Here's to the 12 players who fell off the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot

12:56 AM UTC

Congratulations are in order for Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, the two newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tuesday was a less celebratory day for 12 other players, all of whom were on this year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot but won’t be returning to it in 2027. One player has exhausted his ballot eligibility while the 11 others fell short of the 5% voting threshold that is necessary to remain on the ballot.

However, let’s give this dozen some shine one more time because to even be considered for the Hall means you had a pretty dang good career in the Major Leagues.

Note: All players are listed alongside their career Baseball-Reference WAR and voting percentage on the 2026 BBWAA ballot.

(69.3 WAR, 38.8%)

Ramirez fell well short of the 75% needed for election to the Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year on the BBWAA ballot. His 2026 vote share was his highest of any year. From a statistical standpoint, Ramirez’s case for Cooperstown is beyond reproach. The nine-time Silver Slugger winner retired with 555 career home runs, a .312 average and a .411 on-base percentage. He is one of only two players with at least 550 homers, a .300 average and a .400 career OBP. The other player is Babe Ruth.

Those numbers don’t take Ramirez’s postseason brilliance into account. A two-time World Series champion with the Red Sox and the MVP of the 2004 Fall Classic, Ramirez leads all players with 29 postseason home runs. However, his violations of MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy in 2009 and 2011 were clearly disqualifying for most voters.

(47.2 WAR, 3.5%)

Braun was one of 12 players who were on the BBWAA ballot for the first time, but only Cole Hamels reached the 5% threshold to remain on the ballot for 2027. Braun’s 15 votes were nearly half of the combined total received by the other 11 newcomers (32 votes).

Braun was undoubtedly on a Hall of Fame track through the first six years of his career. That stretch included a .313/.374/.568 slash line, 202 home runs, five Silver Sluggers, the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year Award, the 2011 NL MVP Award and 33.1 bWAR. In the Wild Card Era (since 1995), only six players have accumulated more bWAR in their first six MLB seasons: Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Mookie Betts, Evan Longoria, Ichiro Suzuki and Chase Utley.

However, Braun was suspended for 65 games in 2013 for violations of MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy. That ended up serving as a line of demarcation in his career. Over the final seven seasons of his 14-year career -- spent entirely with the Brewers -- Braun recorded a solid-but-not-spectacular .276/.338/.492 slash line and 12.4 WAR.

(35.3 WAR, 1.4%)

Encarnación debuted at age 22 with the 2005 Reds, but he really wouldn’t become a top-tier slugger until he was in his late 20s and early 30s. From 2012-18, Encarnación averaged 37 homers, 109 RBIs and a .894 OPS. He was a three-time All-Star for the Blue Jays from 2012-16. His 193 home runs during that period were the second most in the Majors, and he was accompanied on most of those homer trots by an imaginary parrot on his right arm. Encarnación retired after 16 seasons with 424 dingers.

(35.0 WAR, 0.0%)

Kendrick was a tough out for the bulk of his 15-year career. He batted .285 or better in all but three of those years, and his strikeout rate was above 20% just twice. Most of his success came during his nine seasons with the Angels, including an All-Star selection -- the only one of his career -- in 2011. But Kendrick’s best and most memorable season came with the Nationals in 2019, which was his age-35 campaign and his penultimate year in the big leagues.

He registered a .344/.395/.572 slash line in 121 games during the regular season. He delivered the deciding blow -- a tiebreaking grand slam in the 10th inning -- to lift the Nationals past the Dodgers in winner-take-all NLDS Game 5. He won NLCS MVP honors following Washington’s sweep of the Cardinals and then drilled a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning of World Series Game 7 against the Astros to propel the Nationals to their first championship.

(34.8 WAR, 0.2%)

The Royals took Gordon at No. 2 overall in the 2005 Draft, and that marriage would last through his retirement in 2020. Gordon was inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Fame last year. A three-time All-Star, Gordon made his biggest impact on defense as he won eight Gold Gloves -- the most of any left fielder -- and two Platinum Gloves. He ranks fifth in franchise history with 190 home runs, but his biggest dinger came in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, when he blasted a game-tying shot in the bottom of the ninth inning versus the Mets. The Royals won that game in 14 innings and would raise the Commissioner’s Trophy five days later.

