2025 Era's Committee Mock Ballot

This should be a year where the Eras Committee vote on players whose contributions came 1980 and after should be highly anticipated. This very much is a year that the dam should break on some players that are long overdue for induction into the Hall of Fame. These are players off of the BWAA Writer’s ballot that brings so much speculation every year. Twelve former players, managers or executives vote on eight players, each voter can vote on up to three players and if a player receives 9 votes or more they are inducted into the Hall. The voters are allowed to meet behind closed doors to debate or lobby for, or presumably against the players on the ballot and at least in the past there are select baseball historians that are in the room as well, although they do not have a vote. As a “Big Hall” guy I would like to encourage the voters to strategically plan their votes to optimize the number of players that are inducted as it is possible to vote in four players if they work together. I don’t think they should be concerned with the rule that a player will have to wait three years before returning to the ballot if they receive four votes or less. 

This is a pretty fascinating ballot not just because it includes two of the all-time greatest players in baseball history who have also been implicated in PED use during a time when they were not penalizing players for failed tests if they tested at all. There are some pretty interesting comparisons between these players. I would put every one of these guys in the Hall if I had that power, but due to the limitations of the rules of voting, I suppose the players would have to be ranked against each other to move down the line. 

Frankly, at this point I am over the judgment for those players, it wasn’t being punished and the league was practically advertising the benefits to the game that PED usage afforded. It was a gross time, but I don’t think the players should be punished now if it wasn’t treated as punishable back then. Afterall, these weren’t the only players to use PEDs, they just were more successful before and after their use. 

1. Barry Bonds, LF

7x MVP, 14x AS, 8x GG, 2x batting title, 2x HR title, single season and all-time home run records, 162.8 WAR (all-time record), all-time walk record, all-time IBB record (688) .444 career OBP

Bonds had multiple seasons where he should have won MVP awards and didn’t despite far better WAR, OBP, and mix of speed and power even in his days as a skinny Pirate. He had two of the all-time greatest seasons in baseball history, not just his year with 73 homers, but the season where he was on base over a .600 clip. A pain in the ass to pitchers and sportswriters, Barry Bonds did things no one else has ever been able to do. He is the all-time home run leader in Major League Baseball, and his segment talking about his matchups against Greg Maddux in the MLB Network documentary on Maddux shows him to be one of the smartest hitters of all-time as well. 

It’s amazing that Jeff Kent was teammates with Bonds on the Giants, and funny that they didn’t get along, Kent was perceived in a better light than Bonds and it resulted in a thumb on the scales for Kent’s NL MVP award. The amazing thing is that Kent and Bonds are the all-time home run leaders for their positions, 2B and LF, and it isn’t really close for either of them. It isn’t really fair to compare Bonds to anyone especially in home run hitting, but Kent was very successful at hitting home runs in San Francisco, hitting 30+ there three times in six seasons. This is greater feat than is seems as 30+ is a mark that had not been reached between ‘05 and ‘24 for members of the Giants. Unlike Barry, however, Kent was not an especially good fielder, wasn’t especially impressive at getting on base, and didn’t steal many bases. If the ballot afforded more votes, I would definitely like Kent sail right in, but there are four players that need to be in the bottom half. 

2. Roger Clemens, RHP

1x MVP, 7x CY, 2x Triple Crown, 11x AS, 2x WS, 7x ERA title, 2x 20K game, 354 wins, 4672 Ks, 3.12 ERA

I am a Red Sox fan, Roger was still on the team when I began my fandom and he was electric way back in those days. He always seemed like he might be a jerk and the Red Sox front office really pushed that narrative when they let him leave after the ‘96 season. He was in Boston for 13 years, one of the best pitchers ever for the franchise, threw the first 20 strikeout game for them, led them to the 1986 AL Pennant and nearly won the World Series with them as well. He played forever, starred for the Blue Jays, solidified his villain story with the Yankees and went back to his hometown Astros in his ‘40’s. He went to the World Series six times, going with each team excluding the Jays. His career numbers were mindboggling, mixing power, accuracy, and grit. 

I feel like Fernando Valenzuela is a player that is so culturally significant and was so dominant in his early years that he deserves a long look on this ballot. Not only were his Fernandomania years incredible with the Dodgers, but he did have a pretty long career despite injuries in the later seasons. Emerging out of an impoverished town in Mexico to stun hitters with a screwball none of them had ever seen before his impact to a Spanish speaking fanbase of baseball places him in a Hall of their own of players that have grown the game that would include Ruth, Mays, Clemente, Marichal, Griffey, Nomo and now Ohtani. Valenzuela’s numbers even in his peak, his first six seasons, first ten seasons or the first seasons that he overlapped with Clemens in the league, don’t surpass Roger whether its strikeouts or ERA or even award voting and All-Star game appearances. After those first ten seasons Valenzuela’s numbers badly declined. 

3. Don Mattingly, 1B

MVP, 6x AS, 9x GG, 3x SS, batting title, ML POY, Manager of the Year, 42.4 WAR, 2153 H, 222 HR, .307 AVG, .358 OBP

Here is where I feel I start to get more controversial with my selections. Mattingly was clearly one of the biggest stars of the ‘80’s, despite being a Yankee and the captain of the team, he does have a place in my heart for bad blood with George Steinbrenner and his appearance on The Simpsons. His numbers aren’t eye-popping, only 222 homers, and he was cursed with playing during one of the longest spans between Championships for the Yankees, but he excelled at hitting doubles (a stat that I am a sucker for), racked up a batting title and an excellent career average as well. He also has a healthy trophy room with 9 Gold Gloves, he was a fun 1B to watch in the field, although his fielding metrics are absolutely dwarfed by Keith Hernandez, who also deserves a trip to Cooperstown. Despite a shorter career plagued by injuries, his star power has endured. 

Dale Murphy is another guy that dominated the ‘80’s, a two time NL MVP for the Braves himself. Murphy was an excelled fielding outfielder in his own regard, mixing speed and power, amassing 30 homers (with a high of 44) six times from ‘80 to ‘87. While he had quite a terrible drop off in production later in his career, his batting average would be one of the lowest in the Hall of Fame. I am never the biggest advocate for Dale in the Hall for these reasons, but the more I look at his career, the harder it is to discount him. 

4. Carlos Delgado, 1B

2x AS, 3x SS, ML Poy, Clemente, 44.4 WAR, 2038 H, 473 HR, .383 OBP

Delgado was always underrated when he played, but was ultimately one of the most reliable 1B in the league during his career. A team leader with a ton of power, three 40+ homer seasons, and a knack for getting on base (a high of .470 in 2000). A Clemente Award Winner, his time later in his career with the Mets solidified him as a legend with the fanbase despite only playing three full seasons in New York. 

Gary Sheffield was a star around the same time as Delgado, although he was much more of an electric power hitter. Perhaps one of the fastest swings in baseball history, he was a star his entire career, and a high-priced gun for hire after the Marlins fire sale following the 1997 World Series. Really the only knocks against Sheffield were that he absolutely struggled in the field at several positions, and he had a reputation for his personality, although it never seemed to be an issue in the clubhouse. Delgado had slightly better career highs in HR, RBI and OBP, but Sheffield was one of the most feared hitters of his time and had the longevity to join the 500-home run club. Frankly, I would include Sheffield as the 5th member into the Hall from this ballot, but Delgado being a great player that was slept on for most of his career feels as though he deserves a nudge in this case.