The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) will announce the results of the 2026 Hall of Fame election on Tuesday, January 20. Candidates must be named on at least 75 percent of ballots cast by members of the BBWAA to gain induction into the Hall of Fame.

394 members submitted ballots last year (a player needed to be named on at least 296 ballots to reach 75.0%).

The Hall’s induction ceremonies are scheduled for the weekend of July 24-27 in Cooperstown, New York. This year’s class already includes Jeff Kent, who was selected in December by the Eras Committee.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve profiled 20 of the 27 players on this year’s ballot. I planned to write up all 27, but, honestly, I ran out of steam with it (read: my ADD took over, too often). It doesn’t make sense to dive too deeply into each case again, so for reference, I’ll include links to them here:

The seven I skipped: Chase Utley, Alex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez, Jimmy Rollins, Dustin Pedroia, David Wright, and Ryan Braun.

If you’ve read through these profiles, you’ll notice that I intentionally didn’t dig into whether each player would receive my vote for the Hall of Fame. That reasoning I saved for this post, so let’s dig in.

Looking at how I would have voted on last year’s Hall of Fame ballot seems like a logical, if imperfect, starting point. I think it’s fair to say I would approach things a little differently today. Still, I was able to work my list to ten players on last year’s ballot that I would have voted for: Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Alex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez, David Wright, Dustin Pedroia, Carlos Beltrán, and Bobby Abreu.

Suzuki, Sabathia, and Wagner all received enough votes to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The trio was inducted in July, alongside Dave Parker and Dick Allen (who were voted in by the Eras Committee). That leaves us with seven returnees to consider.

Each year, along with their ballots, the BBWAA’s Hall of Fame voters receive instructions on what criteria they are to use in evaluating players on the ballot:

The exact way each factor is weighed and considered by each voter varies significantly. Some look only at the stats and award wins. Some will automatically look past a candidate with something questionable in their past, whether on or off the field. Most fall somewhere in between.

The so-called character clause has become especially notable since players from the PED era began appearing on the ballot. Performance-enhancing drugs are hardly the only character-related matter that gets considered, however.

To borrow a phrase, a selective morality is developing within the HOF voter base. Friend of TBNL, Lewie Pollis, and the writer of his own semi-regular newsletter, The Lewsletter, discussed this very concept in depth last December. Pollis frames much of his argument around the differences between Trevor Bauer and Andruw Jones; one is seemingly banned from ever returning to the game because of the sexual assault allegations in his past, while the other is seeing his HOF candidacy increase despite having a similarly concerning history.

Ultimately, Pollis comes to an entirely reasonable conclusion, which he details in his “mock HOF ballot” post:

More, from Pollis (from last December):

While I am inclined to agree with Pollis’ stance towards violent offenders, one concern immediately springs to mind: a lack of awareness. I’m guilty of not knowing about the histories of two of the four players he mentioned from this year’s ballot — and I’ve researched the worst people in baseball history fairly extensively.

Some of the specific details regarding Andruw Jones’ past are touched on above. He’d ultimately serve probation as part of the agreement to drop all charges. The Joneses would indeed reconcile, but only temporarily, as they would divorce in 2015.

Jones was named on 7.3% of ballots in 2018, his first year on the ballot. That amount climbed to 66.2% last year.

Omar Vizquel’s past is also not new information. First, a December 2020 report in The Athletic detailed a history of domestic violence allegations raised by his wife, Bianca. The story went in-depth on the abuse she endured during their six-year marriage, which ended with her “fleeing their home in Arizona, spending time in a women’s shelter, and then, less than a week later, initiating divorce proceedings.” Bianca also shared her story in an interview aired on Venezuelan television.

A separate incident had occurred the year prior when Vizquel was managing the White Sox Double-A Birmingham Barons affiliate. Vizquel had allegedly sexually harassed a male team employee, prompting the organization to fire him with less than a month remaining on his one-year contract. He has not received another opportunity to manage since. The team employee, a teenage ballboy named Ashtain O’Neal, filed a lawsuit against Vizquel and the team in 2021, in which he claims Vizquel had targeted him because of his autism. An undisclosed settlement was reached out of court in June 2022.

MLB investigated both of Vizquel’s incidents, but no official penalties were levied.

Vizquel has, however, seen his support on the HOF ballots steadily decrease since the allegations became public. Vizquel was named on 37.0% of ballots in his first year of eligibility, and that figure climbed in each of the next two seasons to a peak of 52.6% in 2020. He was named on only 17.8% of ballots last year.

Lewie included Francisco Rodríguez and Manny Ramírez in his “automatic no” group, so let’s dig into why. Both, it would seem, have had some anger-control and domestic violence issues.