(34.7 WAR, 0.7%)

The best Korean-born player in MLB history, Choo logged an impressive .377 on-base percentage through 16 seasons. He had a six-year run from 2008-13 in which he averaged a .392 OBP and a 137 OPS+. Although he never hit 25 homers in a season, Choo reached 20 home runs seven times and had 20-20 years in 2009 and ‘10 with Cleveland and in 2013 with the Reds. He received MVP votes for each of those last two seasons and made his lone All-Star squad in 2018 with the Rangers. His career WAR total will be the most by a Korean-born player for awhile, as nobody else has even 20.0 WAR in the Majors.

(33.7 WAR, 0.2%)

Markakis possessed a silky left-handed swing at the plate and a highly accurate arm in right field. The former helped him notch 2,388 hits over 15 seasons with the Orioles and Braves. The latter led to two Gold Gloves as well as 119 outfield assists, the most of any right fielder during Markakis' time in the big leagues from 2006-20. Both of those totals were made possible by his durability; he played in at least 155 games for 12 consecutive seasons, beginning in 2007.

Markakis had five seasons with at least 40 doubles, including a career-best 48 with Baltimore in 2008, when he led the AL with 7.4 WAR. A decade later, he produced 43 doubles for the Braves, earned his only All-Star selection and received his only Silver Slugger.

(30.9 WAR, 0.5%)

If there was a Hall of Fame for players who provided the most energy and on-field entertainment, Pence would be a first-ballot inductee. The outgoing outfielder was a key member of the Giants’ World Series title teams in 2012 and ‘14. In that latter season, he had a .333/.405/.470 slash line across 74 postseason plate appearances. Pence also made his third of four All-Star teams that season; his first two came with the Astros, and his last came with the 2019 Rangers. Pence crossed the 20-homer threshold every season from 2008-14 and missed only 23 games during that span.

(28.3 WAR, 0.0%)

Gonzalez broke out in 2010, his third MLB season, when he produced a 3.23 ERA over 200 2/3 innings for the A’s in his age-24 campaign. He pitched 202 frames the following year, earning an All-Star nod in the process, before he was traded to the Nationals ahead of the 2012 season.

Gonzalez’s debut season in Washington was the best of the left-hander’s 13-year career, headlined by 21 wins and a 2.82 FIP, both of which led MLB. He allowed only nine homers in 199 1/3 frames, struck out a career-best 207 batters and finished third in the NL Cy Young voting. Gonzalez spent seven seasons with the Nats, and his 213 starts are the fourth-most in franchise history, trailing Steve Rogers (393), Stephen Strasburg (247) and Dennis Martínez (233).

(21.6 WAR, 0.5%)

There was a small window there from 2008-11 when Kemp was one of the game’s brightest stars. A dangerous dual threat in center field for the Dodgers, he tallied 111 home runs and 128 steals during that stretch. He also took home two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers during those four years. Kemp was at his best in 2011, when he paced the NL in total bases (353), OPS+ (172), WAR (8.0) and home runs (39). He was the MVP runner-up to Braun that year and came one dinger shy of a 40-40 season.

Although he wouldn’t run as much in future seasons, Kemp was still a productive power hitter for a few more years, including a 35-homer campaign split between the Padres and Braves in 2016. He recorded 287 homers and 1,031 RBIs through 15 seasons.

(20.8 WAR, 0.0%)

Murphy spent his first seven seasons with the Mets, whose fan base will always remember his heroics during the 2015 postseason. That October, he became the first player in MLB history to homer in six consecutive playoff games, including in the winner-take-all NLDS Game 5 against the Dodgers and all four NLCS games against the Cubs as the Mets swept their way to their first pennant in 15 years. Murphy would move on to the divisional-rival Nationals the next year and had huge seasons in 2016 and ‘17. He totaled 90 doubles, 146 extra-base hits and a .334/.387/.569 slash line through those two years. He was the NL MVP runner-up to the Cubs’ Kris Bryant in 2016.