree with me. Or, maybe we don\u2019t disagree about the players themselves, but we disagree about whether their career arc \u2014 a Hall of Fame track cut short by an injury that just wouldn\u2019t go away \u2014 fits within the walls of Cooperstown.<\/p>\n

For me, it does. I would have no problem explaining to my kids what made Pedroia and Wright singular players, nor would I feel any shame when explaining why the totality of their careers didn\u2019t measure up to some of the others in the Plaque Gallery. Pedroia and Wright fit my definition of a Hall of Famer, and if nearly 300 of my colleagues agree, they\u2019ll take their place in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n

Jen McCaffreyBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Mark Buehrle, Cole Hamels, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, Chase Utley, David Wright<\/p>\n

As a first-time voter, I did a lot of research to determine a baseline for such a subjective endeavor. There\u2019s no set criteria for how one should vote for the Hall of Fame, which is the beauty and the curse of the process.<\/p>\n

I first determined how I\u2019d vote for players who were suspended for PEDs (Ram\u00edrez and Rodr\u00edguez) and while I read several opinions on both sides, I opted to leave them out.<\/p>\n

For the rest, I considered players\u2019 careers individually, but a big part of the process for me was comparing players to their contemporaries. I think voting should be a mix of statistics and feel for the game on how much a player contributed over the course of his career.<\/p>\n

For instance, Hern\u00e1ndez dominated for a six-year stretch, winning a Cy Young Award, before tailing off. Buehrle never had as dominant a stretch as Hern\u00e1ndez, but he was incredibly consistent for 16 years. Pettitte was a key rotation member on five championship-winning teams. Hamels was consistently among the best in his league and won the NLCS and World Series MVP awards in 2008. WAR isn\u2019t the be-all and end-all, but Hamels and Buehrle posted the same 59 WAR, according to FanGraphs, over the course of their careers, higher than Hernandez (49.8) and a tick below Pettitte (60.2).<\/p>\n

The same process applied for infielders Utley, Wright and Pedroia. Pedroia won AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP in successive years in 2007-08, and helped the Red Sox win two World Series in his prime. Utley and Wright were two of the NL\u2019s best infielders for the better part of 10 seasons. There\u2019s not enough of a difference among the three to not vote for all of them.<\/p>\n

The careers of outfielders Beltr\u00e1n, Jones and Abreu matched in many ways in my mind, too. Abreu didn\u2019t have the 400-homer career of Jones or Beltr\u00e1n, but his 128 OPS+ topped Beltr\u00e1n (119 OPS+) and Jones (111 OPS+), and he showed remarkable consistency over 18 years.<\/p>\n

None of these decisions was easy and all of it is subjective, but this is what I came up with the first time around.<\/p>\n

Zack MeiselBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ram\u00edrez, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, Chase Utley\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Bobby Abreu finished with 60.2 bWAR, 2,470 hits, 400 steals and a .291\/.395\/.475 slash line. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Over six years on the ballot, Abreu has gradually convinced 19.5 percent of the voting body that he\u2019s worth a checkmark. It\u2019s time to turbo-boost that figure. Fear not, Bobby: I\u2019m here to serve as your campaign manager.<\/p>\n

Only 12 players have had a season with 20-plus homers, 20-plus steals, 30-plus doubles and 100-plus walks. Abreu had seven such seasons, three more than anyone else. Only six players have had multiple seasons with those numbers: Abreu, Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell, Joe Morgan, Paul Goldschmidt and Mike Trout.<\/p>\n

Only 10 players have racked up 250 homers, 250 steals and 1,000 walks: Abreu, Bonds, Morgan, Rodr\u00edguez, Willie Mays, Gary Sheffield, Beltr\u00e1n, Rickey Henderson, Craig Biggio and Derek Jeter. That\u2019s essentially a golden ticket to Cooperstown for those without ties to steroids.<\/p>\n

