We’re just five days away from Jan. 21, the day the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the inductees for the Class of 2025.
Thanks to the Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker, created by Ryan Thibodaux and faithfully maintained by Antoine Calamis And Adam Dore, we can see how all the candidates are doing on the publicly released ballots – including 163 out of an estimated total of 392 ballots likely to be returned.
So far we have one player with a perfect record, one player with a near-perfect record, and two others above the 75% threshold for election.
Which candidates have received the most votes so far?
Four players received at least 75% of the votes on the public ballots.
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Ichiro Suzuki — 100%, 163 votes
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CC Sabathia — 93.3%, 152 votes
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Billy Wagner — 84.7%, 138 votes
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Carlos Beltrán — 80.4%, 131 votes
Since our previous update, Suzuki stayed perfect, Wagner stayed at the same percentage, and Sabathia and Beltran saw their vote share increase.
Suzuki and Sabathia are in their first election year. Beltran is in his third year and Wagner is in his 10th and final year. If Wagner is not elected this year, he will no longer be eligible for induction by the BBWAA but may be inducted by the various era committees.
Only 30% of all ballots were made public in the previous update, but that number has jumped more than 10 percentage points since then to 41.1% now made public. Yet even with this growing percentage, having enough votes now does not mean that any of these candidates are a lock for induction. They all still need significant support on the remaining ballots to maintain 75% of the vote.
Here’s how many more votes each needs to reach the 75% threshold:
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Ichiro Suzuki — 131 votes
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CC Sabathia — 142 votes
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Billy Wagner — 156 votes
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Carlos Beltrán — 163 votes
To become the second unanimous Hall of Fame inductee (after Mariano Rivera), Suzuki needs votes on every remaining ballot, public and private – about 229 in total.
Who risks being excluded from the vote?
As mentioned, Billy Wagner is in his 10th and final year of eligibility and will be off the ballot after this year no matter what.
A player is excluded from next year’s Hall of Fame ballot if he fails to garner at least 5 percent of the vote in the current year. Beyond Wagner, 11 actors face elimination in next year’s elections.
Below are players who received less than 5% support on publicly revealed ballots and the number of votes they need to remain on the ballot in 2026.
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Russell Martin — 4.5%, needs 13 more votes
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Brian McCann — 3.8%, needs 14 more votes
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Ian Kinsler — 2.6%, needs 16 more votes
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Torii Hunter — 1.3%, needs 18 more votes
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Ben Zobrist — 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Troy Tulowitzki – 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Fernando Rodney — 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Hanley Ramirez – 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Adam Jones – 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Curtis Granderson — 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
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Carlos Gonzalez — 0.0%, needs 20 more votes
Among these players, 10 are in their first electoral year. The only exception is Torii Hunter, who is in his fifth year. Russell Martin was above 5% in the previous update, but has seen his support decline over the past week as more ballots have been revealed and is now at risk of falling in the election. next year.
