Fred McGriff seeing added support but still far short in early Hall of Fame voting

It is Hall of Fame voting season and we are just over a month away from finding out who will be joining Lee Smith and Harold Baines in the 2019 induction class. Baines and Smith were elected via the Today’s Game Era committee earlier this month at the Winter Meetings.

Voting for the Hall of Fame isn’t public but many writers do release their ballots after they have been mailed in. Ryan Thibodaux does an outstanding job of collecting released ballots so that we can see how things are trending during the lead up to the announcement on January 22.

Just a reminder about the election process. Candidates can remain on the writer’s ballot for a maximum of 10-years provided they receive at least 5 percent of the vote each year. Players need to capture 75 percent of the vote to gain election.

With 88 ballots (Just over 21 percent of the electorate) in the tracker, there are five players currently on track to gain election this year. Newcomers Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay are leading the way in their first year on the ballot. Rivera has received 100 percent of the vote so far with Halladay checking in at 93.2 percent. No player has ever been a unanimous selection and Rivera isn’t likely to be either as more votes come in.

Also currently on track for election are holdovers Edgar Martinez (92 percent), Mike Messina (84.1 percent) and Curt Schilling (76.1 percent) although there is a long way to go for everyone still at this point.

For Braves fans, Fred McGriff has seen a significant jump in support in his 10th and final year on the ballot however he is still likely to fall short of election. McGriff has appeared on 36.4 percent of the votes in the tracker picking up 14 votes over last year in the process.

Andruw Jones is on the ballot for the second time and has appeared on five of the 88 ballots in the tracker (5.7 percent). Jones was on 7.3 percent of the ballots last year eclipsing the five percent mark to remain on the ballot but is still far short of the needed support to have a realistic chance at election.

Other former Braves who have received votes include Billy Wagner (14.8 percent) and Gary Sheffield (12.5 percent).

The spike in support combined with the controversial election of Baines seems to have increased the likely hood that McGriff will eventually gain entry through the Era committees. That may be a path for Jones at some point as well as his defensive accomplishments seem to be falling by the wayside amongst the writers.

The voting results will be released on January 22 with the enshrinement ceremony scheduled for Sunday, July 21 in Cooperstown, New York.