The MLB 2026 Hall of Fame ballot has been released. (Sorry it’s just a link to a reddit pic. It’s hard to find a simple list. Until BBREF updates, anyway.)
It seems like it’s been a long time without a slam-dunk, no-doubter on the list, and I’m not sure I’d vote for any of the newcomers. I assume Beltran will make it in this time around, but who else? Andruw Jones? Chase Utley? I don’t see it.
I’ve done a 180 on the idea and think A-Rod should be in along with the other tainted players. There are without a doubt players in there today that used PEDs.
There are a few others that are weak borderline picks like Hamels. Beltran with a 70 WAR has a decent chance. Jones with a 62 has a weaker chance.
The ESPN article linked to below highlights Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun, and Matt Kemp among the newcomers; I don’t think any of those three have a good case.
I’m not sure that any of the rest of the new nominees are even close to those three.
There is also the “Eras committees” formerly known as the veterans committee. The Contemporary Era is eligible for this year. Players that made their contributions after 1980. The Classics Era won’t have another vote until 2027.
The Contemporary Era nominees are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
The Yankees signed their lefty reliever Ryan Yarborough to a one year contract. A no brainer for $2.5 million. They need lefty arms in the bullpen.
It will be interesting to see if they will be going after any big starters. They have other needs but as of right now they are not projected to have Cole or Rodon at the beginning of the year. I won’t completely rule out Cole at this point because he seems to be ahead of schedule.
Of the new class, I’m absolutely voting for Cole Hamels, but only because I won a Twitter drawing 15 years where I won signed baseballs from Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Cole Hamels. It’d be nice to get the HOF trifecta on that!
A 59 WAR is pretty low for the Hall of Fame.
But it would mean that there is still hope for Urban Shocker!
Hall of Fame voting can be mighty perplexing. With the usual caveat that WAR isn’t everything, C.C. Sabathia (62.3 WAR) sailed into the Hall in his first year on the ballot. Meanwhile, David Cone (62.3 WAR) was one-and-done in 2009. As was Kevin Brown (67.8 WAR) in 2011.
Nine players rejected their qualifying offer. Four including Trent Grisham and Gleyber Torres took the offer which means a one year $22 million contract.
NY sports radio is filled with stupid angry callers that didn’t want Grisham back despite a career high season. The one year contract gives them a lot more flexibility. I expect them to be a serious contender for Bellnger but not for other outfielders.
I was surprised the Yankees offered it, and I’m surprised he took it. Grisham is such a mixed bag. Low average, but he walks a lot. 34 homers, but he only totaled 44 extra-base hits. He played an excellent centerfield, but now his speed has decreased to the point he should be in a corner spot.
This kind of ties the Yankees hands, financially. I would have preferred signing Belli and using that money elsewhere. Unless Hal Steinbrenner (hah, not likely) says fuck it and spends like the Dodgers.
I think they are the favorites to get Belli. I think he wants to come back. He will go elsewhere only if some other team offers a ridiculous number of years.
As expected, Kyle Tucker rejected his QO from the Cubs, Shota Imanaga accepted his.
Pretty sure the Yankees only extended the offer for the draft pick compensation.
Well, that was kind of dumb of them. Grish ‘only’ made five million last year. I thought he might be able to get 3 or 4 year deal at around 15 million per, but maybe his agent thought otherwise. I wonder if the Cubs are feeling any QO remorse with Imanaga. I don’t know if he was fully healthy last season, but if so, his number are trending in the wrong direction.
Imanaga spent time on the IL this past season with hamstring issues. From May 4 through the end of June, he was unavailable. He kinda had pitch himself into condition. And if those hamstring issues lingered, that certainly could have affected his mechanics/effectiveness.
In case it’s not apparent I’m not part of the Yankee front office so I don’t know for sure. My theory is they will be looking at infield and pitching help. For outfield they are not looking at anyone other than Bellinger. If they get him great. If not they will have Judge of course, Grisham, Dominguez and they can bring up Spencer Jones. Jones was just put on the 40 man roster today. After a slow start in AAA last season Jones seemed to get the hang of it. Now is probably the time to give him a shot or move him for value.
Former MLB starting pitcher Randy Jones, who won the Padres’ first Cy Young Award in 1976, passed away yesterday at age 75, from undisclosed causes.
Jones had two great seasons for the Padres in 1975 and 1976 – he finished second to Tom Seaver for the Cy Young in '75, before winning it in '76 – but suffered an arm injury during his final start in '76, and never regained that form, though he continued pitching (for the Padres, and later for the Mets) through 1982.
Jones, who relied on control and deception rather than a good fastball, still holds a number of Padres franchise pitching records, including starts, innings pitched, complete games, and shutouts.
It’s weird looking at stats from players fifty years ago. In his Cy Young season, Jones had an ERA of 2.74, 25 complete games, 315 innings pitched and…93 strikeouts.
RIP. Also, I wonder if his arm injury could have been fixed in this era.
According to his Wikipedia entry, he had suffered elbow and problems in high school, and again in college, which had caused him to lose velocity on his pitches. He apparently made up for it, at least for a time, by becoming a “ground ball pitcher,” and through excellent control and learning how to disguise his pitches. It also notes that, in 1976, he tied the NL record by going 68 consecutive innings without issuing a walk (a record which was broken by Greg Maddux in 2001.
Wikipedia also indicates that it was a nerve injury in 1976; he had surgery, but he clearly wasn’t the same after that. But, yeah, it’s certainly possible that there are now better treatments for that injury.
The first “Tommy John” surgery was in 1974; it’s not clear to me how much (if any) of his earlier elbow troubles were his UCL, but he might have been a candidate for that surgery, too.
Even for his time he was a notoriously low strikeout guy. Jones actually led the league in hits allowed that season. He just didn’t walk anybody and got hitters to ground into 35 double plays.
The other Cy Young candidates for that season had 200, 161, and 195 Ks (all in about 50 fewer IP). Jones ranked like 80th in K/9 that season.
He was also an insanely fast worker on the mound, apparently.