A former Most Valuable Player and a former Cy Young Award winner headline the 12 first-time candidates on the 2026 National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
The Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Hall released the ballot on Monday that will be sent to more than 400 voting members from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Ryan Braun, who spent his 14-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers, was the National League MVP in 2011 when he hit .332 with 33 home runs and 111 RBIs.
The following season, the outfielder was second in MVP voting when he led the league in runs (108) and home runs (41) and drove in 112. That was the fifth consecutive season in which he had at least 100 RBIs.
Rick Porcello won the 2016 American League Cy Young when he finished 22-4 with a 3.15 ERA and an MLB-best 5.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the Boston Red Sox.
In 2017, he led the majors in losses (17) and home runs allowed.
Other first-time-eligible players on the ballot are outfielders Matt Kemp, Shin-Soo Choo, Nick Markakis and Hunter Pence; infielders Howie Kendrick and Daniel Murphy; designated hitter-infielder Edwin Encarnacion; outfielder-infielder Alex Gordon; and pitchers Cole Hamels and Gio Gonzalez.
Their names appear on the ballot along with 15 players who earned enough votes to carry over from the balloting from the 2025 class.
To be elected to the Hall of Fame, candidates must be selected on 75% of ballots. Players who don’t achieve that mark can appear on the ballot the following year, provided they have received at least 5% of the vote, for up to 10 total years
Entering the Hall of Fame in the 2025 class were Ichiro Suzuki, named on all but one of the 393 ballots cast (99.7%), CC Sabathia (86.8%) and Billy Wagner (82.5%).
This could be the year for outfielders Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones to gain entry. Beltran received votes on 70.3% of ballots and Jones on 66.2%.
This is the final season on the ballot for Manny Ramirez, who was named on 34.3% of ballots last year. Despite stellar numbers — a .312 career average, 2,574 hits, 555 home runs and 1,831 RBIs, along with two World Series titles — a pair of lengthy suspensions for failing performance-enhancing drug tests — have kept voters away.
Alex Rodriguez received 37.1% of the vote last year, and despite a Hall of Fame-worthy career with 696 homers, 3,115 hits and more than 2,000 RBIs and runs, he has not been selected because of drug use. He was suspended for the entire 2014 season.
And Braun likely will face the same scrutiny from voters. In 2013, he was suspended for 65 games and admitted using PEDs in his MVP season.
Other holdovers on the ballot are pitchers Mark Buehrle, Felix Hernandez, Andy Pettitte and Francisco Rodriguez; infielders Dustin Pedroia, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Omar Vizquel and David Wright; and outfielders Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter.
Voting results will be announced Jan. 20.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for July 27 in Cooperstown.
–Field Level Media
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