Hall Of Fame Voting 2016: Edgar Martinez About To Get Snubbed By BBWAA HOF Vote Again

Hall of Fame voting is not looking good for Edgar Martinez. In the updated 2016 Hall of Fame voting, Martinez is starting to lose ground on reaching the 75 percent plateau. Five-hundred and thirty members of the Baseball Writers Association of America will votes to determine which players will be in the class of 2016. So far, 136 votes have been made public, giving an early look at which players are receiving a lot of support this year. Baseball analyst Ryan Thibodaux has released a list of those early HOF votes.

Edgar Martinez appears on 67 of the 136 public Hall of Fame votes, working out to a percentage of 49.3 so far. It puts him 25.7 percent short of the necessary 75 percent for induction. During the 2015 Hall of Fame vote, Martinez received 91 of 331 votes that were made public. That worked out to a percentage of just 27.49 of the total vote. In the final tally, he appeared on exactly 27 percent of the ballots. That was far from the 36.2 percent he received during his first year on the ballot (2010).

The 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame vote is the seventh time that Edgar Martinez has been eligible, with his highest vote total being 36.5 percent in 2012. That’s not quite halfway to the mark that he would need to get inducted, showing that he is receiving a lot more support in 2016 than he has in the past. If the final vote totals have him around 49.3 percent, it would be an increase of nearly 23 percent since just last year. It’s an upward trend that could certainly lead to even more support when the 2017 Hall of Fame voting begins.

The reality of the situation is that Edgar Martinez is about to get snubbed by the BBWAA for a seventh time. One of the very rare members of the club that has a career batting average better than .300, a career on-base percentage better than .400, and a career slugging percentage better than .500 is getting overlooked again. The five-time Silver Slugger has better numbers than many players already in the Hall of Fame, but he still hasn’t found enough traction among the voters.

Playing nearly 5,000 innings in the field during the regular season and posting some of the best ALDS numbers in baseball history hasn’t been enough for some voters either. Many BBWAA writers are still falling victim to the argument that a player who played a majority of their career as a designated hitter doesn’t deserve a spot in Cooperstown. It’s archaic thinking with the way that the game has changed over the years, possibly setting up some interesting votes when David Ortiz first becomes eligible for a HOF vote.

Within the 2016 Hall of Fame votes, there are players receiving enough support (in the public votes) to garner induction. Former Seattle Mariners center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. has received 100 percent of the votes from those writers who have made their ballots public. He could possibly become the first player ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at 100 percent. Following closely behind him with enough votes for induction are Mike Piazza (88.2), Jeff Bagwell (82.4), and Tim Raines (80.1). They still need many more votes, but the 2016 HOF class could include four players.

Other players of note receiving high vote totals this year are Trevor Hoffman (62.5), Curt Schilling (60.3), Mike Mussina (55.9), Barry Bonds (50.0), Edgar Martinez (49.3), Roger Clemens (49.3), Alan Trammell (46.3), and Lee Smith (30.1). These numbers were updated as of 7:40 p.m. PT on Friday, January 1. The totals will continue to increase until the official announcement is made by the Baseball Hall of Fame. For Edgar Martinez to succeed in the 2016 Hall of Fame voting, he would need to appear on 86.3 percent of the remaining ballots to get inducted.

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