You can’t look over this ballot of 27 players, with Cy Young winners, MVPs, World Champs, five, six, seven-time all-stars, and use words like “mediocrity” or “lackluster.” That wouldn’t be true, or fair, to the players next to the boxes on the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
There are more than two dozen very good players, excellent players, and that is what made my task a little trickier than usual this year. But the deadline to check the boxes and send it in is Dec. 31, and I will reveal my ballot here.
A few points to review: I covered MLB almost exclusively for The Courant from 1997 to 2011, including eight full seasons as a traveling beat reporter, meeting the Baseball Writers Association of America requirement of 10 years to join the Hall of Fame voting body, which numbers about 400 senior members. I continue as a voter because the players being considered played during the time in which I was covering baseball. I intend to voluntarily relinquish my vote when this is no longer the case.
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Voters may choose up to 10 players each year, and a player must be named on 75 percent of ballots for enshrinement. It’s a very high bar to clear as, obviously, it should be. Roughly one percent of major-league players make it to Cooperstown.
This year’s ballot has some excellent players, but it’s not the Hall of Excellent. A lot of very good players, but it’s not the Hall of Very Good. The steroids controversy has complicated this process for more than a decade, and still does. There are two players on the ballot who are clearly Hall of Fame worthy based on performance, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, but both were heavily involved with performance enhancers. Ramirez testing positive at least twice, Rodriguez twice acknowledging use while serving a one-year suspension.
Rogers Clemens, winner of more Cy Young Awards than Cy Young himself would have won, and Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader, never got to 75 percent, due to their connections to performance enhancers, though I did vote for them their last several years on the ballot. They have twice come up short with the veteran’s committee. So I cite that precedent and will not vote for Manny or A-Rod, unless or until Bonds and Clemens, neither of whom were ever sanctioned by MLB, get in.
I will continue to vote for four players for whom I have been voting: Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones, Felix Hernandez and Andy Pettitte.
Beltran had a long career of sustained excellence, reaching 2,725 hits, 435 home runs and 312 stolen bases, with a rookie of the year award, three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers and nine All-Star appearances, plus a .307 average with 16 homers in 65 postseason games. Tossing aside his involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, as sign-stealing and other on-the-field infractions such as doctoring balls or bats, have never kept anyone out, Beltran clears the bar for me and if the writers elect anyone it all, it will probably be him.
Jones’ .254 average and relatively short peak period are drawbacks, but he hit 434 home runs, and won 10 Gold Gloves, his defensive ability in center field passing both the eyeball and metrics tests and has been getting close to 75 percent.
Pettitte was mentioned in the Mitchell Report, however his connection to PEDs, taking HGH before it was a banned substance but without a prescription, does not rise to the level of others for me, and it appears I’m not the only voter who makes that distinction as he has been gaining traction. He won 253 games, played a major part on five championship teams, eight World Series teams, and won a record 18 postseason games, most for the 1996-2001 Yankees, who are badly under-represented in Cooperstown.
“King Felix” came up short his first year, but is gaining traction quickly with voters this year. His ultra-dominant run from 2009-15 tips the scales for a career cut short by arm problems, as it did in similar cases for pitchers of the past.
Bear in mind, however, these are all borderline cases, especially when you look at the caliber of some of the players who have never gotten close. These four get my vote, but I see the arguments against them. As a former colleague once said, “anybody can vote for Willie Mays.”
That left me with six unchecked boxes and, for this year I am going to keep them unchecked.
Omar Vizquel, who had 11 Gold Gloves and 2,877 hits spread over a 24-year career, is in his last season on the ballot. Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Dustin Pedroia, Bobby Abreu, Mark Beuhrle and David Wright all got long looks, and will again.
Taking deeper dives on two, Wright, with his .296 average, seven All-Star appearances in an eight-year span, two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers at third base, an under-represented position, gave me a lot to think about, as did Pedroia, with his .299 mark, high WAR number (51.8) with an MVP, rookie of the year, two Gold Gloves and a championship ring.