Abreu finished with 60.2 bWAR, 2,470 hits, 400 steals and a .291\/.395\/.475 slash line. His 574 doubles rank 25th all-time, and the only non-Hall of Famers ahead of him are Bonds, Pete Rose, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Luis Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro. That\u2019s two soon-to-be first-ballot Hall of Famers, plus three guys tied to scandal. His 1,476 walks rank 20th all-time, and the only non-Hall of Famers ahead of him are Bonds, Rose, Eddie Yost and Darrell Evans.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his lack of attention-grabbing MVP finishes is what turns off voters.<\/p>\n

Consider a couple of 1999 NL MVP cases.<\/p>\n

Player A: .319\/.441\/.633 slash line, 45 homers, 110 RBIs, 25 steals, 126 walks, 6.9 bWAR
Player B: .335\/.446\/.549 slash line, 20 homers, 93 RBIs, 27 steals, 109 walks, 6.1 bWAR<\/p>\n

Player A, Chipper Jones, won the NL MVP. Player B, Abreu, was 23rd. Abreu finished behind a handful of players he bested in just about every category. He greatly outpaced Greg Vaughn in everything but homers (45), yet Vaughn somehow finished 19 spots ahead of him.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also this, from 2004.<\/p>\n

Player A: .289\/;348\/.531, 27 homers, 107 RBIs, seven steals, 49 walks, 3.9 bWAR
Player B: .301\/.428\/.544, 30 homers, 105 RBIs, 40 steals, 127 walks, 6.6 bWAR<\/p>\n

Player A, Jeff Kent, finished 13th. Abreu, again, finished 23rd.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t hold it against Abreu that he never finished higher than 12th in an MVP race, especially when he was so consistent for so long. It\u2019s not his fault my misguided peers didn\u2019t appreciate such a well-rounded, patient hitter.<\/p>\n

Stephen J. NesbittBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ram\u00edrez, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, Chase Utley, David Wright<\/p>\n

I had three open spots from last year\u2019s ballot. All three went to players who at age 30 you could have described as \u201cfuture Hall of Famer\u201d without raising hackles, but at 35 were out of the game.<\/p>\n

The additions of Hern\u00e1ndez, Wright and Pedroia \u2014 boxes I checked in that order \u2014 are a case for a career interrupted. Five more years of even league-average production would have made their candidacies far less complicated. But these guys didn\u2019t get that twilight tour, as their bodies broke down and their rapidly accumulating stats stopped compiling. Still, they had ceilings some Hall of Famers never touched. Everyone wants longevity, but a sustained peak as one of the best players in the sport is good enough for my vote.<\/p>\n

It felt right to put Wright and Pedroia on the ballot at the same time, given the similarities in their careers and their standings in the game. That left Cole Hamels and Mark Buehrle off my ballot \u2014 for now. Those lefties currently sit at the top of my list of potential returners to consider next year, just ahead of Ryan Braun. By the numbers alone, I found Braun\u2019s all-around value to be lesser than Wright and Pedroia, though he played longer than them.<\/p>\n

C. Trent RosecransBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Mark Buehrle, Cole Hamels, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ram\u00edrez, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, Chase Utley<\/p>\n

For better or worse, I often look at my Hall of Fame voting like a math problem. I have 10 votes available, but I am also part of a large group of people that ultimately decides who is enshrined in Cooperstown. Because of the math, I view myself as a voter, not a selector.<\/p>\n

That means my vote doesn\u2019t determine which players go into the Hall, but it is a factor. So I prefer to err on the side of generosity over exclusivity. I\u2019m for inclusion over exclusion.<\/p>\n

