COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp are among 12 newcomers on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, and Carlos Beltrán heads 15 holdovers after falling 19 votes shy in 2025 balloting.
Howie Kendrick, Daniel Murphy and Rick Porcello also are among the first-time eligibles, joined by Shin-Soo Choo, Edwin Encarnación, Gio González, Alex Gordon, Nick Markakis and Hunter Pence.
Beltrán received 277 of 394 votes for 70.3% in the 2025 balloting, when Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected.
A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán hit .279 with 435 homers and 1,587 RBIs over 17 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, ’17), the New York Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016).
He received 46.5% support in his first ballot appearance in 2023, then rose to 57.1% in his second.
Beltrán was the only player cited by name in baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s 2020 report concluding the Astros used electronics in violation of rules to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the 2018 season. Three days after the report was issued, the New York Mets said Beltrán was out as their manager, just 2 1/2 months after he was hired.
Other holdovers include steroids-tainted stars Alex Rodriguez (146 votes, 37.1%) and Manny Ramirez (135, 34.3%) along with Andruw Jones (261, 66.2%), Chase Utley (157, 39.8%), Andy Pettitte (110, 27.9%), Félix Hernández (81, 20.6%), Bobby Abreu (77, 19.5%), Jimmy Rollins (71, 18%), Omar Vizquel (70, 17.8%), Dustin Pedroia (47, 11.9%), Mark Buehrle (45, 11.4%), Francisco Rodríguez (40, 10.2%), David Wright (32, 8.1%) and Torii Hunter (20, 5.1%).
Pettitte is on the ballot for the eighth time after doubling support from 13.5% in 2024. A player can appear on the ballot up to 10 times.
BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years of membership are eligible to vote. Ballots must be postmarked by Dec. 31 and results will be announced Jan. 20. Anyone elected will be inducted on July 26 along with anyone chosen Dec. 7 by the hall’s contemporary baseball era committee ballot considering eight players whose greatest contributions to the sport were from 1980 on.
Hamels, a four-time All-Star, was 163-122 with a 3.43 ERA for Philadelphia (2006-15), Texas (2015-18), the Chicago Cubs (2018-19) and Atlanta (2020), pitching a no-hitter from the Phillies against the Cubs on July 25, 2015. He was MVP of the 2008 NL Championship Series and World Series as Philadelphia won its second title, its first since 1980.
Braun, the 2011 MVP and a six-time All-Star, hit .296 with 352 homers and 1,154 RBIs for Milwaukee from 2007-20. He was suspended for the final 65 games of the 2013 season for violations of baseball’s drug program and labor contract. A 50-game suspension for an alleged positive test in 2011 was overturned after Braun challenged the chain of custody of the urine sample.
Kemp, a three-time All-Star, batted .284 with 287 homers and 1,031 RBIs for the Los Angeles Dodgers (2006-14, ’18), San Diego (2015-16), Atlanta (2016-17), Cincinnati (2019) and Colorado (2020).
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy are being considered by the contemporary era committee along with Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
