Since 2014, there have been 18 players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in their first year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. Will anyone in this next class go straight from the ballot to the Hall?
Let’s use this space to appreciate all of the newcomers. Most of them are likely to go one-and-done by receiving less than 5% of the BBWAA vote, but that doesn’t make what they accomplished through at least 10 seasons in MLB any less impressive.
Here is a look at each first-timer on the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot, listed in descending order of career wins above replacement (WAR), per Baseball Reference.
BBWAA voters have until Dec. 31 to cast their ballots. The results will be announced on Jan. 20, 2026, on MLB Network.
Cole Hamels (59.0 WAR)
In the Wild Card Era (since 1995), only three lefty pitchers have finished nine seasons with at least 4.0 bWAR: Randy Johnson, Clayton Kershaw and Hamels. The Phillies’ first-round Draft pick in 2002, Hamels’ 10 seasons with Philadelphia included three All-Star selections, three top-10 finishes for the Cy Young Award, 114 victories (third most in franchise history) and 1,844 strikeouts. Only Justin Verlander and Félix Hernández had more K’s during that 10-year period.
Oh, and he was an October hero for the Phillies. Just 24 years old in 2008, Hamels recorded a 1.80 ERA through five postseason starts that year (35 innings) and became the fifth player to be named MVP of the League Championship Series and the World Series as the Phillies captured their first title since 1980.
Hamels’ 294th and final start as a Phillie on July 25, 2015, saw him throw a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He was traded to the Rangers six days later. Hamels earned his final All-Star selection with the Rangers in 2016. That year marked the eighth and final time he would reach 200 innings in a season. Although injuries impacted him during stints with the Cubs and Braves at the end of his 15 years in the bigs, Hamels’ 2,560 K’s and 2,698 innings rank fifth and ninth, respectively, among southpaw starters over the past 30 years.
Ryan Braun (47.2 WAR)
Braun made his MLB debut in 2007 and immediately became one of the league’s elite hitters. He was feted as the NL Rookie of the Year that season after bopping 34 homers and batting .324 with a 1.004 OPS in 113 games. Over the next five seasons, he recorded 31.1 bWAR (second only to Albert Pujols’ 36.6), was named an All-Star five times and received a Silver Slugger each year. The centerpiece was Braun’s 2011 MVP year. That included 33 homers, 33 steals, and a .332/.397/.597 slash line. Braun would go 30-30 again the following season, coupling an NL-best 41 home runs with 30 stolen bases.
However, Braun was suspended in July 2013 for violations of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, shelving him for the rest of the season. He wasn’t quite as productive over the final seven seasons of his career, but Braun was an All-Star again in 2015 and had 30 homers with a 135 OPS+ in ‘16. Through his 14-year career spent entirely with Milwaukee, Braun’s 352 dingers are the most in Brewers history.
Alex Gordon (34.9 WAR)
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2005 Draft by Kansas City, Gordon became a Royals legend after spending his entire 14-year career with the club. That run included three All-Star appearances, 190 home runs, a .748 OPS, lots of great defense and one huge World Series swing. His most productive season came in 2011, when he had 7.3 bWAR, a 140 OPS+ and 72 extra-base hits through 151 games.
That was also the year that Gordon earned his first of eight Gold Gloves, the most by any left fielder. He was also a two-time winner of the Platinum Gold Glove, presented to the best defensive player in each league.
If there is one moment from Gordon’s career that will rest with Royals fans forever, it is probably his game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of 2015 World Series Game 1 vs. the Mets. Gordon and the Royals would win that series in five games, bringing home the franchise’s first championship in 30 years.
Shin-Soo Choo (34.7 WAR)
Choo recorded a .377 on-base percentage over 16 big league seasons, buoyed by a 12.2% walk rate. But the left-handed hitter from Korea did a lot more than just walk. He finished seven seasons with at least 20 homers and complemented that power with some speed, resulting in three 20-20 campaigns. Choo debuted with the Mariners in 2005, but he didn’t really break out until 2008 with Cleveland. Over the next six seasons, Choo racked up 101 homers, 100 steals, a .290 average and an .861 OPS.
Choo closed his career with seven seasons with the Rangers. He made his lone All-Star team in 2018, a season in which he had 21 dingers and a 114 OPS+.
Edwin Encarnación (35.3 WAR)
Encarnación homered 424 times in the Major Leagues — and was often joined by an invisible parrot perched on his right arm. He had some seasons with the Reds early on in his career, but he didn’t really blossom into the potent slugger the league would come to know until 2012. Encarnación belted 42 homers that year for Toronto, and that would start a string of eight consecutive 30-homer seasons for him. No player had more homers over that eight-year span than Encarnación’s 297, and he is one of only 18 players in the Wild Card Era (since 1995) with at least eight seasons of 30 home runs or more. He averaged a .529 slugging percentage and a 138 OPS+ during that stretch.
A three-time All-Star, Encarnación had 42 homers again in 2016 as a Blue Jay. That doesn’t include his walk-off, three-run shot in the 11th inning of the American League Wild Card Game against the Orioles. He retired after 16 seasons, split among six teams, with 1,261 RBIs.
