Overview
- The eight-player ballot features Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly and Fernando Valenzuela.
- A 16-person committee, to be announced in early December, will each select up to three candidates, with 12 votes required for election and results due Dec. 7 in Orlando.
- Under a 2025 rule, any candidate receiving fewer than five of 16 votes will sit out the next cycle, and repeated sub-five outcomes can end future consideration.
- Analysts suggest Bonds and Clemens could occupy two of the three available slots per voter, leaving a single pathway for others such as Sheffield, Mattingly or Murphy on what is a statistically stronger ballot than the writers’ slate.
- Lou Whitaker is not on this ballot despite strong advanced metrics, having received 2.9% on the 2001 BBWAA ballot and six of 16 committee votes in 2020, a gap cited in broader concerns about overlooked second basemen.