Following an August 2010 game in New York, Rodríguez physically attacked his father-in-law, who had reportedly made some disparaging remarks about Rodríguez’s mother during the game while in the Mets’ family room. Several family members of other players witnessed the altercation. Rodríguez was arrested and charged with third-degree assault. The Mets would suspend him for two days.

Rodríguez was separately charged with domestic violence in September 2012 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, following an incident with his 23-year-old girlfriend. Police arrived at the couple’s home to find her hiding in a closet, claiming that Rodríguez had “hit and kicked her, before dragging her into a car and driving around,” where the argument continued. Charges would be dropped entirely several months later, after both the victim and a witness returned to Venezuela and refused to cooperate with investigators.

Ramírez, in September 2011 (coincidentally between Rodríguez’s two incidents), was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery after slapping his wife, Juliana, during an argument in Florida (he spent the final year of his career with the Tampa Bay Rays). State officials dropped the charges the next spring.

Knowing the details of Andruw Jones, Omar Vizquel, Francisco Rodríguez, and Manny Ramírez’s pasts — even if you still want to defend the players’ on-field accomplishments — I find it hard to support their candidacy for the Hall of Fame. I think I’m with Lewie on not voting for any of the four.

Since I just spent 1200+ words talking about the character clause, let’s touch on the actual reason it’s become such a central topic of discussion at all in the past decade: the PED era.

Many baseball fans — my mother and uncle, among them — strongly believe that any player even loosely connected to performance-enhancing drugs has no place in the Hall of Fame. No exceptions are made to this approach, no matter whether a player was merely suspected or actually suspended for PED use.

Many HOF voters feel this way, too, as evidenced by players like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and others having not been elected.

I don’t find myself aligned with this approach. I don’t think such connections should be ignored; rather, they should be appropriately taken into consideration when evaluating the player’s career as a whole. Context is important.

I’ve referenced this before (and can’t find a link to the exact quote right now), but several years ago, The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham published his Hall of Fame column, explaining his approach to voting on players from the PED era. While I don’t recall the exact wording, Abraham’s point stuck with me: Cooperstown hosts the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. You cannot fully represent and appreciate all of baseball’s history while ignoring the best players from the PED era.

Four of the 27 players on this year’s ballot — Alex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez, Andy Pettitte, and Ryan Braun — had connections to the PED era of some kind. The first three (before removing Ramírez for his domestic violence past) would be easy decisions for me to vote for. That means A-Rod and Andy will get my vote.

Alex Rodríguez

Andy Pettitte

Braun’s case is different, but he’s a relatively easy no for me. As for the specifics, FanGraph’s Jay Jaffe tells it better than I could:

We’re going to start with the pitchers on the ballot, partly because it’s an easy next step, but also because this is one of the biggest areas where the “Hall of Fame standards” need adjustment. The game has evolved — starters no longer consistently work deep into games, while bullpen usage has become exceptionally specialized — and how voters approach pitchers must evolve, too. I could likely ramble on for another 800 words on that concept alone, but we’ll save that for another time (besides, people much smarter than me have likely written about it elsewhere).

As I wrote up player profiles over the last few weeks, I discovered just how similar the three left-handers on the ballot are. The final numbers for Cole Hamels and Mark Buehrle are not significantly different than Andy Pettitte’s. Buehrle, in particular, stands out much more favorably against his contemporaries than I had previously thought. Ultimately, all three would indeed receive my support. That adds Hamels and Buehrle to our mock ballot.

Cole Hamels

Mark Buehrle

That leaves three hurlers left. Two are easy decisions for me to pass on. Gio González and Rick Porcello were both fine pitchers, but there was never a point where I thought of either as a Hall of Famer. Viewing them in comparison to other pitchers of their era, I don’t think they stack up.

Félix Hernández, however, does. King Felix is on my ballot.

Félix Hernández

Five spots filled. 15 players remaining to consider. Let’s start by eliminating the ones I don’t view as possibilities. That list includes: Edwin Encarnación, Alex Gordon, Matt Kemp, Howie Kendrick, Nick Markakis, Daniel Murphy, and Hunter Pence. That’s seven more crossed off. Like González and Porcello, each was a fine player, but I just don’t (and never did) view them as Hall of Famers.

Eight candidates remain with five openings on my mock ballot. Four of those are actually easy “yes” votes for me. There’s really no need to debate further about them.

Carlos Beltrán

Chase Utley

David Wright

Dustin Pedroia

Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Torii Hunter, and Shin-Soo Choo remain. A real case could be made for each of them, but we only have one space left on our ballot. In the end, I think I give the edge to Abreu’s longevity and consistency.

Bobby Abreu

Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Mark Buehrle, Cole Hamels, Félix Hernández, Carlos Beltrán, Chase Utley, David Wright, Dustin Pedroia, and Bobby Abreu.

Those ten players would each receive my vote if I had a 2026 Hall of Fame ballot.