Utley stands out in the WAR department (64.6) and had a strong, seven-year stretch (as did Don Mattingly, for example), but his traditional numbers for 16 seasons, 1,885 hits, 259 homers, .275 average, still feel a little light for Cooperstown. With new voters coming in and expressing fresh opinions, I’ll revisit all of these players next year.
But for this one year, despite my history as an inclusive, “big hall” voter, I will keep it to four. More for your Sunday Read.
Shavar Thomas, who played at UConn in 2001 and 02, will be the first coach of CT United FC, the new MLS Next Pro franchise coming to Bridgeport next summer.
Sunday short takes
*Shavar Thomas, who played soccer with distinction for UConn in 2001-02, has been hired as the first coach of CT United FC, the MLS Next Pro franchise aiming to start up in a new stadium in Bridgeport next summer. Thomas, 44, born in Kingston, Jamaica, was a second-team all-American at UConn, then a first-round draft pick, and went on to a long pro and international career, over 200 games in MLS and 50 caps for the Jamaica National Team. He has been coaching since 2017, in Jamaica’s premier league and most recently as an assistant with the FC Cincinnati.
*Cheshire’s Brad Ausmus, long-time major league catcher, manager and currently the Yankees’ bench coach, will manage Team Israel in the WBC next spring.
*Former UHart lefty Sean Newcomb, 32, who rejuvenated his career with the A’s bullpen last season, signed a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the White Sox, who continue to take sensible contract risks to try to climb out of the basement. Newcomb pitched to a 1.75 ERA in 36 appearances after joining the A’s. He may move to the rotation, joining the ChiSox’s other reclamation project: UConn’s Anthony Kay.
*London Jemison, 6-foot-8 freshman from Bloomfield, had four straight games scoring in double figures for 14th-ranked Alabama earlier this month, and he started the Crimson Tide’s most recent game, against South Florida on Dec. 17. Jemison, who played for Northwest Catholic and St. Thomas More, averages 7.7 points, 2.5 rebounds in 13.2 minutes per game, shooting 55.1 percent from the field, 38.7 percent on threes. Alabama (9-3) hosts Yale (11-1) on Monday night.
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*UConn women’s hockey goalie Tia Chan played for China in the 2022 winter Olympics as a Canadian-Chinese dual citizen, but Beijing required full Chinese citizenship for its 2026 Olympic team. Chan, playing out her eligibility as a grad student at UConn, is 12-3-2 with a 1.64 goals against in 17 games. Her .949 save percentage is tied with Brown’s Anya Zupkofska for tops in NCAA Division I. The Huskies are sixth in the USCHO poll.
*Count me out of the screaming and hollering over the first round of the College Football Playoff. Blowouts happen all over the country every week in college football, so it doesn’t mean Group of Five (or six) conference champs like Tulane or James Madison have no place in a 12-team playoff. The Power 4 teams have all season to play their way up toward the top of their conferences. Different math, but same principle I’ve expressed for basketball’s 68-team or baseball’s 64-team field; if you’re outside the top four or five in your own conference, there is no unalienable right to play for a national championship.
*Spending money for the sake of spending it is not a winning formula in baseball, but the Mets, Yankees and Red Sox do have an actual plan to actually improve their rosters this offseason … don’t they? I mean, they must. … Right?
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Last word
The NCAA continues to be the world-wide leader in unintended consequences. One line crossed led to another, and another, and now we have James Nnaji, 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, who will be joining Baylor for the spring semester. He’s 21, has been playing pro ball overseas for years and will have four years eligibility. “Santa Clause is delivering midseason acquisitions. This (bleep) is crazy,” Dan Hurley said, via social media. ... As Tom Izzo said when Michigan State played in Hartford in October, there’s a point where the NCAA has to take a stand, stop fearing lawsuits and draw a line. Maybe this is it. Maybe the thing to do is replicate the MLB and NHL models where a player can be drafted and, if they don’t like where they are picked or the contract offered, or are not ready, can return to college. Whether by legislation or litigation, some type of order must be established, and soon.