These days, Buster Posey is focused on building a winning team as president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants.

In 11 months, however, journalists will evaluate the first part of his career.

Among the new candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot, Posey should be among the favorites for the 2027 class.

There are no new people elected in this year’s first round, after the results were announced on Tuesday night. Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were the only ones elected.

Beltran and Jones were the top-voting candidates in 2025, so it’s no surprise they received the requisite approval from 75% of Baseball Columnists Association of America members. The fact that the newcomers at the polls did not attract much attention worked in their favor. Among this group, only Cole Hamels exceeded the 5% threshold to avoid being excluded from possible elections.

Next year, Posey will have a chance to enter the Hall of Fame on his first try. A seven-time All-Star Game selection who led the Giants to three World Series victories, this all-star catcher was crowned National League batting champion and MVP in 2012.

The receiver position doesn’t lead to induction into the Hall of Fame, but Joe Mauer got there two years ago on his first try.

“I remember doing a poll before the results came out, just to gauge what people thought was going to happen with Mauer, and the results were very mixed,” said Ryan Thibodaux, who runs an online vote tracking site before the results were announced every year.

“Some thought he would get about 20% of the vote, others thought he would be elected. I think in Posey’s case, perhaps in part because of Mauer, we have a feeling he could very well be elected in the first round,” he said.

Rising pitchers

Votes for Andy Pettitte jumped from 27.9% to 48.5% this year, and votes for Félix Hernandez increased from 20.6% to 46.1%. This does not mean that their chances of being inducted are similar.

Pettitte can only be a candidate for two years before reaching the 10-year limit. Hernandez, on the other hand, has only been a candidate twice and still has a long way to go.

Voters have been pretty open to considering the best starting pitchers on the ballot lately. CC Sabathia was sworn in on the first ballot last year, and now Pettitte and Hernandez have seen their popularity soar. Hamels, in turn, obtained 23.8% of the votes in his first appearance at the polls.

One source of concern for Hamels is that sooner or later players like Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, who have each won three Cy-Young trophies, will be eligible. It will be harder for other starting pitchers to be directly compared to these three players.

But Hernandez could be elected before that becomes an issue.

Best return

The candidate with the most votes without reaching 75% this year was Chase Utley, who went from 39.8% to 59.1%. This was only his third participation in the vote.

“It appears that Utley has put himself in position to be elected as early as next year, although a 16 percent gain is not easy to achieve,” Thibodaux said. He will probably come close, if not achieve his goal. »

Last chance

Only one player will be present in the 10^and times in the vote. This is Omar Vizquel, who obtained just 18.4% of the votes this year.

The highly skilled infielder received 52.6% of the vote in 2020, but was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife and his support collapsed. He was also sued for sexual harassment by a former minor league batter.

Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in a vote by the Baseball Chroniclers of America on Tuesday.

They will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 26 alongside second baseman Jeff Kent, who was elected in December by the Contemporary Era Committee.

A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán had a .279 batting average with 435 home runs and 1,587 RBIs in 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, 2017), New York Mets (2005-2011), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2014-2016) and Texas (2016).

He was named American Rookie of the Year in 1999 by the Kansas Royals and won three Gold Gloves.

Beltran also stole 312 bases in 361 attempts.

In the playoffs, he maintained a .307 batting average with 16 home runs and 42 RBIs in 65 games.

Beltrán was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1, 2019, and fired on Jan. 16 without managing a single game, three days after he was the only Astros player named by name in an MLB report on the team’s illicit use of electronic devices to steal signs during Houston’s 2017 World Series victory.

Jones had a .254 batting average with 434 home runs, 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17 seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009), Chicago White Sox (2010) and Yankees (2011-2012).

In 2005, he led the majors with 51 home runs and the Nationals with 128 RBIs, which allowed him to finish second in MVP voting, awarded to Albert Pujols.

He finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League (2013-2014).

His batting average is the second lowest for a player elected to the Hall, just above that of Ray Schalk (.253), an excellent defensive catcher, and just below that of Harmon Killebrew (.256), who hit 573 home runs.

A five-time All-Star, Jones won 10 Gold Gloves.

Only Willie Mays has more than him, with 12.

In Game 1 of the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Jones became, at 19 years and five months, the youngest player to hit a home run in the Fall Classic, breaking Mickey Mantle’s record by 18 months.

(Philadelphia) Seeing Bo Bichette turn the Philadelphia Phillies’ back on their National East rivals was like a slap in the face to the defending section champions.

A two-time All-Star Game selection while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, the shortstop accepted a three-year, $126 million offer from the New York Mets last week. The Phillies were surprised. They believed the former American slugger was close to signing a contract to join Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner in their offensive roles.

“It was a tough blow,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski admitted Tuesday. It hits you. That day you are very angry. But you have to pull yourself together. You can’t let all this affect you. »

The Phillies had a productive meeting with Bichette early last week and were considering a long-term contract with him. The field player decided to go to New York.

“I can’t say that at any point we thought the matter was closed,” Dombrowski added. There is a difference. We believed we were very close to an agreement. We thought this would happen. But that didn’t happen. »

Dombrowski said Bichette and the Phillies never signed a letter of agreement, which would have tied Bichette to a contract after he passed a medical exam.

“It’s not that we’re not moving in that direction,” Dombrowski said. Based on our conversations, we believed we were heading towards such a letter. We haven’t reached that point. […] So I can’t say we had an understanding. »

Dombrowski declined to say whether he had a verbal understanding with Bichette and his Vayner Baseball representatives.

We accepted their monetary demands, Dombrowski stressed. We were working out the details. »

Dombrowski believes the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four-year, $240 million signing of Kyle Tucker was a game changer on the free agent market. The Mets came with a short-term offer, giving more freedom to Bichette, who could opt out after the first or second year of the contract. It would then affect 47 or 89 million.

New York’s offer contains no deferred value and Bichette obtained a full no-movement clause. His average annual salary of 42 million is the sixth highest total in baseball history.

The Phillies are not in the habit of offering early termination clauses in their contracts. Harper has none in his 13-year, $330 million pact; no more than Turner, who has a contract for 11 seasons and 300 million. Dombrowski doesn’t like those clauses and doesn’t believe the organization will change its approach to attracting free agents to Philadelphia.

“I never thought it was sensible (to offer these clauses) when you look at the risks associated with them. »

After a good season, the player will take advantage of this clause to receive more money, explained Dombrowski. But a serious or serious injury means the team will have obligations for a few more seasons.

“It’s a policy I’ve been applying for a long time and I think most clubs have the same. »

When the Bichette deal fell through, the Phillies made a three-year, $45 million offer sheet to catcher JT Realmuto, a month after Schwarber agreed to stay in Philadelphia for five years and $150 million.

“People forget that we hired “Schwarb”,” Dombrowski recalled. If we hadn’t signed him again, I don’t know how I would evaluate this winter. »

The Phillies brought back most of the lineup that won 96 games in 2025 before losing to the Dodgers in the National Division Series. Even with big names like Cody Bellinger and Framber Valdez still available, Dombrowski suggested his lineup is complete.

“We are happy with where we are at the moment,” he concluded.

Associated Press reporter Ronald Blum contributed to this article.