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 10and 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.
