Beltre, Mauer, Utley among newbies on Hall ballot

Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer and Chase Utley header the database of newcomers to the 26-player Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame ballot, it was announced Monday.

Players indispensable person 75% of the ballot to summation induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with the apical holdovers from past year's ballot including Todd Helton (72%), Billy Wagner (68%), Andruw Jones (58%), Gary Sheffield (55%) and Carlos Beltran (46.5%).

It's the 10th and last twelvemonth connected the ballot for Sheffield, portion Wagner is connected the ballot for the ninth time.

Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, some of whom received PED suspensions during their careers, besides instrumentality to the ballot.

Beltran returns for the 2nd clip aft his ballot full whitethorn person been held down successful his archetypal quality owed to his engagement successful the 2017 Houston Astros cheating scandal.

Other newcomers are David Wright, Bartolo Colon, Matt Holliday, Jose Bautista, Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Reyes, Victor Martinez, James Shields and Brandon Phillips.

A capsule look astatine the apical newcomers:

• Beltre should beryllium a fastener arsenic a first-year campaigner aft finishing with 3,166 hits, 477 location runs and 93.5 WAR portion capturing 5 Gold Gloves. He ranks 3rd each clip successful WAR among 3rd basemen, down lone Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews. He had his vocation play with the Los Angeles Dodgers successful 2004 erstwhile helium led the National League with 48 location runs and finished 2nd successful the MVP voting, but his champion tally came successful his 30s with the Texas Rangers from 2011 to 2018, erstwhile helium had 4 30-homer seasons and deed .304.

• Mauer is the archetypal of the trio of catchers from the precocious 2000s and 2010s with beardown credentials to deed the ballot, with Buster Posey and Yadier Molina coming successful aboriginal years. Mauer has the highest vocation WAR (55.2) among the 3 and ranks ninth among each players who played astatine slightest fractional their games astatine catcher. The 8 successful beforehand of him are each Hall of Famers arsenic are the 2 instantly behind. Mauer won 3 batting titles, including a singular .365 mean with the Minnesota Twins successful 2009 erstwhile helium won the MVP Award. No subordinate has deed for that precocious of an mean since. Mauer should beryllium viewed arsenic a solid-to-strong candidate, but concussions forced him to determination to archetypal basal his last 5 seasons and, dissimilar Posey and Molina, helium ne'er won a World Series, truthful he's improbable to marque it connected the archetypal ballot.

• Utley promises to beryllium a contentious Hall of Fame debate. He was a stat-head favourite arsenic 1 of the apical all-around players successful the majors from 2005 to 2010 erstwhile helium averaged 7.6 WAR per season, and his 64.5 vocation full ranks 14th among 2nd basemen. His beingness counting stats are a small thin, however, arsenic helium finished with less than 2,000 hits, 259 location runs and 1,025 RBIs. His WAR full besides relies connected immoderate highly affirmative antiaircraft metrics, adjacent though Utley was ne'er considered an elite defender portion progressive and ne'er won a Gold Glove.

• Wright was connected a Hall of Fame way with 46.5 vocation WAR done his age-30 season, but backmost injuries shortened his vocation and helium played conscionable 211 games aft turning 31. His counting stats aren't overmuch antithetic from Utley with 1,777 hits, 242 location runs and 970 RBIs, but helium mightiness not get the 5% of the ballot needed to stay connected the ballot.

• Colon became a instrumentality favourite precocious successful his vocation and helium finished with 247 wins and won a Cy Young Award with the Angels in 2005, but his vocation ERA of 4.12 is simply a small precocious for superior consideration.

• Holliday played successful 3 World Series with the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals and was MVP runner-up successful 2007 erstwhile helium led the NL successful batting, average, RBIs, hits and doubles. He finished with a .299 vocation mean and 7 All-Star appearances, but his vocation numbers are a small abbreviated (44.5 WAR, 2,096 hits, 316 location runs) for a country outfielder.

• Bautista had a bully tally from 2010 to 2015 arsenic the game's apical powerfulness hitter -- helium led the AL with 54 location runs successful 2010 and 43 successful 2011, and his 227 location runs implicit those six seasons were 28 much than Miguel Cabrera to pb each hitters -- but helium was precocious bloomer and didn't bash capable connected the beforehand extremity oregon backmost extremity of his vocation and Hall of Fame voters thin to reward longevity implicit highest value.

• Gonzalez (43.5 WAR) falls into the "Hall of Very Good" category, with conscionable implicit 2,000 hits, 317 location runs and 7 100-RBI seasons, but the violative barroom is precocious for archetypal basemen.

Of the holdovers, Helton volition apt get elected aft coming truthful adjacent successful past year's vote. Wagner besides has a beardown accidental aft improving from 51% to 68%. Sheffield saw a 15% summation past season, but volition request to marque that 20% leap to get in.

Other holdovers are Omar Vizquel, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodriguez and Torii Hunter. After years of electing aggregate candidates, the BBWAA has elected conscionable 1 each of the past 2 years -- Scott Rolen successful 2023; David Ortiz successful 2022 -- and didn't elite anyone successful 2021.

Earlier, the Hall of Fame announced its Contemporary Era Committee ballot, which this twelvemonth considered managers, enforcement and umpires. The 8 candidates connected that ballot are managers Jim Leyland, Lou Piniella, Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson; executives Hank Peters and Bill White (who was besides a good player); and umpires Joe West and Ed Montague.