Like everyone else, there have been Hall election results I don\u2019t agree with and ones that I do. It\u2019s not that those who voted for the people who didn\u2019t meet my standard are wrong or that I\u2019m wrong, it\u2019s that we have different opinions.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons players aren\u2019t eligible for the ballot until they\u2019ve been retired for five years, and that they can stick around for 10 elections, is that time offers perspective on how the game has changed over the years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a BBWAA member since 2005. That year, four pitchers won 20 games and 50 pitchers finished with at least 200 innings. In 2025, Max Fried led all pitchers with 19 wins and just three pitchers logged at least 200 innings. To say that the role and expectations for starting pitchers have changed since then is an understatement.<\/p>\n

The old benchmarks \u2014 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts, sub-3.00 ERA \u2014 look as anachronistic as a full windup. If those are the standards, no pitcher will be elected for a long time.<\/p>\n

I put a check next to four starting pitchers on my ballot this year \u2014 Buehrle, Hamels, Hern\u00e1ndez and Pettitte \u2014 because there wasn\u2019t much separation between them. They\u2019ve had drastically different careers, but there is an argument to put them in any order, depending on the evaluation criteria. I decided they were all in roughly the same neighborhood.<\/p>\n

I have used all 10 votes for all but one of the ballots in my career and I\u2019ve yet to see a 10-person class elected. Because our perspective on the past is always evolving, I would rather be more inclusive on my ballot and allow the math and process to play out how it will.<\/p>\n

Eno SarrisBobby Abreu, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Cole Hamels, F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Chase Utley\"\"<\/p>\n

\n F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez celebrates after throwing a perfect game against the Rays in 2012. (Ted S. Warren \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez is the King. Once you compare him to his peers, his numbers shine as Hall-worthy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that he won only 169 games, which would be a bottom-10 number among starters in the Hall of Fame. It\u2019s true that his 30s weren\u2019t kind to him. The end wasn\u2019t great.<\/p>\n

But things have changed a little since even the days of Greg Maddux. In 1992, Maddux threw 268 innings \u2014 and 54 other pitchers had more than 200. Eighty-one pitchers qualified for the ERA title. Twenty-nine pitchers won 15 games.<\/p>\n

Last year, three pitchers threw 200-plus innings. Fifty-one qualified for the ERA title. Seven won 15 games. Pitchers just aren\u2019t being used the same way. The innings and wins aren\u2019t piling up like they used to.<\/p>\n

In the 2000s, Hern\u00e1ndez was a top-ten pitcher by FanGraphs WAR, right between Chris Sale and Randy Johnson. His 169 wins in that span rank 14th, right behind Pettitte. And during his peak, between 2006 and 2016, there was a 10-year period in which Hern\u00e1ndez reigned at the top: No. 1 in WAR, No. 3 in wins, No. 7 in ERA (minimum 1,000 innings) and No. 1 in strikeouts.<\/p>\n

His 2010 AL Cy Young Award came with a 13-12 record and helped change much of the industry\u2019s minds about the nature of a win. As a team stat, there\u2019s a lot of context that needs to be stripped away.<\/p>\n

It would be fitting if Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s Hall of Fame election helped us understand the importance of context once again. Modern starting pitchers need to be compared to their peers, or they\u2019ll fall short of a lot of traditional benchmarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced next Tuesday and immortalized, along with Jeff Kent,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[22,46,47,5,48,24,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,4,61,62,63,25,64,18,66,65,67,68,69,70,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-518117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-boston-red-sox","13":"tag-chicago-cubs","14":"tag-chicago-white-sox","15":"tag-cincinnati-reds","16":"tag-cleveland-guardians","17":"tag-colorado-rockies","18":"tag-detroit-tigers","19":"tag-houston-astros","20":"tag-kansas-city-royals","21":"tag-los-angeles-angels","22":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","23":"tag-miami-marlins","24":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","25":"tag-minnesota-twins","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-new-york-mets","28":"tag-new-york-yankees","29":"tag-oakland-athletics","30":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","31":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","32":"tag-san-diego-padres","33":"tag-san-francisco-giants","34":"tag-seattle-mariners","35":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","36":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","37":"tag-texas-rangers","38":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","39":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}