Howie Kendrick (35.0 WAR)
Kendrick enjoyed a stellar 15-year career that was punctuated by two heroic moments in the postseason during his penultimate season. Debuting in 2006, the second baseman spent his first nine seasons with the Angels and batted .285 or better in all but one year. He was an All-Star in 2011, when he hit a career-best 18 homers. After two seasons with the Dodgers and a short but successful stint with the Phillies (.340 average, .851 OPS over 39 games), Kendrick was traded to the Nationals in 2017. With Washington, Kendrick’s MLB legacy was changed forever.
He was great during the 2019 regular season, featuring 17 homers and a .344/.395/.572 slash line over 121 games. But two playoff at-bats stand out above all others that year. First, Kendrick crushed a tiebreaking grand slam in the 10th inning of winner-take-all NLDS Game 5 against the Dodgers. He then came up even more clutch in the World Series, drilling a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 7 that propelled the Nationals to their first World Series title.
Nick Markakis (33.7 WAR)
Markakis’ smooth, left-handed stroke rapped out 2,388 hits over 15 seasons split between the Orioles and Braves. Thanks to his natural hitting skills and durability — Markakis played in 155 games in 11 separate seasons — his 2,094 hits from 2007-18 were second only to Robinson Canó (2,150). The seventh overall Draft pick in 2003 by the Orioles, Markakis had a career year in 2008, when he slashed .306/.406/.491 and led the AL with 7.4 bWAR. A three-time Gold Glover, Markakis also had the most assists of any outfielder that year (17).
After nine seasons with Baltimore, Markakis played six years with the Braves. The Georgia native made his only All-Star team and took home a Silver Slugger in 2018, a season in which he had 185 hits, 93 RBIs and an .806 OPS.
Hunter Pence (30.9 WAR)
Baseball is a kid’s game, and few players of his time played the game with more childlike joy and energy than Pence. And he played the game well. Pence had seven 20-homer seasons and retired after 14 years in the Majors with 1,791 hits, 244 home runs, 942 RBIs and a 114 OPS+. He was a second-round Draft pick of the Astros in 2004 and played his first five seasons with the club, batting .290 with 103 dingers.
After 155 games with the Phillies, Pence was traded in 2012 to San Francisco, where he quickly became a fan favorite. Pence helped the Giants win the World Series in ‘12 and ‘14. In that latter Fall Classic, he batted .444 (12-for-27) vs. the Royals. The Fort Worth, Texas, native played the 2019 season with the Rangers — and became an All-Star for the fourth and final time — before reuniting for one last year with the Giants.
Gio González (28.3 WAR)
González was overshadowed during the prime of his career by Nationals teammates such as Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer, but he was a true ace at times during his seven seasons with Washington. In his first season with the Nationals, González finished third for the 2012 NL Cy Young after winning 21 games and recording a 2.89 ERA over 199 1/3 innings. He led the NL with a 9.3 K/9 rate. In his last full season as a National (2017), González finished sixth in Cy Young voting, tallied 6.5 bWAR and had a 2.96 ERA over 201 frames.
González made his first of two All-Star teams with the A’s in 2011. He logged a career-high 202 innings that season and finished with more than 190 innings in five of his 13 MLB seasons.
Matt Kemp (21.6 WAR)
Kemp bashed at least 23 home runs in every season but one from 2009-16 and tallied 205 over those eight seasons. That stretch was highlighted by his massive 2011 campaign with the Dodgers as he stole 40 bases and paced the NL in homers (39), RBIs (126), runs scored (115), total bases (353) and bWAR (8.0). He won his second Silver Slugger and his second Gold Glove that year and finished second to Braun in the NL MVP voting.
A three-time All-Star, Kemp topped 100 RBIs in four seasons. The final time came in 2016, when he drove in 108 runs and launched 35 homers between the Padres and Braves. Kemp concluded his 15-year career with 1,031 RBIs and an .821 OPS.
Daniel Murphy (20.8 WAR)
A .296 hitter over 12 seasons, Murphy was the runner-up for the NL batting title and MVP after hitting .347 with an NL-best .985 OPS for the 2016 Nationals. The next year, he hit .322 with a .928 OPS and earned his second Silver Slugger in as many years. A three-time All-Star, Murphy made the Midsummer Classic for the first time as a member of the 2014 Mets. In 2015, he became the first player in MLB history to homer in six consecutive playoff games, including all four NLCS games as the Mets swept the Cubs to win their first pennant in 15 years. Murphy was the easy choice for series MVP.
He was traded to the Cubs in 2019 before ending his career following two seasons with the Rockies. When Murphy announced his retirement in 2021, he said he never thought he would get one hit in the big leagues. He got 1,572.
Rick Porcello (18.8 WAR)
Porcello had a solid rookie year with the Tigers in 2009, finishing third in the AL ROY voting after logging a 3.96 ERA over 170 2/3 innings. He was generally a league-average starter over the next six seasons before his magical 2016. The right-hander was that year’s AL Cy Young Award winner after he went 22-4 with a 3.15 ERA and an MLB-best 5.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 223 innings for the Red Sox. Two years later, he won 17 games and threw 191 1/3 innings en route to a World Series title with Boston. Porcello pitched at least 160 innings every season from 2009-19, and his 2,037 1/3 innings during that span were the ninth most in MLB.
